Haiti support hits the streets

[oblivious]

...350 protesters took to the streets of the nation's capital recently. The Haiti Solidarity Demonstration — Ottawa's largest in recent memory — kicked off a Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN) week of action.

...50 people rallied for a “die-in” outside RCMP Headquarters in Winnipeg.

...Fifty people held a mini- march through downtown Toronto

...40 people taking to the streets of Halifax.

Endorsed by an impressive list of groups from the Canadian Labour Congress to Cuba-solidarity groups to the Canadian Peace Alliance...

Demands:
# Withdraw the support of Elections Canada and all other bodies from any elections held under current conditions of repression, which include hundreds of political prisoners, police killings and terror, and the exclusion of the poor from participation;

# Demand the immediate release of Amnesty International prisoner of conscience Father Gerard Jean-Juste, former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, the folksinger Annette “S� Ann” Auguste, and all other political prisoners;

# Discontinue all RCMP training and logistical support for the human rights-abusing Haitian National Police, and withdraw all Canadian logistical support for the UN “peacekeeping” mission-turned repression operation;

# Announce Canada's support for the position of the governments of the Caribbean community countries (CARICOM) and the African Union, both of which are demanding an investigation into the circumstances of President Aristide's removal;

# Withdraw and withhold recognition of Haiti's coup government until President Aristide is returned to oversee the holding of fair elections without repression.

http://www.rabble.ca/news_full_story.shtml?x=44206

See also:
The Politics of Money: Haiti and the Left
by Yves Engler

November 24, 2005

Since the U.S.-backed overthrow of progressive Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the severe level of political repression launched by the new government has left tens of thousands of Lavalas (Aristide’s political party) supporters the victims of rapes, incarcerations, firings and murders. One tragic aspect of this story is the extent to which Canadian federal government money has been able to buy the support of supposedly progressive organizations and individuals. Today they continue to align themselves with Canada’s brutal pro-coup policy.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ENG20051124&articleId=1316

[oblivious]

1. Canadian peacekeeper killed in Haiti

Retired RCMP officer killed in Haiti ambush
20 Dec 2005

A retired RCMP officer working on election security in Haiti was killed in an ambush Tuesday. Mark Bourque died while driving through the country's capital, Port-au-Prince, after shots were fired into his car.

Bourque, 57, was driving with a colleague near Cite Soleil, a violent slum just on the outskirts of the capital. A group of Haitians shot at the car and Bourque was fatally wounded in the leg.

...Prime Minister Paul Martin issued a statement offering his condolences and condemning the attack.

"Mr. Bourque was in Haiti as part of Canada's efforts to promote good governance and democracy, and his work there exemplified to the world the finest of Canada's values," Martin said.

...Haiti is currently being governed by an interim set of legislators chosen by the international community and headed by Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue.

Former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in Feb. 2004.

...Aristide has insisted he was overthrown by emissaries of the United States, while former US secretary of state Colin Powell has said Aristide left voluntarily.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051220/rcmp_death_051220/20051220?hub=CTVNewsAt11

[HEyHEY]

2. I read a good article in MacLeans about

How Canada should be paying more attention to Haiti. And I hope we do.

[MrPrax]

3. What?

Funny I distinctly heard on CBC's The Current, a government flak saying everything was alright and there seemed to be no dissent by the interviewer..

Doubleplusgood!!!

But in Vancouver the anti-war coalition has been bizy--yesterday they paid a visit to Hedy Fry's office as part of their weekly protests on this imperialist travesty.

http://www.mawovancouver.org/