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Haitian leaders must all agree before Canada would lead a potential military intervention, Trudeau says

U.S. has suggested Canada could lead a multinational force in Haiti

Dylan Robertson · The Canadian Press · Posted: Nov 20, 2022 1:27 PM ET

A potential Canadian military intervention in Haiti can't happen unless all political parties in the troubled nation agree to it, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sunday.

Speaking from Tunisia on the final day of the two-day Francophonie summit, Trudeau announced $16.5 million to help stabilize Haiti, where gangs are strangling access to fuel and critical supplies amid a worsening cholera outbreak.

About half the money is going toward humanitarian aid, and some of the rest is intended to help weed out corruption and prosecute gender-based violence.

But Haiti's government has asked for an international military intervention to combat gangs who have strangled access to fuel and critical supplies in the middle of the outbreak.

The United States wants Canada to lead any military intervention.

Trudeau said Sunday that Canada is working with CARICOM, the organization of Caribbean governments, along with "various actors in Haiti from all different political parties" to get a consensus on how the international community can help.

"It is not enough for Haiti's government to ask for it," he said. "There needs to be a consensus across political parties in Haiti before we can move forward on more significant steps."

He did not rule out eventually establishing a Canadian military mission on the ground in Haiti.

"Canada is very open to playing an important role, but we must have a Haitian consensus," Trudeau said in French.

New sanctions on prominent former officials
A Global Affairs Canada assessment team sent to Haiti to establish some understanding of what is happening and what could help has already returned and provided a report at meetings Trudeau said he attended.

He said the response is complicated because many "political elites" and "oligarchs" in Haiti have used the country's humanitarian crises "to enrich themselves on the backs of the Haitian people."

"So that is why our approach now is not about doing what one political party or the government wants," Trudeau said. "It's calling for a level of consensus and coherence from all actors in Haiti to call for solutions that we can actually get behind and lead on as an international community."

On Saturday Canada expanded its economic sanctions freezing the Canadian assets of Haitian political elites to now include former president Michel Martelly and former prime ministers Laurent Lamothe and Jean-Henry Ceant.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly accused the trio of helping gangs undermine Haiti's current government and called on international partners to follow Canada's lead.

"Our goal is to make sure that these people that are profiting from the violence, that are part of a corrupted system, are facing accountability," she said.

Haitian Foreign Affairs Minister Jean Victor Geneus said the new sanctions put real consequences on those causing a "nightmare" in his country.

"These sanctions will have a dissuasive impact," he said in French, while seated between Trudeau and Joly.

Geneus said gangs are raping women and girls, preventing children from attending school and not letting sick people through roadblocks when they seek medical treatment. That means refugees are leaving for neighbouring islands.

"If the necessary conditions for safety are not re-established in a fast and urgent manner, a humanitarian catastrophe is possible in Haiti," he said in French.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-haiti-intervention-sanctions-1.6658254
 
Bob Rae is being sent to see what Canada can do there?
Wonder what the report will say
Wow, we sure sent our heavy hitters to back up those Haitians 🤣
 
Who cares? Haiti can have him and keep him. Can we send JT and CF there too? And Bill Blair?
do you think the Haitian people would keep them? Once they found out the cost of keeping them in style they would return them on the next flight out at our cost.
 
"We will not engage in Haiti without concensus from all parties."

"We're sending Bob Rae to Haiti to get concensus from all parties."

Our current government are all snake oil salesmen and carpet baggers. Why go through this charade if you're intent on going in anyway?
 
"We will not engage in Haiti without concensus from all parties."

"We're sending Bob Rae to Haiti to get concensus from all parties."

Our current government are all snake oil salesmen and carpet baggers. Why go through this charade if you're intent on going in anyway?
I don't think we are.
I think this is a government that is desperately searching for some non embarrassing excuse not to go..
Anything else but we aren't prepared to deal with the political fallout of Us killing Haitians or Hatians killing Canadian troops.
Or the equally embarrassing . "We seem to have broken our Army and can't even manage a figleaf of a platoon sized HQ element.
And that is why we've sent Bob Rae on a basically impossible job.
 
Actually I think it's pretty rotten of the Government to treat him like this. On the other hand it doesn't surprise me that they would screw over their own Ambassador.
 
Can't think of a better guy to send if the goal is too fail, but make it costly enough so it looks like something was done....
We could send Stephane Dion - I've no doubt that he do just as good as job as Bob 'Rae Day' Rae will.
 
Actually I think it's pretty rotten of the Government to treat him like this. On the other hand it doesn't surprise me that they would screw over their own Ambassador.
Not sure that he is 100% accepted as 'one of theirs' since he crossed the floor from the NDP to the Liberals.
 
Actually I think it's pretty rotten of the Government to treat him like this. On the other hand it doesn't surprise me that they would screw over their own Ambassador.

After all, he did such a great job in that other 'forlorn hope', Myanmar, right? ;)


As Prime Minister Trudeau’s Special Envoy to Myanmar, I engaged in extensive research, travel and meetings with key interlocutors from October 2017 to March 2018 to assess the violent events of August 2017 and afterward that led more than 671,000 Rohingya to flee their homes in Rakhine State, Myanmar, and seek refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh.

This report focuses on the following four themes: the need to combine principle and pragmatism in responding to the serious humanitarian crisis in both Myanmar and Bangladesh; the ongoing political challenges in Myanmar; the strong signals that crimes against humanity were committed in the forcible and violent displacement of more than 671,000 Rohingya from Rakhine State in Myanmar; and the clear need for more effective coordination of both domestic and international efforts.

 
Actually I think it's pretty rotten of the Government to treat him like this. On the other hand it doesn't surprise me that they would screw over their own Ambassador.
He screwed over a whole province without thinking of their welfare or hardship. He's part of the laurentien elite Power Corp structure. He knew the flea infested mongrels he was laying down with. I have zero pity for him.
 
I don't think we are.
I think this is a government that is desperately searching for some non embarrassing excuse not to go..
Anything else but we aren't prepared to deal with the political fallout of Us killing Haitians or Hatians killing Canadian troops.
Or the equally embarrassing . "We seem to have broken our Army and can't even manage a figleaf of a platoon sized HQ element.
And that is why we've sent Bob Rae on a basically impossible job.
I agree.

This is one thing the government could be honest about, and it would look good on them.

Saying “We are currently in a state of reconstitution. So between that, our current operations in Latvia, the UK supporting Ukraine, and our standing commitments around the world - if this is something Haiti does decide it wants, it will have to be the UN that assists them” would be blunt, honest, and most Canadians would probably be fairly supportive of a decision not to go at this time.

(Can’t do a platoon sized HQ element? Oh come now, HQ’s are like our thing!)
 
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