[R-G] What sort of Left is left in Québec?

[Anthony Fenton]

by Yves Engler

What sort of Left is left in Québec?

Over the past century, a line has divided the left around the world.  
On one side sit “progressive forces” willing to support imperialism  
and war, usually in return for a “seat at the table” or some other  
perk of power. The most discussed example of Left support for  
imperialism was at the beginning of the First World War when most  
parties of the Second International sided with their own ruling class  
and governments in the slaughter that followed. On the other side of  
the Left divide, are those individuals and organizations that take a  
principled position in favour of real democracy for all the world’s  
people and oppose imperialism and colonialism in all its forms,  
especially when it is their ruling class involved. Some might say the  
former is the “pretend Left” and the later the “authentic Left.”

So what sort of Left is there left in Québec? To help answer this  
question the case of Haiti is instructive.

Corporations based in this province such as SNC Lavalin, St. Genevieve  
Resources and Gildan Activewear reaped rewards from the overthrow of  
Haiti’s elected government on Feb. 29, 2004. Québec City provided the  
coup government with important political support. “Various Haitian  
ministers have visited Québec, particularly in the fall of 2004”  
reports the government’s website. During the coup government’s reign,  
Jean Charest made the first-ever official trip by a Québec premier to  
Haiti. (The government’s website boasts that Charest met the, US- 
installed Prime Minister Gerard Latortue four times). These visits  
helped advance a variety of educational and legal initiatives by this  
province to further subordinate Haitian political sovereignty. And  
since the coup, Québec police have been at the forefront in  
reestablishing foreign control over Haiti’s police force.

The politicians who shaped Ottawa’s decision to help overthrow Haiti’s  
elected President, Jean Bertrand Aristide, were all Québec-based  
Liberals (Pierre Pettigrew, Dennis Coderre and Denis Paradis). These  
federalist politicians acted with firm support from the Bloc  
Québecois. In a telling example, at a meeting of the Standing  
Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Bloc MP Pierre  
Paquette criticized the NDP for using the word “removal” to describe  
what happened on Feb. 29, 2004 to Aristide. Paquette insisted the  
NDP’s Alexa McDonough use the word “departure” instead.

As an advanced capitalist state, Québec support for Western  
imperialism in Haiti should not be surprising. Already, thirty years  
ago, the Parti Québecois stated that an independent Québec would  
continue its membership in NATO, NORAD and even the Commonwealth.  
What’s surprising is the extent to which the ‘left’ has been a  
participant in Québecois imperialism.

A recent report published by Alternatives, considered to be one of  
Québec’s most ‘left’-leaning non-governmental organizations, provides  
an eye into this province’s colonial attitude vis-a-vis Haiti. The  
most disturbing statement in the report titled “Haiti: Voices of the  
Actors” reads: “In a country like Haiti, in which democratic culture  
has never taken hold, the concept of the common good and the meaning  
of elections and representation are limited to the educated elites,  
and in particular to those who have received citizen education within  
the social movements.”

According to Alternatives, Haitians are too stupid to know what’s good  
for them, unless, that is, they’ve been educated by a foreign NGO. The  
report, which was financed by Ottawa, is full of other attacks against  
Haitians and the country’s popular movement. “Haiti: Voices of the  
Actors” is simply the latest example of (near unanimous) Québec ‘Left’  
support for western intervention in Haiti.

At the height of the destabilization campaign against the elected  
government in February 2004 the province’s largest union federation,  
the Fédération des travailleurs du Québec (FTQ), forcefully opposed  
the Haitian government. On February 12th, the FTQ sent out a partisan  
press release condemning the Aristide government. On February 16th and  
17th, Fernand Daoust, the former head of the FTQ, along with  
representatives of Québec’s next two biggest union federations,  
participated in an international union delegation critical of Haiti’s  
government. The delegation garnered significant media attention in  
Haiti and after returning from Haiti, Daoust was quoted throughout the  
Québec media denouncing the Aristide government. On March 1st, a day  
after the elected president was removed by US marines, the FTQ sent  
out a press release celebrating the release of detained union  
activists and calling on the international community to “help Haitians  
build democracy in their country.”

