Prominent artists, academics and politicians demand end to Liberal’s support for dictatorship in Haiti

Former UN ambassador Stephen Lewis, broadcaster David Suzuki, author Naomi Klein, Professor Noam Chomsky, poets El Jones and George Elliott Clarke, rock legend Roger Waters, Green MP Paul Manly, as well as former MPs Svend Robinson, Libby Davies and Jim Manly and more than 100 other academics, activists and artists, are calling on “the Canadian government to stop propping up a repressive and corrupt dictatorship in Haiti.”

The public letter sponsored by the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute notes that “Jovenel Moïse has been occupying the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince in defiance of the overwhelming majority of the country’s institutions.” It adds that “the Canadian government must end its support for a repressive, corrupt Haitian president devoid of constitutional legitimacy.”

The public letter will be formally delivered to the office of new Foreign Affairs Minister, Marc Garneau, during a rally organized by Solidarité Québec Haïti and Mouvement Québécois pour la Paix on Friday February 19 at 12 PM (4060 Sainte-Catherine W.).

“The letter criticizes Canada’s training and financial support for a repressive Haitian police force that maintains an unconstitutional president in power”, said Bianca Mugyenyi, director of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute.

In recent days La Presse and Le Journal de Montréal have reported that a local Haitian consulate official, the spouse of governing party Senator Rony Célestin, purchased $6 million in Montréal area property. Many suspect the payments were made with ill-gotten gains.

“The recent revelations are fueling anger against the vast corruption of Haiti’s governing party”, said Mugyenyi “But, Moïse and his acolytes’ well documented corruption hasn’t deterred the Trudeau government from supporting the illegitimate President.”

Bianca Mugyenyi is the director of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute.