Stop Backing a Corrupt, Repressive and Illegitimate Haitian President
Open letter calling on the Canadian government to stop backing a corrupt, repressive and illegitimate Haitian president
In recent months, Haitians have demonstrated their overwhelming opposition to President Jovenel Moïse. There have been massive protests and multiple general strikes demanding Moïse leave. We consider their demands legitimate.
A recent corruption investigation by Haiti’s Superior Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes accused Moïse’s companies of swindling $2-million of public money. Some two billion dollars were pilfered under Moïse’s mentor Michel Martelly from Petro Caribe, a discounted oil program set up by Venezuela. Yet, the people’s demand for justice in this money squandering scandal has been met with fierce repression. Police have killed dozens of demonstrators since anti-corruption protests began last year. In the worst documented case, the UN confirmed the Haitian government’s culpability in a terrible massacre of up to 71 civilians in the impoverished Port-au-Prince neighborhood of La Saline in mid-November 2018.
Opposing Moïse
Let’s remember that Moïse assumed office in 2017, through voter suppression and electoral fraud. Barely one in five Haitians voted. The people have been protesting and voicing their opposition to Moïse since day one, but he clings to power because of support from the US, Canada and members of the so-called “Core Group” (France, Brazil, Germany, Spain, EU and OAS). Canada has provided financial, policing and diplomatic support to the unpopular government. Canadian officials have repeatedly promoted and applauded a police force that has been responsible for countless abuses. Recent Canadian and “Core Group” statements completely ignore Moïse’s electoral illegitimacy and downplay the enormity of the corruption and violence against protesters.
The undersigned call on the Justin Trudeau government and Canadian state, member of the “Core Group” – to stop backing a corrupt, repressive and illegitimate president Haitians massively reject.
Please note the situation is urgent, as the people’s access to basic necessities is more precarious everyday while the country is paralyzed and dysfunctional due to the political crisis. •
Signatories,
- David Suzuki, award-winning geneticist/broadcaster
- Roger Waters, co-founder Pink Floyd
- Amir Khadir, ex-deputy Québec Solidaire, responsible for international solidarity issues
- Linda McQuaig, author/journalist
- Joel Harden, MPP for Ottawa Centre
- Will Prosper, filmmaker/human rights activist
- Françoise Boucard, former chair Haiti’s National Truth and Justice Commission
- Sid Ryan, former president of Ontario Federation of Labour and CUPE Ontario
- Sue Montgomery, Mayor of NDG/Co-creator of #BeenRapedNeverReported
- Jim Manly, Member of Parliament 1980-88
- Yann Martel, author
- Tariq Ali, author
- Frantz Voltaire, editor
- André Michel, president Artistes Pour La Paix
- Michele Landsberg, journalist/activist
- Chris Hedges, author
- Frantz André, Solidarité Québec-Haïti #Petrochallenge 2019
- Bruce Cockburn OC, musician/songwriter
- El Jones, poet
- Rawi Hage, author
- Robyn Maynard, author Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present
- George Elliott Clarke, OC, poet
- Greg Grandin, professor history Yale University
- Rinaldo Walcott, professor and writer
- Terra Lightfoot, singer-songwriter
- Jean Saint-Vil, journalist/activist
- Alain Deneault, philosopher
- Antonia Zerbisias, journalist/activist
- Medea Benjamin, co-director CODEPINK
- Stephen von Sychowski, President Vancouver & District Labour Council
- Gordon Laxer, author/founding Director Parkland Institute
- Èzili Dantò, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network/Free Haiti Movement
- Jord Samolesky, Propagandhi
- Janis Alton, Co-Chair Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
- Yves Engler, author/activist
- Christopher C. Black, Canadian international criminal lawyer, list of counsel, ICC
- Peter Hallward, author Damming the Flood: Haiti and the Politics of Containment
- Monia Mazigh, PhD/author
- Azeezah Kanji, journalist/legal academic
- Charlie Demers, writer/comedian
- Renel Exentus, regroupement des haïtien.ne.s de Montréal contre l’occupation d’Haïti
- Grahame Russell, Co-Director Rights Action
- Wade Davis, Professor of Anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at University of British Columbia
- Eva Manly, retired filmmaker
- Clayton Thomas-Muller, Author, Director, Senior Campaign Specialist – 350.org
- Frederick Jones, retired professor Dawson College
- Marie Dimanche, Solidarité Québec-Haïti #Petrochallenge 2019
- Torquil Campbell singer and a songwriter for Stars
- Rosina Kazi, vocalist LAL band
- Alexa Conradi, author/activist
- Bianca Mugyenyi, activist
- Jonathan Kuttab, co-founder Al-Haq
- Kevin Edmonds, educator/activist
- Mostafa Henaway, author/Immigrant Workers Centre
- Donald Cuccioletta, coordinator Nouveaux Cahiers du Socialisme andMontreal Urban Left