The FTQ’s condemnations of Haiti’s elected government took place while  
a CIA backed paramilitary invasion (led by well-known thugs such as  
Guy Philippe and Jodel Chamblain) terrorized the country. All the  
while, a well-orchestrated and internationally (principally the US,  
France and Canada) financed destabilization campaign against Haiti’s  
government was under way. It is clear that the FTQ’s criticism of  
Haiti’s government contributed to a successful destabilization  
campaign that helped justify Canada’s participation in the coup.

To the best of my knowledge, the FTQ has not commented on the  
transport union that was destroyed after the coup, the Confederation  
de Travailleurs Haitiens (CTH) offices attacked in September 2004, the  
death threats by the police against CTH leader, Lulu Cherie in  
December 2004 or the massive increase in human rights violations after  
the coup.

The FTQ, as well as the province’s third largest union federation, the  
CSQ, are members of the Concertation Pour Haïti (CPH) – along with  
Development and Peace, Amnesty Internationale (Québec chapter),  
Entraide Missionnaire and a half dozen other NGOs. The CPH is an  
informal group that branded Aristide a “tyrant,” his government a  
“dictatorship,” and a “regime of terror” and in mid-February 2004  
called for Aristide’s removal. The CPH’s antagonism towards Aristide’s  
Lavalas party wasn’t merely a by-product of the political upheaval of  
February 2004.

The CPH repeated the claim first made by Haiti’s ruling elite that  
Lavalas launched an “Operation Baghdad,” which included beheading  
police officers. Numerous observers have noted that “Operation  
Baghdad” was simply pro-coup propaganda designed to divert attention  
from the de facto government’s misdeeds, particularly the murder of at  
least five peaceful, pro-constitution demonstrators on September 30,  
2004.

In a January 27, 2006 letter to Allan Rock, Canada’s ambassador to the  
UN, the CPH and Montreal-based Rights & Democracy echoed the extreme  
right’s demand for increased repression in the country’s largest poor  
neighborhood and bastion of support for the ousted president, Cité  
Soleil. A couple of weeks after a business-sector “strike” demanding  
that UN troops aggressively attack “gangsters” in Cité Soleil, the CPH  
questioned the “true motives of the UN mission.” The letter also  
questioned whether UN forces were “protecting armed bandits more than  
restoring order and ending violence.”

Criticizing the UN for softness in Cité Soleil flies in the face of  
evidence of its brutality there, including a murderous attack on a  
hospital documented by English-speaking Canadian solidarity activists  
just prior to the CPH letter. Of course, the most stark example of UN  
repression in Cite Soleil was a raid on July 6, 2005 to kill a “gang”  
leader. That operation left at least 23 civilians dead. (Kevin Pina’s  
film Haiti: The UNtold Story documents the chilling brutality of UN  
forces.)

The Centre for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI, in French)  
is one prominent Québec NGO involved in Haiti that is no longer part  
of the CPH. A year ago, a CECI spokesperson told me they were  
uncomfortable with the political nature of the CPH. Yet prior to the  
coup, CECI’s honorary spokesperson, Haitian-Québec singer and high  
profile Québec nationalist, Luc Mervil, led a demonstration in  
Montreal demanding Aristide’s ouster. The group has also publicly  
endorsed the UN occupation. On January 31st 2007, their spokesperson  
told Le Devoir “the muscular interventions led by Minustah [UN forces]  
in the hot zones of the capital have cooled down the passion of the  
armed groups. We can now circulate more freely in the capital.”

Six days before these comments appeared, a UN raid on Cité Soleil left  
five dead and a dozen wounded, according to Agence France Presse. A  
month earlier, on December 22, a UN assault on Cité Soleil (marketed  
by its architects as an action against “armed gangs” allegedly  
responsible for a spate of kidnappings) left scores of civilians dead  
and wounded, including women and children. Agence France Presse  
indicated that at least 12 people were killed and “several dozen”  
wounded, a casualty total over 40. A Haitian human rights  
organization, AUMOD, reported 20 killed. The Agence Haitienne de  
Presse reported “very serious property damage” following the UN  
attack, and concerns that “a critical water shortage may now develop  
because water cisterns and pipes were punctured by the gunfire.”

