Justin Trudeau would not say on Thursday whether Canada would participate in a multinational security mission led by Kenya in Haiti.
The question of how best to help Haiti dominated the final day of the Canadian Prime Minister’s visit to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, where President Joe Biden on Tuesday requested urgent aid for this Antilles country ravaged by violence and poverty.
Some media are suggesting that a request for approval for a security mission could be presented to the UN Security Council as early as next week, but Mr. Trudeau carefully avoided on Thursday any suggestion that Canada would play a role in it. .
“Let us be very clear: Canada is one of the countries – if not the country – which has been most committed and defended the Haitian people,” he declared at the closing press conference of his visit to New York.
This includes an additional $80 million for the Haitian police, on top of the $100 million announced last March. Canada also imposed new sanctions on Thursday against three other members of the Haitian business community, bringing the total to 29 to date.
“Canada is taking significant steps, but it also has 30 years of experience supporting the Haitian people,” said Mr. Trudeau. We cannot continue to put diachylons on the crises and challenges that Haitians face without Haitians themselves being at the center of any solution, he said in French. As of now, the Haitian government is not gathering enough consensus or unity for any intervention to be successful.
“Create political unity”
“We need the government of Haiti to take seriously the need to create political consensus, but also to bring the Haitian people themselves in support for the interventions or plans that we have to stabilize and help the Haitian people “, said Mr. Trudeau.
“That is why I have asked Prime Minister Henry today to do much more, to create political unity and consensus around international support and perhaps intervention,” the Prime Minister added in English .
Mr. Trudeau actually repeated much of the same message he has used in recent months to resist overt and sometimes public pressure from the United States that Canada should lead such a security mission in Haiti.
It was ultimately Kenya that offered to lead this mission, deploying 1,000 police officers to help train their Haitian counterparts, who are vastly outnumbered and under-resourced in a country of 11 million people.
Earlier Thursday morning, Mr. Trudeau, sitting next to Ariel Henry, interim prime minister of Haiti, maintained that “there was no external solution to this situation” in this country. “We have a role to play from the outside […], but we need more dialogue, more consensus in Haiti and around the Haitian people. »
Mr. Trudeau also spoke briefly at a meeting of an ad hoc consultative group organized by Canada, in which Mr. Henry participated, and chaired by Bob Rae, the Canadian ambassador to the UN and the trusted man of the Prime Minister in the Haitian file.
Multifaceted solution
Very violent criminal gangs have been rampant in Haiti since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, blocking fuel deliveries and terrorizing the local population, all amid a cholera epidemic.
Little progress has been made on the ground since then, but Rae said Thursday he was confident diplomatic and political efforts to build support for the country were beginning to bear fruit. “It has been very difficult to reach an agreement and make progress, but we are going somewhere,” he maintained.
This includes an emerging consensus that security, humanitarian assistance, sustainable development, and political and legal accountability must all be elements of an effective solution.
And the Canadian perspective – that outside interventions will likely have little or no lasting impact without Haitians themselves taking a leading role – appears to prevail, Mr. Rae said.
“I think these views, which we have held for a long time, are now more widely accepted,” the ambassador said. We therefore hope that whatever comes out of the Security Council will be part of this implementation. »
CARICOM Summit in Ottawa
Leaders of member countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will attend a summit in Ottawa next month, and discussions will likely focus on how best to strengthen the security of Haiti’s neighbors as well.
“What is happening in Haiti is obviously terrible for the Haitian people. What is happening is devastating, but it is also very dangerous for the security of the entire region,” Mr Rae said.
“It’s again an approach that we’re emphasizing and moving forward with, and I’m quite optimistic that we’ll see a little more light and agreement in the coming weeks. »
Over the summer, Canada announced its intention to coordinate a multilateral effort that would help make the Haitian police a more effective security force.
These efforts included a “coordination cell” charged with assessing their most pressing needs, such as training and equipment, and determining how supporting countries could best meet these demands.
The new sanctions announced Thursday by Ottawa target businessmen Marc Antoine Acra, Carl Braun and Jean-Marie Vorbe. These “three members of the Haitian economic elite” will be banned from entering Canada and will be subject to a general ban on transactions.
“Canada has reason to believe that these individuals are fueling violence and instability in Haiti by engaging in corruption and other criminal acts, and by enabling armed gangs to carry out illegal activities that terrorize the population and threaten peace and security in Haiti,” said a press release from Global Affairs Canada.