Trudeau seeks Caribbean allies for a Haitian rescue

As Caribbean nations gather in the Bahamas for their annual summit, they're all too aware that one of their members is sliding into anarchy.

Bahamian Prime Minister Philip "Brave" Davis certainly knows it. Three weeks ago, he had to order an emergency evacuation of all of his country's diplomats in Haiti after rioting Haitian police officers took their vehicle and robbed their security detail of their weapons.

The diplomats were able to get out only because Haiti's neighbour, the Dominican Republic, came to their aid with a helicopter.

Davis's country has also seen a surge in illegal Haitian migrants arriving by boat, as have other Caribbean islands.

Since the beginning of 2022, the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) government has deported a number of Haitians equivalent to 5 per cent of its own population, at a cost of almost $12 million. Nearly 900 Haitians have landed on the island since Christmas.

"We are a small country and this increasing activity, if left unchecked, undoubtedly will continue to pressure our system and our resources," TCI Immigration Minister Arlington Musgrove complained at a news conference last Friday, citing "an upsurge in violent crime."

Although United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk has appealed to countries in the region to halt deportations to Haiti "given the extremely dire situation of the country," Musgrove said the Turks and Caicos intends to pursue not only migrants but also those locals who illegally employ them.

"And that won't stop until the Turks and Caicos Islands are really rid of it," he said.

Fears of an exodus

The fear that social and economic collapse in Haiti will drive new waves of refugees to other countries is shared by both Washington and Ottawa. That's one reason why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is attending the Caribbean summit this week.

Canadians first became aware of a backdoor to their country at Roxham Road in Hemmingford, Quebec, because of an influx of about 5,000 Haitians in August 2017. Last year, 39,000 people of various nationalities crossed there. So Canada has its own reasons for trying to stabilize Haiti.

But Haiti is also a hot potato tossed to Trudeau by the Biden administration, which has suggested to Canada and to other countries that Canada should take the lead there.

Whether it wants the job or not, the Trudeau government seems to have been saddled with it. 

As Bahamian Foreign Minister Frederick Mitchell told local media, "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is coming down" because "Canada has been asked to take the lead."

Jamaica, Bahamas first to step up

Both Jamaica and the Bahamas have said they are willing to contribute by sending members of their own security forces. Both have sent troops on previous missions to the island. Jamaica has done so on three occasions.

Other Caribbean countries that have forces that could assist in such a mission include Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

But the Caribbean countries have no illusions about being able to restore security to Haiti — a country with a population bigger than that of the other fourteen members of CARICOM combined.

"None of our Caribbean countries could achieve that either individually or collectively," Bahamian Prime Minister Davis said Tuesday.

The presence of troops or police from other Caribbean islands, however, might help to make the mission more palatable to those Haitians who have bad memories of past interventions, and fear that Haiti's sovereignty will be further eroded by allowing outsiders in.

'Negative history'

"If you use the word 'intervention,'" said Canada's ambassador to Haiti Sebastien Carriere, "then everybody is against it because that carries a lot of negative history, and rightly so.

"But (when you speak) in terms of accompanying the Haitian National Police and reestablishing security by backing up the HNP [Haitian National Police], I think you have pretty broad support in the political class as well as in the population."

Carriere points to an opinion poll published last week in the Nouvelliste, Haiti's newspaper of record. It showed about 70 per cent of Haitians polled are in favour of Haiti seeking help from other nations.

Carriere concedes that polls under current Haitian conditions are surely suspect but said he believes that "if you went to the lawless areas controlled by the gangs and you polled those people, I'm pretty sure you could score 100 per cent."

Canada has so far deployed just one police officer, one member of the Canadian Forces and one civilian from Global Affairs' Peace and Security Program to Haiti. They have been assessing the needs of the Haitian National Police and exploring ways in which Canada might help.

Time is not on their side. Police casualties are mounting and rank-and-file officers are losing patience. 

Police furious at losses

The massacre and dismemberment of six police officers by the Gran Grif gang was the trigger for a new round of protests by police in the last week of January.

Infuriated and frustrated by videos of gang members desecrating their comrades' unrecovered bodies, a group of officers broke the gate at the residence of acting PM Ariel Henry. Shots were fired.

After learning that Henry was not at home but was en route from a summit in Buenos Aires, another group of officers surrounded the airport and prevented the PM from leaving for several hours.

Roadblocks were set up around the capital by a group of current and former police officers calling themselves Fantome 509 — a name uncomfortably reminiscent of Haitian criminal gangs like 400 Mawozo or G-9.

"There's still a very strong core of Haitian National Police," said Carriere. "I'm impressed with their courage and I admire them very much for the way they still go to work every day and try to make their country safe.

"But it's been a rough couple of months. They've had some losses, more than usual I would say in the last month. Brutal killings."

Not enough police and no soldiers

Local media have reported a rash of defections from a force that is already too small.

The Dominican Republic next door, with the same population as Haiti, has about four times as many police officers. It also has an army, a navy and an air force. Jean-Bertrand Aristide abolished Haiti's armed forces in 1994.

Canada has made efforts in the past to build up and professionalize the police force by funding a Haitian National Police Academy.

But Carriere said the force's leadership has suffered along with the rank and file.

"The police academy director was killed during a kidnapping attempt late last year, which was a tragedy," he said. "This man was the guy who trains everybody else. This man was widely respected, admired. He was a very good man. He was a friend of mine. And those things really, really hurt the morale of the HNP."

'Completely ... surrounded'

The protesting officers were demanding, among other things, two helicopters to help them in their battle with the gangs.

Haitian police leaders "have asked for helicopters more than once, actually, and even in public," said Carriere. 

Canada is also considering sending drones. "They've made that request repeatedly, not just to us," the ambassador said.

Canada already has sent an RCAF CP-140 Aurora surveillance aircraft to overfly the city for several days this month, and more Canadian military personnel may yet find themselves in the Haitian skies.

"It's a publicly known fact that the HNP does not have air capacity, and that having air capacity would greatly increase their efficiency," said Carriere.

And the situation in the country is still deteriorating, he added.

"I would look at the overall trend since the assassination of President Moise (in July 2021) and I think you'd have to be blind to not realize that it's gotten worse," he said.

"The south, Martisssant, is completely blocked from the rest of the country. The west is also, and since just before Christmas the north is also blocked. So basically, the capital is completely quote-unquote surrounded.

"Reports come out regularly of the daily horrors that Haitians have to live through in the gang controlled areas — repetitive mass rapes, the killings of all sorts, police officers getting killed and burned and having their body parts cut off.

"So I think it's easy to say it's getting worse. I don't see how you could say it's getting better."