Montrealers of Haitian origin worry about their loved ones in Haiti

(Montreal) Wedne Colin feels like she leads a “double life”: a resident of Montreal, but constantly worried about her family in Haiti.

“It’s like we’re here, but at the same time we’re in Haiti,” he explained in an interview Monday. We cannot get rid of Haiti, Haiti is following us. Haiti sticks to us. »

Mr. Colin says members of his family had to flee their homes several times to find a safe place, safe from armed gangs who, he says, have taken control of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Sometimes, he says, they spend a week sleeping outside with nothing but a handful of important documents, like their passports.

He said his family lived in fear of violence and kidnapping, noting that some of them had received letters demanding they hand over money by a certain date. But every time they leave home, they always end up returning, he says, “because nowhere is safe.”

Wedne Colin and Orlando Ceide, who both work at the Maison d’Haïti community center, are two of the many Haitian Montrealers in the diaspora who are worried about their loved ones, amid the violent attacks paralyzing the Haitian capital.

Orlando Ceide describes the situation in his home country as catastrophic. He says that although his family members in Haiti live far from the violence, this new crisis is impacting the availability of basic services, including food and health care.

As a former student activist, he said that if he were still in Haiti, he would probably be in the streets protesting. But in Montreal, it is difficult for him to even talk about his homeland which he misses.

“I have a feeling of helplessness in the face of what is happening,” he confided.

The two men affirm that the Canadian government must take its responsibilities to help Haitians, in particular by facilitating their departure and their coming to Canada to join their families. They also say that Canada can play a role in efforts to stabilize the country, but that these efforts, they add, must be led by the Haitian people themselves.

Canada confirmed over the weekend that it would send an official to attend an emergency meeting in Jamaica on Monday, following an invitation from Caribbean leaders who want to discuss the escalating violence in Haiti. A spokesperson for the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, indicated that Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, was present.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the 15-nation regional trading bloc, said in a statement Friday that “the situation on the ground remains dire” in Haiti, which has been facing a prolonged security crisis since the assassination of former president Jovenel Moïse in 2021.

Hesitation about military interventions

In 2022, unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry called for international military intervention to eliminate gangs, an idea that deeply divides this country.

Washington had asked Canada to carry out such a military intervention, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was not sure it would stabilize the country. He cited past interventions organized by the United Nations in which foreign soldiers sexually exploited Haitians and introduced cholera into the country.

Kenya agreed last fall to lead such a mission, although the decision is being challenged in Kenyan courts.

In comments made last week, Canada’s chief of defense staff said past military interventions in Haiti had failed.

“I think if we look at our experience with military interventions over the last quarter of a century, three decades, where we have been substituting security forces, that is, welcoming or making come a foreign force, it quickly becomes perceived as a forced occupation operation,” General Wayne Eyre said Thursday evening during his keynote address to a security and defense conference in Ottawa.

Wayne Eyre said the focus should instead be on helping Haiti develop a local force capable of handling security, which he admitted could be a long and difficult process in a country like Haiti, which lacks also a solid political and economic framework.

Within Quebec’s large Haitian community – estimated at more than 140,000 people – it can be difficult to know what to do.

Stephania Dorvilus, who recently arrived in Montreal from Haiti, said she sometimes cries when she thinks about what is happening at home. Like many others in Port-au-Prince, his family left their home to seek shelter, probably in a government building.

“No one should…experience what the Haitian people are experiencing,” she said Monday at Maison d’Haïti. Although she wants to help her family, she is 25 years old and has just moved to a new country with no money to contribute.

Wedne Colin said that while the solution must be “by and for Haitians,” the international community has a role to play, including helping to prevent arms and ammunition from entering the country. He added that he also thinks people need to start talking about Haiti as much as the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, emphasizing that Haiti’s problems didn’t start yesterday.

“There was silence around Haiti for a long time,” he said. And this situation has allowed gang leaders, criminals and the corrupt to take advantage. »