| | | Good morning, Passengers.
Today, we have a couple articles looking at Canada’s exploitative and destructive relationship with Haiti, as well as notice of an upcoming event that may be of interest to some of you.
Enjoy! | | | Owen Schalk | Canadian Dimension | October 17 | In recent weeks, protests have been taking place across Haiti against the prime minister and IMF demands, among other things. In response, a collection of Western countries have been manoeuvring to deploy military forces to the country, as they’ve done time and time again for hundreds of years. Just a few days ago, Canadian warplanes joined this effort, landing in the country. With that in mind, here are a couple articles looking at the exploitative relationship Canada has had with Haiti in recent decades. The first is from Canadian Dimension, and was published a couple days ago.
Owen Schalk writes, “In response to the most recent social upsurge against unelected president Ariel Henry, Canada has sent additional military aid to the state, while Canadian media has condemned all participating in the uprising as ‘armed gangs,’ thus regurgitating Ottawa’s framing of the issue (as always). Haiti doesn’t need any more intervention from Canada, the US, or other members of the neocolonial ‘Core Group.’ In every instance, these powers have done nothing but strip away the most basic social services in the country while empowering the repressive state forces that target social resistance to poverty and underdevelopment. What Haiti needs is respect for its sovereignty and the demands of its people—something it has never received from Ottawa and its allies.” (6 minute read) | | | Bianca Mugyenyi | Passage | September 2020 | To follow up on that piece, here’s one from our archives looking at the role anti-Blackness plays in Canada’s foreign policy, with a focus on Haiti. It will help provide some valuable context to understand Canada’s role in the country. This article also came to mind in recent days after Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland made some pretty racist remarks about aid to Africa.
Bianca Mugyenyi writes, “Torontonians recently celebrated Simcoe Day, which commemorates John Graves Simcoe, who is lauded for adopting legislation that began the process of ending racial slavery in Canada. However, later on in life, Simcoe led the British invasion of Saint Domingue (now Haiti) to crush the slave revolt. In fact, as governor of parts of Saint Domingue in 1796, he re-instated slavery. As part of our reckoning with anti-Blackness in Canada, we must see ourselves as part of a much larger world. Anti-Blackness extends well beyond our borders and it’s critical that we question what is happening in our name in the world’s poorest places. If Canadians are serious about tackling these issues, we should stop promoting a development model that requires poverty to be maintained abroad in order for business to thrive at home.”
Also, this sort of attitude has definitely extended to how the media talks about Haiti. Check out this article I published in March 2021 to get an idea of the disgusting ways editorial boards discussed the country in the past. (4 minute read) | | | CUTV | Eventbrite | October 20 | Hilary Agro is an academic, activist and researcher whose work centres on drug use and drug prohibition. She also wrote one of the articles we published on the day Passage launched, way back in February 2020, titled, “Legalizing All Drugs Is The Right Prescription For Canada” (which you should read). Tomorrow, Hilary is going to be co-hosting an event with the Concordia University Television Station and Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy about how drug use is misrepresented in the media, and I think it will be worth watching.
Here’s the event description: “Join us for a discussion about drug use representation in the media with Hilary Agro! Hilary is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia in Anthropology whose research covers drug use policy, activism, and the harms of drug prohibition. She is also a self professed rave mom and has a long history of involvement within rave communities and with community organizing around drugs. In this talk we will be covering the misinformation and disinformation spread by mainstream, corporate media in regards to drugs and analyzing the various moral panics that have been instigated through fear mongering tactics used by the media. We will also be touching on the role that the media has played within the drug war, the influence of colonialism, white supremacy, and the police, as well as the role that independent, grassroots media can play in reshaping these narratives and dispelling the drug myths that we see today. Please join by using this zoom link: https://concordiaca.zoom.us/j/88900473312pwd=UWpkZ2g1aldjWWhlNDIyUmNnS05wUT09.” (2 minute read) | | | | Previous Digest Editions - October 18 | Loblaw’s PR stunt, the Nord Stream explosion, The Grind - Read here
- October 17 | Recession, Vancouver municipal elections, the oil industry’s Frankenstein, myths about privatized health care - Read here
- October 14 | The new premier, the horrors of capitalism, The Prince Of Darkness - Read here
- October 13 | Canada’s hockey obsession, the end of Greyhound, suppression of speech on Palestine in Canada - Read here
- October 12 | The wage-price spiral, an NDP mess, mapping Islamophobia - Read here
- October 11 | Danielle Smith, engineering recessions, lessons from revolutionary women - Read here
- October 7 | Doug Ford and the debt, recruiting for the Israeli army, His House - Read here
- October 6 | Ignoring murder, Mahsa Amini and Muslim women, the Quebec election - Read here
- October 5 | MPs and the housing crisis, Legault’s unearned majority, cancelled for criticizing Israel - Read here
- October 4 | Losing money to the ultra rich, nuclear war, the CAQ - Read here
| | |
|
|
|
