On July 4, Minister of Global Affairs Melanie Joly appointed Stuart Savage as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS). Savage most notably served as Canadian ambassador to Haiti between October 2019 and November 2021.
Savage’s tenure as ambassador to Haiti occurred during a period of violent unrest against then Prime Minister Jovenel Moïse, who was voted into office in what observers called a fraudulent election. Though a follow-up election was conducted that also elected Moïse to office in 2016, controversies surrounding corruption prompted widespread protests which turned deadly in 2019. He announced in 2021 that he would not resign until 2022, triggering a crisis.
The appointment of Savage to serve as ambassador to the OAS shows the relation between Canada’s spotty history in Haiti, the imperialist function of the institution, and Canada’s role in its implementation.
Canada and the OAS: from resistance to membership
Donald Kingsbury, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, teaches Latin American Politics and Canada’s actions in the region. He said that the precursor to the OAS, the Organization of American Unity, barred Canada from entry.
“The logic here was that Canada wasn’t a fully independent republic,” Kingsbury said. “It was rather essentially a vassal of the United Kingdom, and therefore seen as having competing interests than the big player in the region, which has been the United States.”
In 1948, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall travelled to Bogota during the Ninth Pan-American Conference with orders to pass an anti-communist resolution known as “The Preservation and Defense of Democracy in America.” The resolution claimed international communism was anti-democratic, and “incompatible with the concept of American freedom.”
The resolution passed and the OAS was formed at the same conference.
The organization has since worked to advance U.S. interests in the hemisphere, including a 1954 vote to condemn international communism, which provided diplomatic cover for the Eisenhower administration sponsored coup of President Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala.
Attempts for Canada to join the OAS stretch back to the early 1960s. Lester B. Pearson, Liberal Party leader in 1961, lambasted Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s refusal to pursue membership. Pearson said the OAS was a way to combat the “menace of communist penetration” in Latin America, and Canada had a responsibility to join the organization.
After Diefenbaker was defeated in an election, Paul Martin Sr., working as Secretary of State for External affairs under Pearson’s Liberal government, urged Canada to join the OAS throughout his tenure. But several reasons prevented Canadian membership. A large issue blocking political will for membership was the U.S. and OAS support of an embargo on Cuba, which conflicted with Canadian policy at the time.
Popular opinion on joining the OAS was against Martin on the subject, with many newspapers voicing opposition on the grounds that it would further tie Canadian foreign policy to that of the U.S. When the U.S. deployed their military to invade the Dominican Republic in 1965, this cemented opposition to Canadian membership in the organization. Nationalist sentiment demanding geopolitical independence from the U.S. had hampered momentum for membership. At the end of Pearson’s government in 1968, Martin left without achieving his goal of Canadian membership in the OAS.
Though historically, Canada had opposed membership to the OAS, Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney pushed the country to officially join in 1990, coming just after the U.S. invasion of Panama. This move still faced notable public opposition at the time. In fall of 1989, The Ottawa Citizen published an article that named the OAS “a U.S.-dominated body Canadian governments have warily avoided for 41 years.”
A source in the piece also claimed that Canada’s role in achieving peace settlements in Central America prior to membership was regarded as “an irritating constraint on U.S. efforts” by the State Department.
Kingsbury said that Canada joined the OAS at this point in history as a part of a “larger overhaul of Canada’s self perception in the Americas, and a shift in Canadian foreign policy.”
Laura MacDonald, politics professor of political economy at Carleton University, said Canada joined the OAS as part of a wider commitment to neoliberal policies.
“Brian Mulroney decided to apply to join the OAS because of our growing ties with the hemisphere as a result of the Canada-US free trade agreement and the anticipated North American Free Trade Agreement,” Macdonald said. “Canada started to see itself as a country of the Americas and in a way it hadn’t before.”
Canadian membership since 1990
Once a member, Canada worked inside the OAS to promote its own foreign policy goals, including pursuing environment and “democratic” development in the early period. But efforts to work inside the organization stalled for years.
Macdonald said Canada worked to promote its role as a leader of democracy in the organization, but has since changed tact.
“We’ve signed a number of free trade agreements in the region, especially under the Harper government. But I would say that we never lived up to earlier claims that Canada would become a leading actor,” Macdonald said. “Partly because our neoliberal approach to the world has clashed with the rise of more left leaning governments in the region.”
