stage a coup d’état.” After ousting Aris-
tide, thousands of troops were deployed
in Haiti. The coup, as Diverlus observes,
“would lead to thousands of deaths of
Haitian civilians as collateral damage in
the name of Canadian peacekeeping.”
Although a number of countries par-
ticipated in the removal of Aristide, Hai-
tian officials pointed to Canada as one
of the key players in the ongoing occu-
pation. Haitian senator Moïse Jean-
Charles said in 2013, “The real forces
behind Haiti’s military occupation—the
powers that are putting everybody else
up to it—are the U.S., France and Can-
ada, which colluded in the February
29, 2004, coup d’état against President
Aristide. It was then that they began
trampling Haitian sovereignty.”
Diverlus and others argue that Cana-
da’s interventions in Haiti have created
an obligation to help resettle Haitians
here. After the 2004 coup, Canada did
put a moratorium on deportations to
Haiti—recognizing “a generalized risk
to the population as the consequence of
natural disasters, civil unrest or armed
conflict.” A pause on deportations may
seem like a benefit to Haitians trying
to remain in Canada, but people who
testified before a government commit-
tee said the decision instead created
instability and uncertainty for families.
According to the committee’s report,
“Having work permits of short dura-
tion (six months or one year) that must
be renewed at a cost of $255 was iden-
tified as ‘a hassle’ that at best was an
inconvenient loss of time and money
and, at worst, cost people their jobs.
Because it takes Immigration, Refu-
gees and Citizenship Canada three to
four months to process a work-permit
renewal request... people are oftencaught in a cycle of applying for and
renewing work permits.”
On top of the constant fear of depor-
tation, families also struggled to access
education and health care because of
an endless need to renew benefits and
permits. The government could have
alleviated so many of these hardships
by simply making the Haitian immi-
grants permanent residents instead
of long-term visitors under perpetual
threat of deportation.
Canada reinstated deportations to
Haiti in December 2014, when Haiti
was in the middle of a cholera outbreak
caused by UN peacekeepers. In AugustIN 2017, CANADA SENT BLACK OFFICIALS TO
THE U.S. TO DISCOURAGE BLACK MIGRANTS
FROM CLAIMING ASYLUM AT OUR BORDER.
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