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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
 
At the risk of derailing this thread any head line is better to JT than "nothing to see here" foreign interference in elections scandal that Dear Leader keeps saying.

Meanwhile, the US be like...

rocket power nicksplat GIF
 
Getting closer to boots on ground?

Haiti's sudden turn for the worse puts Trudeau on the spot​


Larosiliere also said it's time for Canada to tell Haiti clearly what it is and isn't willing to do.

"Trudeau needs to come forward, straightforward and clean. If you want to help us, help us," he said. "But don't make any show of demonstration of boats and planes." (The Canadian Forces recently deployed two ships and a reconnaissance plane on missions around Port-au-Prince.)

"Canada used to be well-respected until they made promises they could not keep. Now, they are the laughing stock on social media. So now, what can we expect from Canada?" he asked. "Canada needs to be candid about it. Will they help us militarily?"

Pretty sure the entire country is thanks to Trudeau, not the military.
 
For the life of me, I still can’t see why we should waste Canadian lives trying to help people who don’t really want to help themselves. I realize I’m sounding insensitive but I’m just thinking back on Haiti’s earlier history during the Napoleonic era. The Haitians had already managed to defeat their white slavemasters, and when Napoleon sent an army to defeat them, it was the French themselves who were defeated. The Haitians stood up to a tyranny, that was arguably far greater than what they are currently experiencing, and, frankly, I cannot see why they are unable to do so now to the warlords who try to control their lives. Or is it they are simply unwilling to?
 
If we, by we I mean the Army, goes in, will there be equal representation from both genders and BIPOC groups?
 
Getting closer to boots on ground?

Haiti's sudden turn for the worse puts Trudeau on the spot​




Pretty sure the entire country is thanks to Trudeau, not the military.

From the article

"Canada used to be well-respected until they made promises they could not keep. Now, they are the laughing stock on social media. So now, what can we expect from Canada?" he asked. "Canada needs to be candid about it. Will they help us militarily?"

I think they are asking for more than we can give.
 
From the article

I think they are asking for more than we can give.
Or anyone in their right mind would want to attempt to give. "Hey, please send an enormous land force, with aviation and naval support, to get in firefights with criminal gangs, possibly cops, non-criminal neighbourhood armed entities, and everyone else, while getting flack for being dirty colonizers/doing too much/not doing enough/whatever as partners with a government that makes the Taliban look functional."

Haiti is a really good argument for encouraging Cuba (and Jamaica, once they get their internal problems sorted out) to regional power status.
 
For the life of me, I still can’t see why we should waste Canadian lives trying to help people who don’t really want to help themselves. I realize I’m sounding insensitive but I’m just thinking back on Haiti’s earlier history during the Napoleonic era. The Haitians had already managed to defeat their white slavemasters, and when Napoleon sent an army to defeat them, it was the French themselves who were defeated. The Haitians stood up to a tyranny, that was arguably far greater than what they are currently experiencing, and, frankly, I cannot see why they are unable to do so now to the warlords who try to control their lives. Or is it they are simply unwilling to?
Haiti has a very nasty history- worst one I’ve ever heard.
I will say this: at one time the light skinned one’s ruled over the darker ones. This is a fact. The lighter skinned ones owned about 90% of the wealth of Haiti. And international corporations were complicit in this.
 
I heard somewhere that it should be up to another, neutral (real) power to do that. A power with a darker tone of skin, that understand a bit more poverty and that are ''neutral''. Some one like India.

They would be out of the blue, not regionally bias and have probably more credibility then us.

We could help but not more. IMHO, we should not lead this.
 
I heard somewhere that it should be up to another, neutral (real) power to do that. A power with a darker tone of skin, that understand a bit more poverty and that are ''neutral''. Some one like India.

They would be out of the blue, not regionally bias and have probably more credibility then us.

We could help but not more. IMHO, we should not lead this.
That has been tried before under the UN, and ended poorly. Nepalese troops ended up causing a cholera outbreak...
 
At the risk of derailing this thread any head line is better to JT than "nothing to see here" foreign interference in elections scandal that Dear Leader keeps saying.
What is that old saying about governments
I heard somewhere that it should be up to another, neutral (real) power to do that. A power with a darker tone of skin, that understand a bit more poverty and that are ''neutral''. Some one like India.

They would be out of the blue, not regionally bias and have probably more credibility then us.

We could help but not more. IMHO, we should not lead this.
From the White Houses statement on President Bidens upcoming visit to Canada: "[a]nd working together on regional challenges, including instability in Haiti. "
 
We could just pick the most successful gang and arm them. Tell them the hospital and roads need to remain open, functional or you die.
 
That has been tried before under the UN, and ended poorly. Nepalese troops ended up causing a cholera outbreak...
The UN was in Haiti for 15 years. It ranks as one of the deadliest missions that they have run. We had a number of RCMP officers posted there. It would probably be beneficial to ask for their input before sending anyone else over there. I was there in 2017 so 13 years into the mission and my hotel was guarded 24/ 7 by soldiers and not security people. If it wasn't possible to sleep easy in a hotel after 13 years what possible good would it do to try again with Canadian troops. If memory serves the UN had upwards of 10000 troops there at one time. Do we even have that many in a position to go?
 
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