WEBSITE: http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca

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HAITI WEEK OF ACTION - TORONTO

THIS NOVEMBER 18TH (HAITIAN LIBERATION DAY)

RALLY IN SOLIDARITY WITH HAITI

@ 1pm on the corner of Bay and Bloor

WEEK INCLUDES FILM SCREENINGS (November 15 and November 17)

BANNER MAKING AND INFO-SHARING SESSION (November 16)

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The Toronto Haiti Action Committee (THAC) is pleased to announce the

program for the local component of the Pan-Canadian Week of Action in

solidarity with Haiti (http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca/action.php).

The week is being organized to express solidarity with the Haitian

peoples' struggle for democracy, self-determination and sovereignty.

Our aim is to voice opposition to Canada's shamefull role in deposing 

the

elected government of Haiti in February 2004 and to denounce Ottawa's

support for the massive repression of popular movements that has come in

its wake (for details on Canada's role see: http://www.outofhaiti.ca).

The Week of Action in Toronto includes a rally on Haitian Liberation Day

(November 18th @ 1pm / corner of Bay and Bloor), film screenings at York

University and the University of Toronto, as well as a banner making

and information sharing session:

York University Film Screenings:

The Agronomist

http://www.theagronomist.com/

Haiti: The UNtold Story

http://www.teledyol.net/KP/HUS/HUS.html

Tuesday, 15 November, 2:30pm

Location: Graduate Student Association (GSA)

Room 325 (Student Center, Second Floor)

Sponsered by the Graduate Student Assocation (GSA), the Ontario Public

Research Group (OPIRG) and the Toronto Haiti Action Committee (THAC)

Banner Making and Information Sharing Session:

Come help THAC members make banners, meet others interested in working

on Haiti-solidarity issues and share information on Canada's role

Wednesday, 16 November, 6:30 - 9:30 pm

Location: Act for the Earth, downtown office

Address: 238 Queen Street West, lower level

University of Toronto Film Screening:

Haiti: The UNtold Story

http://www.teledyol.net/KP/HUS/HUS.html

Thursday, 17 November, 7-9pm

Woodsworth College, 321 Bloor St W. @ St. George - Room 35 in Basement

Sponsored by: the Black Students' Alliance (BSA), Amnesty International

(AI), the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG), and the 

Toronto

Haiti Action Committee (THAC)

For more details see the call out below:

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*** Toronto Week of Action to Condemn Sham Elections in Haiti ***

                 (November 12 - 19, 2005)

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STOP RIGGING ELECTIONS AGAINST HAITI'S POOR MAJORITY!

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS -- RESTORE HAITI'S SOVEREIGNTY NOW!

NOV. 14, 2005 - The Toronto Haiti Action Committee (THAC) invites all

supporters to join us in a Week of Action, coordinated with other 

Canadian

cities to show growing opposition to Canada's disastrous policies in

Haiti. The week began November 12th on Parliament Hill in Ottawa were

members of the Canada Haiti Action Committee (CHAN) from Ottawa, 

Montreal,

Guelph, Windsor, Hamilton and Toronto attended a 350-person strong

demonstration opposing Canada's violent role in Haiti.

Activities to mark the Week of Action in Toronto include film screenings

on Tuesday, November 15th, at York University and on Thursday, November

17th at the University of Toronto, as well as a banner making and

information sharing session on November 16th. The week culminates with a

Day of Action on Friday November 18th with a demonstration starting at

1:00 p.m near the intersection of Bay and Bloor.

Haiti solidarity activists are demanding that the Government of Canada:

* Withdraw the support of Elections Canada and all other bodies from any

elections held under current conditions of repression, which include

hundreds of political prisoners. police killings and terror, and the

exclusion of the poor from participation:

* Demand the immediate release of Amnesty International prisoner of

conscience Father Gerard Jean-Juste, former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune,

the folk singer Annette "So Ann" Auguste, and all other political

prisoners:

* Discontinue all RCMP training and logistical support for the human

rights abusing Haitian National Police, and withdraw all Canadian

logistical support for the UN "peacekeeping" mission turned repression

operation.

