Imagine living in a country where the entire social services sector is privatized, run by “charities” that are based in other countries and staffed by foreigners who get to decide whether or not you qualify for assistance. Welcome to Haiti, the “Republic of NGOs.” As salacious details about Oxfam officials hiring Haitian girls for sex... Continue Reading →
Canadian, US complaints about Russian election meddling hypocritical
If a guy does something bad to someone else, but then complains later when another person does that same thing to him, what do we say? Stop being a hypocrite. Either you change direction or you got what you deserved. Does the same moral logic apply to countries? Purported Russian meddling in U.S., French and other... Continue Reading →
Canada no friend of Haiti or rest of Caribbean
Can cute Canadian Caribbean dreams about enchanted islands come true? Or is reality more complicated and Canada a far less benign actor than we imagine ourselves to be? In a recent Boston Globe opinion titled “Haiti should relinquish its sovereignty”, Boston College professor Richard Albert writes, “the new Haitian Constitution should do something virtually unprecedented:... Continue Reading →
UN ends occupation of Haiti, but legacy of abuse remains
Last week the UN Security Council finally voted to end its military occupation of Haiti. Instigated by the US, France and Canada, it has been responsible for countless abuses during the past 13 years. At the same time as the Security Council voted to draw down its military force (a police contingent will remain), the... Continue Reading →
A day to remember
Remember. Remember that today marks the culmination of a militarist, nationalist ritual organized by a reactionary state-backed group. Every year the Royal Canadian Legion sells about 20 million red poppies in the lead-up to Remembrance Day. Remember that red poppies were inspired by the 1915 poem "In Flanders Fields" by Canadian army officer John McCrae.... Continue Reading →
The Left in denial over Canadian imperialism
As hard as it is to admit for a former junior hockey player who spends many hours writing at the neighbourhood Tim Hortons, some things are better in the USA. For example, comparing Green Party leader Elizabeth May to her American counterpart Jill Stein on foreign-policy issues puts Canada to shame. While Stein has articulated... Continue Reading →
Where seeking mainstream media attention leads
Do Black (Haitian) lives matter to Canada’s leading ‘left-wing’ foreign-policy think tank? Apparently not as much as having the corporate media mention their work by getting in bed with militarism disguised as peacekeeping. At the start of Black History Month the Ottawa-based Rideau Institute co-published Unprepared for Peace?: The decline of Canadian peacekeeping training (and what to do about... Continue Reading →
How soon until Justin Trudeau reveals his liberal imperialism?
Right-wing commentators are calling Justin Trudeau’s decision to withdraw fighter jets from Syria-Iraq “un Liberal” and unfortunately they’re right. But, by citing the Liberal sponsored Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to justify Canadian participation in the US-led bombing, these pundits are revealing the essence of this “humanitarian imperialist” doctrine. Last week senior Maclean‘s writer Michael Petrou called... Continue Reading →
Shining light on the secret world of Canada’s special forces
Last week former defence minister Jason Kenney said if re-elected the Conservatives would significantly expand Canada’s special forces. Kenney said they would add 665 members to the Canadian Armed Forces Special Operations Command (CANSOFCOM) over the next seven years. Why? What do these “special forces” do? Who decides when and where to deploy them? For what purpose?... Continue Reading →
Canada in Haiti: Is this how friends act?
Reading the comments below a recent Toronto Star op-edreminded me of an important, if rarely mentioned, rule of Canadian foreign policy: the more impoverished a nation, the greater the gap is likely to be between what Canadian officials say and do. In a rare corporate daily breakthrough, solidarity activist Mark Phillips detailed a decade of antidemocratic Canadian policy... Continue Reading →
Suggestions for real organizing during elections
By Dru Oja Jay and Yves Engler Election season can be the worst time to be a radical. Which is to say, it's tough to be someone who believes that fundamental systemic change is needed when the parties that have our democratic imagination in a sleeper hold are sucking the air out of the living... Continue Reading →
Why did Canada help overthrow Haiti’s government?
This is the last in a four part series leading up to the 10th anniversary of the February 29 2004 overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s government in Haiti. Why did Canada help overthrow Haiti’s elected government? That’s a question I heard over and over when speaking about Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority,... Continue Reading →
NGOs helped overthrow Haiti’s elected government
On February 29, 2004 the US, France and Canada overthrew Haiti’s elected government.As my first two articles in this series outlined, Ottawa helped plan the coup and was heavily implicated in the human rights disaster that followed.But the most shocking aspect of the intervention was the role played by purportedly progressive non-governmental organizations. A slew... Continue Reading →
The Haiti occupation continues
Those who forget the past are often condemned to repeat its mistakes. On February 29, 2004 the US, France and Canada overthrew Haiti’s elected government. The foreign military intervention led to an unmitigated human rights disaster. In the three weeks after the coup at least 1,000 bodies were buried in a mass grave by the... Continue Reading →
When Canada plotted to overthrow Haiti’s government
Eleven years ago this weekend Canada organized an international gathering to discuss overthrowing Haiti’s elected government. The conference was reported in a major magazine at the time, but since the coup actually happened the dominant media has refused to investigate or even mention the meeting. On Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, 2003, Jean Chrétien’s Liberal... Continue Reading →
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