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Paul JayAnd this is in spite of the fact that Canada has a lot of economic interest in Haiti, it's not just this one manufacturer, it's other textile manufacturers, but also mining companies as well. Is that right?
JafrikayitiThere was the example of Eurasian minerals which had exploration contracts in northern Haiti. St. Genevieve. A number of Canadian mining companies. Now, this also has a connection to the 11 families because it so happens that it's the same folks who are also the connectors between the Canadian companies and what's happening on the ground in Haiti. So, for instance, one of the former ambassadors of Haiti to Canada, he was a former president of the Chamber of Commerce, and when he arrived, that's one of the questions I asked him.
How are you going to defend the interests of Haiti when you are in the mining sector? And we know the bad reputation that Canadian mining companies have in countries where you have dictatorships and they basically benefit from that climate so that they don't do any of the environmental protection assessments. Forget about remediation and all of this stuff. They just come and they plunder and leave and left the population with the disaster. In the case of Haiti, the population has been lucky so far that active exploitation has not taken place.
So they've done exploration. So, you know, they probably make money in speculation in the market, but the gold is still there, however, what they're trying to do is to change the Haitian law, because currently the law requires before exploration takes place or exploitation takes place for a company to have their proposal in front of the parliament to be discussed so that all of the aspects of the mining exploitation can be seen and make sure that all of the protections are there.
Now, what they're trying to do is to get this guy, this unelected, illegal guy who's extended his mandate to bypass all of that, create a new constitution that will completely remove this requirement. So all of the companies would need to do now is make sure that they bribe one minister and then they get access to the land and do whatever they want. So I think part of the story that's important also to tell is that Canadians have shown solidarity with Haiti and that is an important story.
And it's not only after the earthquake, because after the earthquake, we all saw it. The generosity was evident. People from coast to coast collected funds and sent money to the Red Cross and all kinds of organizations in order to help people in Haiti. That has also taken a different form. The Canada-Haiti Action Network that both Yves and I were involved with and now with Solidarite' Que'bec-Haà ¯ti, where we find people from different parts of the country who are curious enough to give Haiti more than the usual 15 seconds.
You know, you get the usual clips that talk about black dictator. You know, black people cannot rule themselves, and of course, they put nice language around it and put it on TV, but beyond that, you don't get coverage or analysis of what's happening in Haiti, but there are a few Canadians who have been curious enough to go and dig deeper, to understand what's really happening and to find that this is their story, because you know, a bunch of white men and women met at Meech Lake on January 31st, February 1st, 2003, and very seriously and calmly decide the future of the first black republic in the world.
I have spoken to a lot to people in Canadian government and others who absolutely are clueless about the importance of the date 2004, which was the bicentennial to us Haitians and black people around the world. This is nothing less than white supremacy. That a bunch of white people sit down in Ottawa and they decide that they have to remove the president of Haiti and put Haiti under tutelage. And Michel Martelly put it in his article.
They wanted to do it before January 1st, 2004, which is the bicentennial. Of course, in all of the media of the United States and Canada, there were all kinds of propaganda around 2004 at the end of 2003 telling people don't go to Haiti, that there was an active boycott of the country. I went there with my family. My son at the time was four years old, and I can tell you the pride that this young boy had to be in a population of black people celebrating black nationhood.
OK, you cannot replace that, and unfortunately, we live in a world where these white people who met at Meech Lake they are so self-sufficient. If someone comes and tell them that this is stupid, you can't do that. People are going to revolt against that. They're going to be offended by that. They didn't care, and as soon as the coup took place, it was evident the Congressional Black Caucus in the U.S., all of them stood against it. The Caribbean nations. The entire African Union issued statements to say that they stand against this coup.
Paul JayDidn't you get most of Latin America?
JafrikayitiMost of Latin America stood against it because people understood exactly if we allow them to do this in Haiti. Well, it will happen in all of our countries, and in fact, this is what we've seen. You know, what do you have in Bolivia? You have finally the native people there managed to get one of theirs elected as President Evo Morales. OK, all of a sudden, the lithium of Bolivia becomes something that is important in the international market and then they decide that they're not going to pay the price for it.
So they overthrew Evo Morales. So if we continue with this model, how can we seriously say that we left behind the colonial era and we are in a new era? I mean, this looks exactly like what was happening during the colonial times, right?
Paul JayIf I remember, in fact, you guys reminded me when I was executive producer of this debate show, Counter Spin on CBC, we did several shows about the coup, as well as how Canada's role played in organizing the support for the coup, even organizing the coup, and we would do that show on Counterspell, and the next night on the national news, there'd be like nothing.
The actual news coverage wouldn't deal with how active Canada was in organizing the coup and such hypocrisy, given Canada's supposed to be the great standard-bearer of international law, United Nations, and so on and so on, and of course, all of this was violated. I mean, it's not the first time and it won't be the last act of hypocrisy on Canada's part. But what do you make of what's going on now in terms of Canada and the media?
Is there any real coverage of how Moà ¯se is violating the Haitian constitution?
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