Starvation killing Haitian kids

Most Canadians are completely oblivious about Canada's role in this unfolding disaster.

It is not Air Canada's responsibility, it is our military and federal government's job. They created the mess, they must try to fix it.

Fidel, I agree with you that we shouldn't be involved in Haiti, but I think you're letting Canadian capitalists off the hook a little too easy by portraying them as lackeys for American capitalists.  Canada was a major player in the coup against Aristide, and Canadian capitalists such as Gildan run quite a few sweatshops.  Canada is not a victim, we are an imperialist power in our own right, albeit not as large or powerful as the US (who is these days?) but a decent sized imperialist power nonetheless.

Canada and Empire

I think that Canadian corporations have come into their own as far as acting like global buccaneers. Sure they are the second string team but it means they just try harder and that means that people from Haiti to Nigeria etc. etc will be murdered by a kinder gentler Canadian imperialist.  But it seems to me if you are on the receiving end of the capitalist stick one would really not care that big brother is even nastier than the new kid trying to break into the big time.

The last thing that Haiti needs is more foreign intervention unless maybe a Cuban peace keeping force to protect the ghettos and help heal the people's wounds and show them a better path. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ From North of Manifest Destiny

genstrike wrote:

Not just sections of corporate America, but sections of other developed countries, and, most relevant to this article, the Global South.  These days, every major capitalist country has capitalists which invest in other capitalist countries and vice versa.

With the distinction that no other rich country allows a third much foreign ownership in its manufacturing sector. And which G20 country allows this much US ownership and control of its energy sector with corporate America dictating Canada's national energy policy?

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Canada is more than just a lapdog.  We have a fully developed capitalist class, and our capitalists are just as guilty and just as imperialist as American capitalists,

Canada was sometimes referred to as the "icebox" by America's far right Pentagon capitalists, a veritable treasure trove of natural resource wealth guarded by a weak and corrupt plutocracy. Canada is almost a rightwing Libertarian dream for devolved power, a series of weak provinces and territories whose leaders are there to be bribed and cheated of their resources and massive energy reserves and raw materials made easier since CUSFTA and NAFTA, and soon, TILMA, and whatever McGuilty and Charest are cooking up in closed door meetings.

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and the same goes for our government.  Maybe we aren't quite as powerful, but we are a middle imperialist power in our own right.

Canada's economy is said to resemble that of developing world economies with hewer and drawer status once again as of 2005. It actually operates on an old world colonial model whereby a rich imperial master nation bleeds Canada of its massive energy stores and raw materials, and ships finished products back to us. Canada is the USSA's largest export customer for a long time. "Never let them make so much as a hair pin" -- Ben Disraeli on dealing with Britain's colonies. 

Canada in Haiti
Who Engineered the Overthrow of Democracy?

Canada and the "department of colonies"

Paul Martin was yet another Canadian stooge, a shameless toady to the vicious empire

Paul Martin was both a corporate stooge and an asshole-deluxe like Mulroney and Pearson and Diefenbaker and St Laurent etc ad nauseum

And you seem to have skimmed over several pertinent parapraphs:

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In September 2000, Madeleine Albright convened the first "friends of Haiti" meeting. The purpose of the meeting, according to CNN, was to "pressure Haiti to strengthen democratic procedures in advance of presidential and legislative elections in November." That is, the elections that everyone knew Aristide was going to win in a huge landslide.

By this point, the OAS had updated its view of the elections: from minor irregularites, where 10 out of 7000 overall positions were disputed due to tabulation discrepancies, to "serious irregularities and deficiencies."

On this basis, and without providing any further evidence, the Clinton administration had "already vowed to impose economic sanctions on Haiti if it [did] not change its ways," as one CNN report put it. It was at this point also that Luis Lauredo, U.S. ambassador to the OAS, announced that the U.S. government would begin the economic strangulation of Haiti by sending "nearly all bilateral assistance... through private and nongovernmental organizations, thus bypassing the Haitian government." Clinton blocked Haiti from receiving international loans and aid, a policy that continued with the Bush Administration. In four years, over $300 million in aid and loans was blocked; the Haitian government's annual budget is just over $400 million.

The reasons given for Clinton's drastic actions against Haiti cannot be taken seriously. While a series of dictators were in power in Haiti in the 1980s, and the murder of dissidents was a regular occurrence, no such sanctions were imposed

The U.S.-Haiti Connection: Rich Companies, Poor Workers

Another U.S. sponsored coup d'etat

Latortue is a US installed puppet

Papa doc Duvalier and tontons macoutes-FRAP, one of the world's most notorious secret police/death squads

Canada's stooges follow instructions from Warshington but dont give them. Haiti is part of "the backyard" Our latest stooge in Ottawa was instructed to sign a trade deal with a US-backed Colombian death squad government recently. Kow-towing to Uncle Sam is what corporate  hirelings in Ottawa do well. Canada is a ship without a rudder, a weak colony that does as its told. Trust and obey is the old line party way.