* Announce Canada's support for the position of the government's of the

Caribbean community countries (CARICOM) and the African Union, both of

which are demanding an investigation into the circumstances of President

Aristide's removal;

* Withdraw and withhold recognition of Haiti's coup government until

President Aristide is returned to oversee the holding of fair elections

without repression.

People and social justice groups in Toronto are invited to join us

throughout the week. All organizations interested in joining the Toronto

Week of Action please contact the Toronto Haiti Action Committee at

toronto-haitiaction@riseup.net.

For more information on Canada's role in Haiti and updates on the week 

of

action please contact us or visit the following websites:

http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca and http://www.outofhaiti.ca

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The Week of Action is sponsored by:

Canadian Peace Alliance

Canadian Labour Congress

Canada Haiti Action Committee (CHAN)

Toronto Haiti Action Committee (THAC)

Haiti Action Halifax

Hamilton Haiti Action Committee

Haiti Solidarity BC

Haiti Action Montréal

Ottawa Haiti Solidarity Committee

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FURTHER BACKGROUND TO THE WEEK OF ACTION AND CANADA'S ROLE

~~~ Canada's Role in Haiti's Human Rights Crisis ~~~

The deeply impoverished country of Haiti is in the midst of a major 

human

rights crisis, following the coup d'etat sponsored by Canada, the US and

France on February 29, 2004.

At the time of the coup, Canadians were told that Haiti's former

President, Jean-Betrand Aristide, had resigned from the elected 

government

he led. In fact, Aristide was coerced by US marines to leave the country.

He was forced onto a plane, not told where he was going, and flown to 

the

French controlled dictatorship of the Central African Republic. At the

request  of the US and France, the UN Security Council quickly 

sanctioned

the illegal coup and launched a "peacekeeping" mission that quickly

evolved into a military occupation force.

Canadians were also told that Canada would be working with the

"international community" which meant the US and France, Haiti's former

colonizer's to deliver aid to Haiti and help rebuild it. Instead, Canada

and the other two coup backers have overseen the establishment of an

unelected government that is facilitating a brutal military occupation

where thousands are killed and more than a thousand are political

prisoners, including potential presidential candidate Father Gerard Jean

Juste. There are shootings of unarmed demonstrators,  military assaults 

on

poor neighborhoods and journalists murdered and arrested for 

investigating

police abuses. The poor majority are disenfranchised in a sham

Canadian-backed election process. Meanwhile, the cost of living has

skyrocketed, and the majority are far worse off than they were before 

the

coup.

For the corporate elites in Canada, the US and Haiti, this disaster is

already paying dividends. Having failed to overcome President Aristide's

resistance to the privatization of Haiti's major state

enterprises(telephone, electricity, water, etc.), the economic plans 

being

laid for Haiti by the coup government and the World Bank are set to turn

the country into an even more easily exploited sweatshop zone, where

Canadian and American corporations can extract even greater profits

without fear of interference from a Haitian government interested in

protecting its population.  A few Canadian companies, such as Gildan

Activewear and SNC-Lavalin, gave already began to cash in on the new, 

more

business friendly environment established following the coup. Share 

prices

for these companies are flying while Haitians are dying.

The Toronto Haitian Action Committee is calling for an immediate end to

these abuses, and for the return of Haiti's constitutionally elected

government. We reject the deployment of Canada's own Chief Electoral

Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley to lead the "monitoring mission" appointed 

to

bless this sham election in the same way that sham occupation elections

were blessed by Kingsley in Iraq earlier this year. Jean-Pierre Kingsley

is in a clear conflict of interest, given his position on the Board of

Directors of IFES. a US funded NGO with direct links to the 

International

Republican Institute and other groups that worked to undermine Haiti's

democracy and foment the coup.