Québec NGOs’ (and unions) public endorsement of western intervention  
in Haiti has gone a long way to dampen opposition to the coup. Just as  
important, the above-cited NGOs are integral to the US-Canadian  
strategy of supporting the middle-class opposition to the Lavalas  
movement. Too often, NGO projects inadvertently divided the popular  
movement by channeling Haitian political actors into piecemeal  
initiatives instead of building a mass movement. Foreign NGOs also  
directly undermined the Lavalas movement by funding only opposition  
groups. In June 2005, for instance, an Alternative’s representative,  
François L’Ecuyer, admitted that all 15 groups Alternatives works with  
in Haiti are anti-Lavalas.

The differences between the Québec and English Canadian Left on Haiti  
are stark. English Canadian unions, anti-war groups and radical media  
have generally been sympathetic to the notion that Canada participated  
in a brutal coup.  When progressive media such as The Dominion, New  
Socialist Magazine or Canadian Dimension published recent issues  
focusing on Canadian imperialism, they all ran at least one article  
detailing Canadian crimes in Haiti. Conversely, at the height of  
Canadian-backed repression in Haiti, ‘radical’ Québec publication À  
Babord! published an issue devoted to Canadian imperialism that failed  
to even mention Canada’s role in Haiti.

The story is similar amongst anti-war groups and unions. Canadian  
Peace Alliance affiliates generally denounced and organized against  
Canada’s role in Haiti. Yet, when members of Montreal’s Échec à la  
guerre, tried to pass a (mild) condemnation of Canada’s involvement in  
Haiti, they were blocked by two of their members, the Canadian  
Catholic Organization for Development and Peace and AQOCI (an umbrella  
group representing two dozen Québec NGOs).

In the months after the removal of Haiti’s elected government,  
progressive elements within the Canadian Labour Congress tried to pass  
a resolution critical of Canada’s role in overthrowing Aristide and  
supporting a murderous dictatorship. The FTQ, which claims  
responsibility for relations with “French” speaking countries at the  
CLC, worked to dilute opposition within the CLC. Likewise, the FTQ’s  
Le Monde Ouvriere advanced hard line anti-Aristide propaganda in  
October 2004.

Last month the FTQ issued a 59-page report on Haiti that simply  
ignores the coup and its aftermath. How can the future of Haiti be  
seriously discussed without mentioning the coup? Would the FTQ discuss  
the future of Iraq without considering the U.S. war?

The closest thing in the report to a mention of the 2004 coup is when  
Haiti’s most important union federation, the CTH, is criticized for  
its sympathy towards Lavalas.

Probably the most disturbing example of a ‘radical’ group siding with  
imperialism in Haiti is Québec Solidaire. Québec Solidaire’s  
spokesperson, Francoise David, traveled to Haiti in the midst of the  
coup government’s crimes and upon returning, she publicly (on Radio  
Canada and elsewhere) parroted the elite’s perspective, blaming  
supporters of the ousted government for violence in Haiti. On March  
9th, 2006, David spoke at a Concertation pour Haïti event along with  
Danielle Magloire, a member of the “Council of the Wise” that  
appointed the brutal coup prime minister Gérard Latortue. In mid-July  
2005, Magloire issued a statement on behalf of the seven-member  
“Council of the Wise” saying that any media that gives voice to  
“bandits” (code for Aristide supporters) should be shut down. She also  
asserted that Aristide’s Lavalas Family Party should be banned from  
upcoming elections.

The only example of Québec Solidaire publicly expressing its  
opposition towards the intervention in Haiti that I’ve come across was  
a single line by a candidate running in a heavily Haitian diaspora  
riding in Montreal. The party even remained quiet when in March 2006  
Québec Premier Jean Charest wined and dined bloodstained coup  
dictator, Gerard Latortue.

More than four years later, it should be abundantly clear that the  
coup dealt a terrible blow to Haiti. The coup ushered in a terrible  
wave of state-sponsored repression, a rise in kidnapping and other  
social disorders as well as a multifold increase in the price of basic  
food commodities. Also, Haiti’s poor majority have rejected Canadian  
policy time and again, most obviously by electing Rene Preval, an  
associate of Aristide, as President. In the face of almost uniformly  
hostile national and international press, tens of thousands continue  
to demonstrate demanding an end to the occupation and the return of  
Aristide. A month ago, between five thousand (Associated Press) and  
ten thousand (Haiti Liberte) took to the streets of Port-Au Prince on  
the four-year anniversary of the coup.

