Hands off Haiti!

All out to block Canada’s planned invasion!

People across the Caribbean are becoming increasingly alarmed at the unfolding of Canada’s, US-backed, plan to launch a military invasion of our sister country, Haiti. Even though, Canada is not a member of CARICOM, it is reported that its Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has been invited to attend the 44th CARICOM Conference of Heads of Government which is taking place in the Bahamas, amid press reports that the United States government has asked Canada “to take the lead on Haiti”.

To justify their planned aggression against Haiti, the US and Canadian politicians and mass media have been spreading a lying narrative that they are invading Haiti to protect the people from the activities of criminal gangs. This is a complete fraud. First, there are criminal gangs even in Canada and the USA and no one invades their countries to save the people there from the activities of these gangs. Secondly, the existence of criminal gangs in a country is not a justification for a foreign military invasion. If it was, very few countries would be safe form such invasions, including some CARICOM member states whose governments have already stated a willingness to participate in the military attack on Haiti. Finally, as others have pointed out, the main criminal gang in Haiti is the Core Group*, of which Canada is a member and which has brought untold suffering to the Haitian people.

In reality, the planned attack on Haiti has nothing to do with protecting Haitian people from gang activity and everything to do with reinforcing the control of Haiti by the self-appointed Core Group who rule over Haiti like colonial overlords. The aim of the invasion is to shore up the illegitimate, core group imposed government of Ariel Henry’s Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale (PHTK) and suppress the struggle of the Haitian people against it. This new effort of Canada and the US to violently suppress the Haitian people has a long history. Europe’s main slaving powers and their settler colony offshoots in the Americas bear a deep historical grudge and hatred against the Haitian people because they courageously stood up, arms in hand, smashed the brutal system of the enslavement of African people, won their freedom, established the first free black state in the Caribbean and worked tirelessly after that to end the enslavement of African people throughout the Caribbean and the Americas. For this ‘crime’, their enemies in Europe and North America have never forgiven them and have sought out every opportunity to punish them and make them suffer. Since it is part of this tradition, Canada’s current planned invasion of Haiti is nothing other than a racist hate crime directed against Haiti and her people.

It is a great concern to the people of the region that the leaders of CARICOM appear to be involving themselves in this criminal conspiracy against Haiti. A year ago, these same CARICOM leaders loudly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and argued that this was necessary in order to protect small countries from being attacked by big powers. One year later, CARICOM appears to be colluding with precisely the attack of a big power on a small country that they were condemning last year. To make matters worse, the small state is actually a member of CARICOM. If these CARICOM governments facilitate in any way Canada’s attack on Haiti, they too will have the blood of the Haitian people on their hands.

The people of the Caribbean owe the people of Haiti an unrepayable debt for the sacrifices they made to put an end to the enslavement of Africans in the region. We must go all out to block Canada’s planned attack on Haiti and CARICOM’s involvement in this crime. If CARICOM genuinely wants to help the sister people of Haiti, it can start by calling for the disbanding of the Core Group and ending the interference of this group’s members in Haiti’s affairs. They can call for the stepping down of the current de-facto Haitian government of Ariel Henry which the Haitian people have comprehensively rejected. They can facilitate an all-inclusive dialogue between all sections of Haitian society so that the Haitian people themselves can come up with an agreement that serves their interests and respects their country’s independence and sovereignty. Joining hands with Canada to kill Haitians and spill more Haitian blood will be a complete betrayal of the people of Haiti and the Caribbean.

Caribbean Empowerment blog calls on the people of the Caribbean to go all out to block Canada’s planned attack on Haiti and CARICOM’s involvement in it. Make your views known to Canadian representatives in your country and to the government in your country.

Hands off Haiti!

All out to block Canada’s planned invasion!

* The Core Group is made up of the special representative of the UN Secretary-General, the ambassadors of Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the European Union, the United States of America and the special representative of the Organization of American States (OAS).