
No. 34September 27, 2021
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Justice For Haitian Refugees!
Mistreatment of Haitian refugees in Del Rio, Texas.
Solidarité Québec-Haiti and Debout pour la dignité organized a protest in Montreal on Saturday, September 25 to vehemently denounce U.S. racism against Haitians, as well as the deportations that are in violation of international law. The MLPC joined the demonstration and calls on all Quebeckers and Canadians to join the denunciation and demand justice for Haitian refugees.
Solidarité Québec-Haiti and Debout pour la dignité point out:
“Over the past few days, we have witnessed horrific pictures of the inhumane treatment being meted out to refugees, mainly originating from Haiti, at the border between Mexico and Texas. The horror reached its peak when the Biden administration decided to deport thousands of these refugees to Haiti after having set border agents on horseback on their trail who, just like veritable slave driver patrolmen, terrorized, insulted and dispersed them.
“Never have such degrading tactics been deployed against migrants at the Texas border. Is it because this time the migrants are Blacks originating from Haiti? Everything seems to suggest that nothing has changed when it comes to the Trump and Biden administrations. White supremacy is at the base of U.S. policy and the entire world can see it affirming itself unabashedly against Haitian refugees, in total disregard of international conventions dealing with the rights of asylum seekers. The actions of the Biden administration are all the more condemnable taking into account the fact that these Haitian refugees fled from Haiti because of the chaos created through the interference of the U.S., Canada and other member countries of the Core Group in Haiti.”
Denounce racist U.S. deportations and treatment of Haitian and all refugees! Get Canada out of the so-called Core Group! Justice for Haitian Refugees! Reunify families now!
(Quotations translated from original French by Renewal Update. Photos:VOA Kreyol, M. Nelson, ajplus, redfishstream, missmaybell )
Montreal Action Condemns U.S. Administration
A militant protest was organized outside the U.S. Consulate in downtown Montreal on Saturday, September 25. The people gathered condemned the U.S. administration’s horrendous treatment of asylum seekers, mainly of Haitian origin, traversing the Rio Grande at the border between the U.S. and Mexico over the past week and their subsequent deportation to Haiti. The action was organized by Solidarity Québec-Haïti and Debout pour la dignité, with many of the participants carrying banners and placards expressing anger and outrage towards the U.S. administration.
Jennie-Laure Sully of Solidarité Québec-Haiti recounted how U.S. border agents on horseback chased back vulnerable refugees to prevent them from crossing the border. The U.S. “has no respect for international law,” she said, adding that the scene “was akin to slave patrollers hunting down and actually catching people with a lasso.” She also informed that “people were lied to and taken aboard a plane and deported to Haiti in an outrageous manner.” She said that what was taking place concerns all of humanity. “We are here to defend human rights, to demand justice for Haitian refugees,” she said.
“This is a white, supremacist system that functions through force,” Sully said. “The issue here is racism,” she said, adding that what was witnessed “is really an illustration of white supremacy in action, and we are here to say Stop! Stop Racism!“
Recalling that historically, the Haitian people have defended freedom for all of humanity, she remarked: “This is what the Haitian revolution was all about. We are all human beings, we are free, we are brothers, and we should be treated with dignity.”
She demanded “dignity, justice and redress” for Haiti, informing that as far back as 1773-74, Haitians were taken and used as cannon fodder to fight for U.S. independence. “These were child soldiers,” she said. “and the U.S. continues to this day to refuse to acknowledge this aspect of its history. It has always treated Haitians in an unconscionable manner.”
Solidarité Québec-Haïti continues to demand that Canada withdraw from the Core Group, which along with the U.S., France and other countries interferes in the politics of Haiti.
“Canada must denounce what is taking place in the U.S. with regard to the violation of human rights, international law, the rights of Haitian asylum seekers. It must also establish a family reunification policy. It must stop interfering and financing fraudulent elections in Haiti. Haiti belongs to Haitians and it’s up to Haitians to determine their future,” she concluded.
Wilner Cayo, President of Debout pour la dignité, informed that last July a Canadian cabinet minister clearly declared that Canada wanted Haiti to organize elections before the month of September. Canada would never accept such a dictate from other countries, Cayo said. It should show the same respect for Haiti.
“We say no to the Core Group, to this union of ambassadors – these people who believe that they can dictate to a country. We wrested our independence through struggle,” he said, adding that following its independence France had demanded that Haiti compensate slave owners for the loss of their “property” — “their” slaves — an amount equivalent to $25 billion today, and that this had deprived the country of the necessary funds to invest in education, health and the economy.
“You saw these cowboys chasing these people as if they were cattle,” Frantz André from Solidarité Québec-Haiti, said. “As if they were slaves fleeing from the cotton plantations, where they would then probably have been lynched. And this is what is taking place now in 2021,” he said.
“Why is it that a people who conquered the oppressor, the first people to become independent and eliminate racism, that they continue to be humiliated?” he asked. “It’s precisely because we carried out that act of humanity, of winning our independence, and as a result we assisted other countries in gaining their independence.”
U.S. President Joe Biden recently extended Temporary Protected Status for certain migrants in the U.S. Nonetheless, the world had witnessed “the image of these horses, of the separation of families, we see in the video women separated from their husbands, who are most probably in Haiti now,” Frantz said. Referring to videos which show the conditions people were being forced to live under at the border, “sleeping on the ground with their children,” of women giving birth in the grass and not having anything to eat or drink for at least four days, and of then being deported shows the reality of what the U.S. is doing.
“Under Haiti’s present conditions, this is inhuman, it’s unacceptable,” Frantz said. He blamed the situation in Haiti on the actions of the so-called Core Group which includes Canada. It “is in the process of ruining the country,” he said. “It’s genocide. And we are standing up to it, we will end up winning once again against this imperialism, against these people who are without any conscience.”
Christine Dandenault spoke on behalf of the Marxist-Leninist Party. “We are one with the people of Haiti and Haitians in Canada in the struggle for their sovereignty and right to determine their own affairs, without any foreign interference,” she said.
She also denounced the Canadian government for the dirty role it plays in continuously interfering in the affairs of Haiti. “The Canadian government participates in various bodies such as the Core Group, against the interests of the Haitian people, just as it does against the peoples and the sovereignty of other countries, including Venezuela,” she said, and expressed the outrage of Canadians and Quebeckers at what is taking place at the southern U.S. border.
(Quotations translated from original French by Renewal Update. Photos: Renewal Update)
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