So, why in the face of significant evidence (documented in a number of  
books, movies etc.) does the Québec ‘Left’ continue to support a  
brutal class war by this province’s institutions against an already  
impoverished population?

Could it be the numerous Québec-based companies that do business in  
Haiti? Or the fact that the Aristide government promoted the Creole  
language at the expense of French?  Can it be explained by the role of  
Québec missionaries in Haiti?  Or have Québec NGOs simply been bought  
off by Canadian aid money?

Since the time of François (Papa Doc) Duvalier, Québec missionaries  
have played a significant role in Haiti. Many of the clergy that were  
pushed out of Québec during the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s made  
their way to Haiti to work under the brutal Duvalier dictatorship (who  
took control of the church). This relationship has continued over the  
years with Haiti home to more Canadian missionaries than any country  
in the western hemisphere.

Much to the dismay of the Catholic church, the Aristide government  
supported the voodoo religion, legalizing voodoo marriages, baptisms  
and funerals in May 2003.  Some of Québec’s most rabidly anti-Aristide  
NGOs, most notably Entraide Missionaire and the Catholic Organization  
for Development and Peace, have religious ties. (In March 2006, a  
Development and Peace Background paper explained: “The international  
media has shrouded the departure of Aristide on 29 February 2004 with  
conspiracy theories, going so far in some cases as to claim that the  
CIA deposed the president in a coup d’état…In fact, Aristide himself  
was largely responsible for the circumstances that led to his forced  
departure.”)

An encounter with a Québecoise nun running a convent where I stayed in  
Haiti’s second city, Cap Haitien, provides a window into Québec  
missionary thinking. She told me that Aristide was the country’s  
biggest drug runner. When pressed on the matter, she said she wasn’t  
there for politics, but to help people out.

The importance of Québec missionaries in Haiti should not be  
dismissed. The convent where I stayed in Cap Haitien was the largest  
institution in the neighbourhood. Moreover, Québec missionaries have  
long received official support. The initial disbursement of Canadian  
aid to Haiti went to missionary work and in 1964 Prime Minister Lester  
B. Pearson justified sending a Canadian naval vessel to Haiti by  
noting, “if Canadian nuns or priests should be wounded or killed, it  
would be difficult to explain why the Canadian government had not… 
taken some form of action.”

Of greater consequence in tying the Québec ‘left’ to imperialism in  
Haiti, are the large number of international NGO’s in this province.  
In the late 1960s, Ottawa drastically expanded its aid to francophone  
nations as a way to placate Québec nationalists. Prior to this,  
Canadian aid was focused on the recently decolonized former British  
colonies. Aid to the Francophonie was designed to convince Québec  
nationalists that the Canadian government was sympathetic to  
francophone culture. Québec’s large number of CIDA-funded  
international NGOs (and the jobs they provide) is a testament to the  
federal government’s policy of tying Québecers to its overall aid  
objectives. (Additionally, Québec City provides much more development  
assistance than any other provincial government, largely to project  
this province’s linguistic heritage.)

Dependence on government money helps explain many NGO’s position on  
Haiti. Most of the groups that supported Canadian intervention in  
Haiti, including the unions (through the Centre International de  
Solidarité Ouvrière), have long received money for work in Haiti from  
the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). And post-coup  
Haiti has been an absolute bonanza for Québec-based NGOs — they have  
received tens of millions of dollars from the Canadian (and Québec)  
government.

Canadian NGOs working in Haiti are largely from Québec. The reason is  
simple: a perceived common language. Canadian Development Assistance  
to Haiti explains Haiti’s importance to Québec: “As the only  
independent French-speaking country in Latin American and the  
Caribbean, Haiti is of special importance for the preservation of the  
French language and culture.”