- Derrick O’Keefe, writer/co-founder Ricochet
- Scott Weinstein, health care worker
- Bill Ross, activist
- Margaret Flowers, co-director Popular Resistance
- Jennie-Laure Sully, Solidarité Québec-Haïti #Petrochallenge 2019
- Kevin Zeese, co-director Popular Resistance
- Ann Rogers, Political Studies Vancouver Island University
- Andrea Levy, coordinating editor Canadian Dimension magazine
- James Winter, author and Professor in the Graduate Program in Communication and Social Justice University of Windsor
- Kari Polanyi Levitt, development economist
- Patrick Mbeko, Canadian political scientist of Congolese origin
- Rafaelle Roy, painter
- Jan J. Dominique, writer
- Gary Klang, writer
- Tamara Lorincz, board member Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
- Greg Beckett, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Western University
- Kevin Skerrett, union researcher
- Nikolas Barry-Shaw, researcher/activist
- Darren Ell, teacher/photographer
- Henry Heller, professor
- Turenne Joseph, Solidarité Québec-Haïti #Petrochallenge 2019
- Richard Swift, journalist
- Claudia Chaufan, MD, YorkGraduate Program Director and Associate Professor School of Health Policy and Management
- Robin Mathews, retired Professor/Poet/Playwright/Activist
- Jay Watts, co-chair Toronto Association for Peace & Solidarity
- Michael S Goodman, activist
- Rosemary Hnatiuk, activist
- Ajit Singh, lawyer/graduate student
- Ali Mallah, former Ontario and Federal NDP Executive member
- Raul Burbano, activist
- Justin Podur, writer/academic
- Elaine Hughes, activist
- Trevor Herriot, writer, activist
- Ken Collier, Retired academic and current activist Mission, BC
- Syed Hussan, Migrant Workers Alliance
- Ralph Gastmeier, Retired cooperative housing coordinator
- Saul Bottcher, Green Party of Canada candidate 2015
- David Heap, Teacher-Researcher & Community Human Rights Advocate
- Bev Currie, Past President Saskatchewan NDP
- Phil Taylor, Host and producer of Taylor Report, CIUT 89.5 fm Toronto
- Nadia Abu-Zahra, Assistant Professor, School of International Development and Global Studies University of Ottawa
- Martin Lukacs, journalist
- Youri Smouter, journalist
- Sid Shniad, retired union research director/activist
- Eva Bartlett, independent journalist/activist
- Jooneed Khan, journalist and human rights activist
- Barry Weisleder, co-editor, Socialist Action newspaper, chair, NDP Socialist Caucus
- William Sloan, ex. refugee lawyer
- Dimitri Lascaris, lawyer/journalist/activist
- John Philpot, international defense lawyer
- Arnold August, Montreal journalist/author on US-Latin America
- Antonio Artuso, Front uni contre le fascisme et la guerre
- Gary Engler, author
- John Wesley Delva, journalist/poet
- Jonathan McPhedran Waitzer, consultant in organizational development
- Jeanne-Marie Rugira, Professor at the University du Québec à Rimouski
- Mouloud Idir-Djerroud, political scientist/pan-Africanist activist
- Franklin Lopez, Filmmaker, Voluntarily Unemployed
- Nadia Duguay, cofounder Exeko
- Amel Zaazaa, feminist and anti-racist activist
- Marita Mariasine, activist in Ayiti since 2010
- Pascale Brunet, community organizer
- Christian Tremblay, anticolonial activist
- Christian Gagnon, Bloc Québécois candidate in Papineau
- Nawel A. Hamidi, lawyer, PhD student University of Essex(UK)
- Rushdia Mehreen, community organizer / anti-racist activist
- Athena R. Kolbe, Professor of Social Work University of North Carolina
- Robert Green, Green Party Candidate for NDG-Westmount/Teacher at Westmount High School
- Brian Concannon, Human Rights Lawyer and Board Member of IJDH
- Freda Guttman, artist/activist
- Rael Nidess, M.D. Marshall, TX USA
- Khaled Mouammar, activist
- Richard Sanders, author/activist
- Marv Gandall, activist
- Karen Rodman, activist
- Larry Hannant, historian/activist
- Dave Greenfield, activist
- Judith Deutsch, psychoanalyst
- Raoul Paul, co-editor Canada-Haiti Information Project
- Travis Ross, public school teacher/co-editor Canada-Haiti Information Project
- Greg Albo, York Univ. professor
- Paul Larudee, nonprofit administrator/former academic/US government advisor
- Denis Rancourt, Researcher Ontario Civil Liberties Association, former Professor of Physics, University of Ottawa
- Anthony James Hall, Professor Emeritus/Editor In Chief American Herald Tribune
- Peter Eglin, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University/activist
- Mary Ellen Davis, cinéaste/travailleuse culturelle
- Ken Stone, Treasurer of Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War
- Samir Gandesha, Associate Professor and Director SFU Institute for the Humanities
- Carmen Aguirre, theatre artist/author
- Anastasia Marcelin, activist/politician
- Pierre Beaudet, Nouveaux cahiers du socialisme
- John Clarke, activist
- Harsha Walia, activist/writer
- Aziz Fall, President Centre Internationaliste Ryerson Foundation Aubin
- Maude Barlow, Honorary Chairperson of the Council of Canadians
