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Haitian leaders must all agree before Canada would lead a potential military intervention, Trudeau says

U.S. has suggested Canada could lead a multinational force in Haiti

Dylan Robertson · The Canadian Press · Posted: Nov 20, 2022 1:27 PM ET

A potential Canadian military intervention in Haiti can't happen unless all political parties in the troubled nation agree to it, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sunday.

Speaking from Tunisia on the final day of the two-day Francophonie summit, Trudeau announced $16.5 million to help stabilize Haiti, where gangs are strangling access to fuel and critical supplies amid a worsening cholera outbreak.

About half the money is going toward humanitarian aid, and some of the rest is intended to help weed out corruption and prosecute gender-based violence.

But Haiti's government has asked for an international military intervention to combat gangs who have strangled access to fuel and critical supplies in the middle of the outbreak.

The United States wants Canada to lead any military intervention.

Trudeau said Sunday that Canada is working with CARICOM, the organization of Caribbean governments, along with "various actors in Haiti from all different political parties" to get a consensus on how the international community can help.

"It is not enough for Haiti's government to ask for it," he said. "There needs to be a consensus across political parties in Haiti before we can move forward on more significant steps."

He did not rule out eventually establishing a Canadian military mission on the ground in Haiti.

"Canada is very open to playing an important role, but we must have a Haitian consensus," Trudeau said in French.

New sanctions on prominent former officials
A Global Affairs Canada assessment team sent to Haiti to establish some understanding of what is happening and what could help has already returned and provided a report at meetings Trudeau said he attended.

He said the response is complicated because many "political elites" and "oligarchs" in Haiti have used the country's humanitarian crises "to enrich themselves on the backs of the Haitian people."

"So that is why our approach now is not about doing what one political party or the government wants," Trudeau said. "It's calling for a level of consensus and coherence from all actors in Haiti to call for solutions that we can actually get behind and lead on as an international community."

On Saturday Canada expanded its economic sanctions freezing the Canadian assets of Haitian political elites to now include former president Michel Martelly and former prime ministers Laurent Lamothe and Jean-Henry Ceant.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly accused the trio of helping gangs undermine Haiti's current government and called on international partners to follow Canada's lead.

"Our goal is to make sure that these people that are profiting from the violence, that are part of a corrupted system, are facing accountability," she said.

Haitian Foreign Affairs Minister Jean Victor Geneus said the new sanctions put real consequences on those causing a "nightmare" in his country.

"These sanctions will have a dissuasive impact," he said in French, while seated between Trudeau and Joly.

Geneus said gangs are raping women and girls, preventing children from attending school and not letting sick people through roadblocks when they seek medical treatment. That means refugees are leaving for neighbouring islands.

"If the necessary conditions for safety are not re-established in a fast and urgent manner, a humanitarian catastrophe is possible in Haiti," he said in French.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-haiti-intervention-sanctions-1.6658254
 
Haiti is only pretty from the air. It and Mali have a lot in common when you are up close and personal so hopefully we stay away. I hate watching processions on the 401 and that to me would be the inevitable outcome.

You mean Conan O'Brien lied to me?
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Cest pool of corruption, greed, lack of education & poor attitude at the politician level means it’s a place where aid money goes to die…as proven by their current state.

Or where aid money doesn't go to at all, as proven by a certain foundation.
 
Nah, the Brits abolished all theirs and rolled them into a single regiment.

We can't get two units to plan training together...
 
The US wants nothing to do with Haiti based upon their previous invasions stabilization operations in Haiti, as well as their history of dealing non-white folks. They also keep floating the balloon that Canada should be lead the mission because we have people that can speak French. Though, Haitian Creole is not exactly French anymore. In theory, we do have a vested interest in that it's in our hemisphere, and Haitian migrants do end up crossing our borders illegally. A stable Haiti would be beneficial to us.

For those who suggest taking on the gangs - I'll give you examples from Jamaica (27 years married to a Jamaican and annual visits) where the Jamaican Defence Force gets involved frequently. The very poor folks, who are most likely to be gang members (or supporters), live in shanty towns, where walls are sometimes corrugated sheet metal or wooden planks. When the JDF would open fire with 7.62 or 5.56, the rounds that missed would pass through multiple shacks, and then the children hiding inside, etc. - That's how you get riots on the streets in a heartbeat. I've been in country many times this has happened. It's a no-win scenario.
I was in Jamaica working for seven months shortly after the Tivoli Gardens (Jamaica) operation. It was a massacre, 100+ civilian casualties (allegedly) and multiple members of the security forces wounded and killed.

Members of the Shower Posse entrenched themselves and the entire City of Kingston was locked down.

The JDF apparently had to deploy mortar teams, etc to rout out the heavily armed gangs.

The CAF literally has next to no experience in the type of fighting that happens in places like Jamaica and Haiti would make that look like an absolute picnic.
 
