(Ottawa) Canada has taken note of the approval by the United Nations Security Council of a multinational mission in Haiti led by Kenya and is determined to “do more” to help the Haitian people, says the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, without specifying what form of involvement Ottawa could consider.
“We take note of what happened in the Security Council yesterday. You know that Canada has always been involved in issues related to Haiti. We will continue to be,” she said Tuesday in a press scrum.
Mme Joly recalled that Canada announced, last March, additional funding of 100 million to strengthen the capacities of the Haitian national police.
“But we want to do more. So, therefore, we will continue (our) diplomatic conversations and I would tell you that we will also continue to support solutions that are by and for the Haitians,” she continued.
The minister mentioned having met on Monday with Canada’s ambassador to the UN, Bob Rae, as well as with her Kenyan counterpart, Alfred Mutua, with whom she is “in very close contact.” regular”.
The UN Security Council voted that day to send a Kenyan-led multinational force to Haiti to combat violent gangs in the Caribbean country gripped by a crisis. insecurity.
The resolution authorizes the deployment of the force for a period of one year, with a review after nine months. It would be the first time such a mission has been deployed in Haiti since the one approved by the UN almost 20 years ago.
While the scale of the intervention has yet to be clarified, Jamaica, the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda have already committed to supporting Kenya by sending personnel. The American administration of Joe Biden also promised to provide logistics and 100 million US dollars.
Canada, for its part, has not specified what role it could play. Washington has in the past asked Ottawa to lead such a multinational mission. The request for such a force first came from the unelected Haitian Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, almost a year ago.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has since repeatedly insisted on the failures of previous UN interventions, as well as on Canada’s desire to avoid repeating mistakes it made in the past.
In March, Chief of Defense Staff General Wayne Eyre said the Canadian Armed Forces did not have the resources to lead a military deployment to Haiti.
In the eyes of Liberal MP Emmanuel Dubourg, sending Canadian soldiers is, in fact, not at all on the cards. “I would say no, but, on the other hand, (at the level of) technical assistance from here or from neighboring countries, I think yes, Canada can play a role,” said Tuesday the elected official of Haitian origin.
There is no doubt, according to him, that Canada will get involved in the mission led by Kenya. Asked about the fact that the Haitian population was divided over the idea of sending a multinational force, Mr. Dubourg replied that he believes that this belongs to the past.
“It’s true that at the beginning the Haitians did not want to have boots, as they say, of the army on the ground, but over time, we see all the crimes these criminal gangs do, so it is important that now they accept, in a certain way, that these people come (lend) a helping hand because the Haitian National Police cannot solve this problem alone,” he said. he says.
The Bloc’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Stéphane Bergeron, believes that the fact that the mission proposed by Kenya has obtained the approval of the UN Security Council “perhaps clears a certain number of criticisms of with regard to the very idea” of international intervention.
“I imagine that the Canadian government is examining the best avenues to make the most relevant and useful contribution, and I dare to hope that this is what we are currently doing in government offices: not to question (to know whether) we should take part in this mission or not, but rather question (the) way (in which we) should take part in it,” he argued.
No deployment date has been set for the Kenyan-led mission. Minister Mutua told the BBC that the force should be in Haiti from 1er January 2024, “if not before”.
With Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press and with the Associated Press