Canadian involvement in the organization has been largely tepid since then, but criticisms of the OAS arose from NDP and Green Party members in 2020. After a coup deposed President Evo Morales in 2019, the organization flagged Bolivian elections for supposed fraud.
The appointment of Savage to the OAS as permanent representative signals the overlap of Canadian interests expressed in regional policy towards Haiti, and possibly points to new political ambitions.
Ambassador to Haiti
Canadian policy in Haiti has been definitively hawkish and imperialist. Internal documents reveal the Canadian government was directly involved in the 2004 coup which destabilized the country and caused reverberated crises in the following decades.
Savage’s tenure continued this dynamic in many ways. While he was ambassador, then-Prime Minister of Haiti Jovel Moïse was embroiled in corruption and resource scandals, which spurred anti-government protests. Around the beginning of Savage’s position, ongoing protests intensified as Moïse steadfastly refused accountability by the Haitian people.
The UN stated several people died during the unrest, later estimating 42 deaths, while the Haitian government refused to comment on casualties. One senator even opened fire during a protest outside a government building.
At the beginning of 2020, parliament disbanded, and Moïse began to rule purely by decree. This continued the state of crisis the country was in. But in a July 2020 interview, Savage refused to comment on the police brutality deployed against a June 28 demonstration against Moïse’s rule, choosing instead extolling the supposed virtues of democracy. The protests continued with a major surge in September and October of 2020.
Despite constant unrest in the country, Savage met with the Haitian head of police Leon Charles in January 2021 to discuss “strengthening the capacity of the police.”
Moïse appointed Charles as the Director-General of the National Police of Haiti In November 2020. Charles was the Haiti ambassador to OAS from November of 2017 until his 2020 appointment. He later returned to his OAS position in November of 2021 after resigning as national police chief. Charles has since used his position in the OAS to voice support for foreign interference in Haiti. Charles and Savage will likely work together in the future.
In February 2021, an alleged coup attempt aimed at removing Moïse was foiled, resulting in the unpopular Prime Minister ordering the arrest of 23 people, including a supreme court judge. The brutal police response to ongoing demonstrations routinely targeted journalists.
Moïse was assassinated in July of 2021 by a group of Colombian mercenaries; two Haitian-Americans were also charged with conspiracy to murder. The Core Group, a coalition of foreign powers that influences Haitian affairs, released a statement that Ariel Henry would be Moïse’s successor. The Core Group counts Canada and the OAS among its members
On July 28, Savage declared that Canada “deplores gang-related violence,” and announced further financial aid to the country amidst the deteriorating political crises.
After a new ambassador was announced for Haiti, Moïse’s successor Ariel Henry bid Stuart a fond farewell during a meeting on September 24. Henry thanked Stuart for his “invaluable work” during his tenure as ambassador.
Canada has since committed resources to bolstering Haiti’s police forces. Global Affairs Minister Melanie Joly committed $13 million to law enforcement and development in June.
Canadian interests in Latin America
Savage’s appointment to the OAS signals a possible change in approach to Canadian foreign policy in Central and South America.
Kingsbury is not optimistic about a positive shift in Canadian foreign policy to the region, citing the recent approaches to Venezuela and Haiti.
“There’s no politically advantageous reason for the Trudeau Government or for any government that should come after to stake out an independent and principled position,” Kingsbury said.
Kingsbury also said that, due to Canadian mining actions, their political reputation has been severely damaged in the area.
“I’m from the United States originally, and I’m old enough to remember that when traveling in Latin America or elsewhere, you know, as an English speaking white dude, you put a Canadian flag on your backpack, so people don’t yell at you for being a Yankee,” Kingsbury said. “That’s not the case anymore. Canada’s reputation is done.”
MacDonald disagrees, and said that Canada has a “good reputation” in Latin America, however few times they think about the country, but that the work of mining companies in the area has diminished opinion of the country.
“That has, I think, damaged Canada’s reputation in general, at least, especially in some of those countries where those mining companies are particularly active,” said MacDonald.
As for Canada’s role in the OAS in the future, MacDonald said Savage is “a credible diplomat,” but his appointment raises broader questions about Canada’s position in the hemisphere
“The left was out of power for a number of years in many countries, but now is coming back into power,” she said. “Canada doesn’t seem to have any kind of coherent position on that.”
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