In 2004, Canada and the rest of the world's great defenders of democracy stood silent when Jean Bertrand Aristide, the duly-elected president of Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, was over-thrown in a bloodless coup d'Etat. As a candidate, vying for a third comeback term as the country's chief executive, the former priest Aristide committed the cardinal crime: He promised to represent and serve the people, and this betrayal of corporate and elite interests could not be allowed to pass.
On February 28th, in the dead of night, American and Canadian commandos stole into the presidential palace and made off with the only hope of salvation for Haiti's miserably impoverished majority. Aristide was bundled off to house arrest in the Central African Republic and replaced with a more pliable, puppet regime. In a publicity stunt meant to blunt criticism of the blatant regime change, an internationally recognized crime against the peace, the perpetrators loosed NGO's, national aid entities, and United Nations "peacekeepers" to ensure justice for the captive population. That promise has not been met. Last week, reports of unchecked starvation in Haiti embarrassed the basket-case nation's minders.
Kevin Pina is an American journalist and film maker who has live in and reported from Haiti. His documentary film titles include: 'El Salvador: In the Name of Democracy,' Berkely in the Sixties,' Amazonia: Voices from the Rainforest,' 'Haiti: The UNtold Story,' and his latest, 'HAITI: We Must Kill the Bandits.' Kevin Pina in the first segment.
And; Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of the good going-ons in and around the south island in the coming week,and she'll report the latest in her continuing feature: State of the Shelter Emergency in Victoria and beyond. And I'll have a few comments about the state of Canada as the year winds down. But first up, Kevin Pina and Haitian promises of justice wearing thin.
