Jean Saint-Vil
November 23, 2004
Derrick O'Keefe

1) Lots of attention is already focused on U.S. President Bush’s November 30 visit to Ottawa. Prime Minister Martin has, with less fanfare, recently visited Haiti. What is Canada’s current role with respect to the regime in power in Port-au-Prince?

Well, Canada continues to play the same role it had begun to play since a few years back in the demise of the elected government of Haiti. As you can see, within the three countries which are often mentioned as being involved in the ouster of the elected government – the United States, France and Canada – the head of state that has first conducted that trip is Canada’s. Whereas France sent their minister of foreign affairs, and the United States had a visit by lower-level officials. But, you know, Canada sent its prime minister.

One of the comments that was made by Denis Coderre after Martin’s visit, was that the visit’s objective was to give legitimacy to the de facto government that they had installed there. So Canada continues to play the role of agent of U.S. foreign policy in Haiti.

2) What is the situation on the ground in Haiti under the Latortue government? Is there increasing resistance to this occupation?

Yes, there is increasing acts of resistance, but there is more than that. We are actually quickly approaching a situation of chaos, generalized chaos. Many are saying that this was exactly what was being set up, so that you have violence taking place, some of it clashes between police and people in the impoverished neighbourhoods who are resisting the coup. But you also have the gangs, that the CIA had trained to overthrow the legitimate government, who are now turning against Latortue.

For instance, one of these gang leaders, whose alias is Ti Will, went on a shooting rampage in Gonaives, because apparently he was jealous of some guy who was dating the same guy as him. And he just started shooting a lot, and apparently a nine year old little girl got killed. Now the de facto government tried to go and arrest him, and there’s a standstill now in Gonaives and we don’t know what’s going to happen.

So I would have liked to have just said it’s a matter of resistance, but it’s much more than that. There is no real governance. And that’s one of the things that Canada, the U.S. and France are trying to hide by propping up these puppets in Haiti.

3)What’s the status of efforts to have an investigation of the ouster of Aristide earlier this year?

Well this has not gone anywhere, because the countries that raised that are South Africa, the CARICOM nations, and the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus raised that as well. But there was a lot of pressure put on the countries of CARICOM when they were trying to introduce that resolution in front of the United Nations. And of course they quickly realized that this wasn’t going to go anywhere because – you know, we talk about the United Nations as if it’s some kind of impartial institution, but really it’s the Security Council that makes the final decisions. And who sits on the Security Council? It’s the same “usual suspects,” the United States, France, etc. And they have veto power over anything. So there was not going to be any investigation.

So they went the route of the Organization of American States (OAS) and that’s when a lot of threats started to happen against Jamaica, in particular. There was an embargo against Jamaica because they were still pushing the idea that there should be an investigation into how France and the United States in particular had participated in the illegal overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti. And we just never heard anything.

4) Why do you think there is so little outrage internationally about what is happening in Haiti, is this the impact of so many layers of racism at play?

There is racism, for sure, in the sense that it was easy to demonize the progressive movement in Haiti, and to make people believe that the president who was popular was some kind of a dictator. As I’ve commented many times before, you rarely hear anybody refer to Vladimir Putin as a dictator, whereas any Black leader anywhere can be demonized in the foreign press. They easily accept this story, coming from the Euro-centric perspective.

But there’s also the fact that we live in societies where everything is centred around the powerful people, so the story never gets told from the other perspective. Therefore people here cannot be blamed for not knowing what’s going on in Haiti, anymore than they know about what’s going on in Bangladesh, about what’s going on in The Philippines. I believe it’s the responsibility of people involved in the peace movement to educate people, to let them know.

5) On the topic of the peace movement, you’re in the Ottawa-Gatineau area. What’s being prepared there to “welcome” George Bush?

Well, I cannot pretend to know all of what’s being prepared to welcome the Emperor.

There’s the No War-Paix organization. There’s going to be demonstrations on November 30 – it’s still not clear when Bush will be arriving here, whether the main activities will be on the November 30 or December 1. But people are getting ready. There was already a demonstration last Saturday here, over two hundred people were on Parliament Hill. We’re expecting much more than that. In addition to the demonstrations, there are also seminars and workshops on different related issues.

So, I think that with the re-election, or re-selection of George W. Bush, people are realizing right now – especially with the way they ousted Carolyn Parrish from the Liberal Party here in Canada – that, more and more, we are moving to the far right all over North America. People are realizing that they have to get to the streets, they have to get their voices heard, before it gets too late.

6) How has Kerry’s defeat affected people in Haiti? Were some people putting their hopes in the U.S. election?

Well, in Haiti, the puppet government immediately congratulated George Bush. This is what they were expecting and they are happy because they know now that the U.S. will continue to support them. And, immediately, the puppet prime minister went to Florida to meet with Jeb Bush and congratulate him. On the side of the people, the message was that the resistance will only continue and that they weren’t expecting much from the U.S. system in any case.

7) Tell us about your website, and other places that people can go on-line to find out more information about what is really going on in occupied Haiti?

Well, the main website for information in www.haitiaction.net. It’s based out of California, but it has a lot of up-to-date information. My site is www.jafrikayiti.com.

Click here for more information on the pan-Canadian demonstrations to mark George Bush's visit to Ottawa.

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