Colombia is one of several US frontline states in the war on democracy. It's not our imperial troops and military hardware in that country. And it's not CSIS but CIA in Colombia, and sniffing around Venezuela's richest oil state today. Harper was following orders from Warshington to make friendly with their stooge in Bogota. Uribe's death squads and paramilitaries weren't trained in the black art of murder and torture in Canada - that was the notorious US based Skool of the Americas. 

I think you dont appreciate my references to both wings of the Canadian business party as "the stoogeocracy."  Latin America is Uncle Sam's backyard. Has been for a long time. The number of Canadian companies doing business in Latin America is tiny compared to the blood, sweat, and tears extracted by corporate America for over a hundred years. When it comes to Canada's Liberal and Conservative politicians and corporate America, I'm afraid it's a stooge-off. Introducing 36(and missing a few) of Uncle Sam's most loyal, and corrupt, and brutal colonial administrators over the years I cant see our stooges being so ambitious as to even strike out in the world with a colony of its own. Canada's mini-me oligarchs simply ride the coattails of their vicious masters, aye-aye.

There are complicit lackeys in dozens of thirdworld US friendly countries and who profited handsomely by US empire. Think back to Roman times and how they bribed leaders of the barbarian hordes into accepting Roman occupation and rule. Our bribed hirelings in Ottawa and captains of industry are fully complicit with US imperialism, sure they are. Our stooges in Ottawa are not full fledged imperialists though. Canada is to US empire in the kind of way that Egypt was to Rome, except Canada supplies a lot more than just grain to feed the troops and general population. Canada supplies massive amounts of oil and total energy and raw materials to the most wasteful and most oil-dependent economy in the world, and without any consideration for future energy demand here in the northern colony. Our stooges pretty much betrayed any plans for creating a strong and sovereign nation with the free trade betrayals. Canada is a vast preserve of natural resource wealth for corporate America to raid at will. America doesnt want to trade freely with Canada - they want to dominate Canada and own our valuable resources. And our stooges sometimes volunteer our colonial troops to aggressive US combat missions, and in addition to helping Uncle Sam put down slave revolts in "the backyard." 

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[b]Country in ruin[/b]

Conditions at every level have worsened in Haiti since 2004. Poverty and hunger are rising. Agricultural production is weak and suffered further blows following a succession of four hurricanes this past summer.

Malnutrition is widespread and starvation appeared in some pockets of the country after the storms. Unemployment is estimated at 80 per cent.

Half of Haiti's children do not attend school. Half of its 9 million people have no access to medical care. The medical situation would be a whole lot worse but for networks of clinics operated by the Cuban government, Zanmi Lasante (founded by Dr. Paul Farmer and his Partners in Health project) and Doctors Without Borders.

The Haitian people are running out of patience. Demands and protests are growing for the mission to end.

Another measure of this popular anger was the visit to Washington by President Réné Préval in early February. He met with the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the first foreign leader to do so. He called on her government and international financial institutions to assist Haiti with $100 million in immediate aid.

"Political stability has been restored," he said, "but what is necessary is the creation of jobs."

[b]Préval also said he wants an end to the U.S. policy of channelling all its aid money to Haiti through non-governmental organisations (NGOs).[/b] It should instead go directly to the sovereign government, which Preval says can do a better job in most cases.

This is an explosive issue in Haiti, not only because so much NGO money is wasted on foreign salaries and bureaucracies but also because [b]NGOs have been used by the big powers as a weapon against Haitian sovereignty.

Most of the largest international NGOs operating in Haiti supported the overthrow of Aristide in 2004, or they acquiesced through silence.[/b]

Human rights agencies such as [b]Amnesty International and the Washington-based Human Rights Watch were largely silent during the foreign-appointed regime of human rights violations[/b] that ruled Haiti from 2004 to 2006 and was responsible for thousands of Aristide supporters being jailed, exiled or killed.

[b]Political confrontations growing[/b]

In early February, the Provisional Electoral Council that oversees elections in the country announced that it had rejected all 17 candidates registering on behalf of Fanmi Lavalas for a senatorial election scheduled for April 19. The party was founded by Aristide and colleagues in 1996....

Fanmi Lavalas was barred from the 2006 election by virtue of the widespread political repression under the 2004 to 2006 regime....

Aristide lives in exile in South Africa. Speculation swirls in Haiti and among the 2 million Haitians living abroad as to whether and when he could return to the country.

His personal security would be vulnerable. The foreign powers would do their all to block a return, because it would unleash a torrent of popular welcome that would put a lie to their claims that he was an unpopular leader whose "removal" in 2004 was welcomed by the majority.

A return by Aristide would set up expectations among the masses that would be difficult to meet, given the hostility of the foreign powers and the fact that they have their hands all over the purse strings of the Haitian government and state.