(OTTAWA) A mission led by Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, is in Haiti until Friday with the hope of paving the way for democratic elections in the troubled country.
The Canadian diplomatic mission aims to “foster greater unity among key stakeholders in support of a political path and process for democratic elections,” a government statement said Tuesday.
The dispatch of a mission led by Bob Rae, which began on Wednesday, is “another example of Canada’s support for solutions proposed by Haitians to the violence in the country”, argued the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, in the same written statement.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry has been in post on an interim basis in Haiti since July 2021. President Jovenel Moïse had appointed him two days before he was assassinated on July 7, 2021. Without going so far as to disavow the leader, the Canadian government believes that the status quo cannot last.
Canada has begun to impose sanctions on high-profile figures who help keep the country in chaos, including ex-president Michel Martelly, former prime ministers Laurent Lamothe and Jean-Henry Céant, and gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, aka “Barbecue”.
The Haitian government would like an international military intervention in the country taken hostage by gangs who sow terror. The United States sees Canada as a potential leading player in a possible international intervention force.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, however, has indicated that Canada will not intervene militarily in Haiti unless all political parties in that country approve it. So far, Ottawa has imposed sanctions, sent military equipment and provided several million dollars in humanitarian aid.
A team from Global Affairs Canada had already traveled to Haiti to assess the situation on the ground.
It does not seem planned, at least not for the moment, for Minister Joly to travel to Haiti, according to what the principal concerned said about two weeks ago in an editorial interview with The Press.
Gangs and sexual violence
On October 21, the United Nations Security Council adopted a sanctions regime aimed at Haiti, which targets in particular individuals who engage in criminal activities or who support them, the forced recruitment of children, human trafficking and to sexual violence.
Sexual violence is “a weapon used by gangs to spread fear” in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, headlines a report published on October 14 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“Children as young as 10 and elderly women were subjected to gang rape for hours in front of their parents or children, by more than half a dozen armed elements during attacks on their neighborhoods “, we read there.