A shipment of armored vehicles from Canada and the United States arrived in Haiti on Saturday as violence ensues in the country, but some experts are questioning Canada’s decision to intervene.
The coordinated expedition was planned as part of a joint operation with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the US Air Force. Global Affairs Canada issued a statement on Saturday evening confirming that the joint delivery of armored vehicles from the Canadian and American military has arrived in Haiti.
“Today, Canadian and American military aircraft arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to transfer vital security equipment purchased by the Haitian government, including tactical and armored vehicles, and supplies to the Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH),” said the statement reads.
The statement, released by Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and National Defense Minister Anita Anand, said the equipment is intended to help the Haitian National Police against insinuated violence by “criminal actors.”
There has been growing concern for the nation which saw its president assassinated last year, is experiencing an ongoing cholera outbreak and sexual violence against women, children and men by gangs. The Haitian government had also urged countries like Canada and the United States to provide security assistance.
The federal government says Canada will work with other international partners to help law enforcement in Haiti train more police. The statement did not indicate whether additional police tools such as firearms and bulletproof vests were included in the shipment. Canada’s Ambassador to Haiti, Sébastien Carrière, also said Twitter they will not release vehicle numbers or models to avoid exposing the information to gangs nationwide.
While Canada has pledged financial assistance in recent months for Haiti, experts and activists who have closely followed events in the country over the past two decades say Haiti must be left alone.
“We keep saying what we’ve been saying for a long time, let Haiti decide its own destiny,” Canada’s former ambassador to Haiti, Gilles Rivard, told CTV News in an interview.
Rivard, who served as ambassador between 2008 and 2010 and later in 2014, says Canada should not interfere in Haiti’s affairs until the country is able to reach an agreement between his company and the government to organize elections and solidify a government.
“Where do you start and where do you end? Until there is no roadmap to get this country back on track in terms of political structure”? he said. “There’s a lot to do, but this first part has to come from Haiti in my opinion.”
Haitian-Canadian activist Jean Saint-Vil says the Haitian people feel the same.
“Get out. Haitians told Canada, the United States and Europe to get out,” he told CTV News in an interview.
Saint-Vil says instead, reparations must be made to the country starting with the involvement of the United Nations in the cholera epidemic. In 2013, the UN disputed claims that their peacekeepers brought cholera to the country during recovery efforts after the 2010 earthquake. The UN did not say it triggered the outbreak, but she admitted her own involvement in 2016 after a report by a UN investigator leaked.
Since 2010, the cholera epidemic has killed nearly 10,000 people on the island according to the World Health Organization.
“The reason they’re supporting this thing right now is to pretend it’s a humanitarian intervention,” he said.
In a tweet Following the statement on the new shipment, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated Canada’s commitment to supporting law enforcement in Haiti.
“Our two countries remain committed to supporting the work of the Haitian National Police to protect and serve the people of Haiti. And together, we will continue to support the restoration of security in Haiti,” he said.