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I was in Country shortly after the Tivoli Gardens (Jamaica) operation. It was a massacre, 100+ civilian casualties (allegedly) and multiple members of the security forces wounded and killed.

Members of the Shower Posse entrenched themselves and the entire City of Kingston was locked down.

The JDF apparently had to deploy mortar teams, etc to rout out the heavily armed gangs.

The CAF literally has next to no experience in the type of fighting that happens in places like Jamaica and Haiti would make that look like an absolute picnic.
Mortars?! On a Peace Support Operation?!

Next thing you'll tell me is you want out folks out there with more than 5 mags and a white APC to show these wayward souls that convening diplomacy is the only way to resolve conflicts....

Seriously though, our current Liberal government that pines for a Second Golden Era of Pearsonian peacekeeping didn't learn anything from our folly into Mali and now wants us to do it again in a far more hostile AOR.

No thank you.
 
Mortars?! On a Peace Support Operation?!

Next thing you'll tell me is you want out folks out there with more than 5 mags and a white APC to show these wayward souls that convening diplomacy is the only way to resolve conflicts....

Seriously though, our current Liberal government that pines for a Second Golden Era of Pearsonian peacekeeping didn't learn anything from our folly into Mali and now wants us to do it again in a far more hostile AOR.

No thank you.
Well, to be fair, our last "blue helmets" mission in Mali wasn't exactly unarmed.
 
Mortars?! On a Peace Support Operation?!

Next thing you'll tell me is you want out folks out there with more than 5 mags and a white APC to show these wayward souls that convening diplomacy is the only way to resolve conflicts....

Seriously though, our current Liberal government that pines for a Second Golden Era of Pearsonian peacekeeping didn't learn anything from our folly into Mali and now wants us to do it again in a far more hostile AOR.

No thank you.


"PeAcEkEePiNg!!!"

Best part about if the CAF/Govt went in to a place like Haiti is they probably wouldn't even bother asking anyone with experience operating in that part of the World.

The current powers that be would just say, "We know best!" 🤣🤣

I can assure you the Haitian gangs are well armed. The Shower Posse in Jamaica had RPGs, AK47s, .50cals, etc. 😉
 
Not to sound too dark, but unless the street gangs have a supplier of RPG’s & a fairly well distributed network of pricks missing some fingers throughout the country, the fight at the tactical level is fairly achievable.

(Assuming the gangs aren’t using any respawn hacks…)

But agreed, the strategic fight is unwinnable in the country’s current form. Cest pool of corruption, greed, lack of education & poor attitude at the politician level means it’s a place where aid money goes to die…as proven by their current state.
The street gangs in Haiti are well equipped with all the latest and greatest tools to conduct the type of insurgency to make life very uncomfortable for an occupying army. Just ask the Brazilians:

 
Well, to be fair, our last "blue helmets" mission in Mali wasn't exactly unarmed.
Big difference doing what we were doing in Mali vs what we would be doing in Haiti. I've heard our ROE and National Caveats were pretty restrictive in Mali.

My understanding is the GoC went to great lengths to ensure we worked as little as possible with the French/G5 and focused almost exclusively on MINUSMA, to keep us out of those sticky combat situations.
 
IF I were asked to provide my thoughts :

1. Stay away from Haiti;
2. If you can't or won't then be prepared to deal with the possibility of Canadian troops (white for the most part) shooting "poor underpriveleged People of Colour" even if they are armed and shooting at our troops. Better have a few lawyers and some good PA types.

Its a shit show. Stay away.
 
Mortars?! On a Peace Support Operation?!

Next thing you'll tell me is you want out folks out there with more than 5 mags rounds and a white APC to show these wayward souls that convening diplomacy is the only way to resolve conflicts....

Seriously though, our current Liberal government that pines for a Second Golden Era of Pearsonian peacekeeping didn't learn anything from our folly into Mali and now wants us to do it again in a far more hostile AOR.

No thank you.
FTFY
 
Some Haitians aren't keen on more foreign intervention, so I assume that Trudeau's intervention criteria couldn't be met anyways:

To some Haitians, another foreign military force would be “greatest humiliation”

​The Haitian government’s request for international military forces to stop the country’s humanitarian crisis and restore security has raised the ire of many Haitians who insist Haitian institutions should take the lead. Calling the crises a ploy to draw in foreign forces in the first place, some also vowed to protest anew against such measures.

“We should chain the doors of all offices of public institutions until Prime Minister Ariel Henry leaves,” said Ebens Cadet, spokesperson of Nou Konsyan, an anti-corruption activist group in Port-au-Prince. “We should also gather in front of the different countries’ embassies in Haiti, including the United States, France and Canada, to make ourselves heard.”

“We do not accept the presence of foreign forces on our territory,” Cadet said.


 
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