But most Haitians don’t speak French, they speak Creole. French is the  
language of Haiti’s elite and language has served as a mechanism  
through which they maintain their privilege. A Québecois group in  
Haiti almost invariably reinforces the influence of French. Whether  
conscious or not, a French-focused foreigner in Haiti has taken (at  
least linguistically speaking) a side in the country’s brutal class  
war. The Aristide government had (successfully) weakened the influence  
of French, which no doubt contributed to many “progressive” Québecors’  
antagonism.

What motivates an individual to actively support imperialism is  
difficult to pinpoint. But vocal anti-Aristide critic, the FTQ’s  
Fernand Daoust provides some interesting hypotheses.

Daoust, who is one of Québec’s leading advocates for the French  
language, sits on the board of the Fondation Paul Gérin-Lajoie (named  
after the former head of CIDA). The Fondation Lajoie teaches Haitian  
primary-school children in French and is known to be antagonistic to  
Creole, the language spoken by all Haitians.

Was Daoust antagonistic to Aristide for promoting Creole? Maybe not,  
but his views of Haitian politics were likely shaped by people who were.

The former leader of the province’s largest union also has revealing  
ties to parts of “Québec Inc” that benefited from the interruption of  
democracy in Haiti. When Daoust went to Haiti in February 2004, he  
hadn’t worked for the union for a decade. Rather he was Special  
Advisor to the FTQ President regarding its investment arm, le Fond de  
Solidarite, which he’s helped turn into a $7 billion source of  
capital. Le Fond controlled 12% (once as high as 16%) of the world’s  
largest blank t-shirt maker, Montreal based Gildan Activewear, had one  
of three outside seats on the company’s board and was cited throughout  
Gildan’s internal financial reports. (Three months prior to the coup,  
le Fond announced it would sell its highly profitable shares in Gildan  
due to the company’s history of terrible labor practices in Honduras,  
yet as of Feb 2007 La Presse reported that le Fond still held a  
significant amount of Gildan stock).

At the time of the coup, Gildan had a factory in Port-Au Prince and  
planned to close its remaining North American operations to expand in  
both Haiti and the Dominican Republic (which they’ve done). Gildan was  
also the primary subcontractor for Alpha Industries, owned by Andy  
Apaid, head of the Group 184 domestic opposition to Aristide. Directly  
and indirectly, Gildan employed as many as 5,000 people in Haiti’s  
assembly sector. Presumably, both Gildan and Apaid were disgruntled  
with the Aristide government’s decision to increase the minimum wage  
from 36 gourdes to 70 gourdes in February 2003.

Did anyone Daoust knows at le Fond de Solidarite with connections to  
Gildan, criticize Aristide to him?

Daoust also has ties to the leading beneficiary of post-coup Canadian  
government reconstruction projects in Haiti, Montreal based SNC  
Lavalin. (SNC is probably Canada’s leading ‘disaster capitalist’  
corporation.) As a Fond representative, Daoust sits on the board of  
the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, along with SNC Lavalin’s  
vice president for the Americas and a number of other pro-coup NGOs.  
Similarly he sits on the board of the Université de Montreal with  
Bernard Lamarre, president of SNC-Lavalin. In 2004, le Fonds purchased  
Papeterie Gaspésia de Chandler for $350 million with SNC and another  
partner.

Did Daoust’s contact with SNC representatives contribute to his  
support for western intervention in Haiti?

In February 2004, Daoust confidently opposed Haiti’s elected  
government yet during a conversation in the Fall of 2007, Daoust  
confessed little knowledge of Haiti. He did not even want to talk  
about the subject without notes. Daoust admitted that after the coup  
he was surprised to encounter Haitian Montrealers who still supported  
Aristide.

To summarize, there seems to be four structural reasons that led the  
Québec Left to participate in brutal western intervention in Haiti:  
the French language, missionaries, Québec Inc and Canadian aid  
dollars. Tying them all together is nationalism. The Left is reaping  
the reward for decades of allying itself with nationalist elements of  
the Québec ruling class.

What sort of Left is left in Québec? The type that is willing to side  
with its bosses and the bosses of Haiti against the poor majority of  
Haitians. The sort of Left that participates in imperialism. Most of  
the Left in Québec even sides with Ottawa and Washington, against much  
of the English left.

For many decades the English-speaking left in Canada was impressed by  
the militancy and strength of Québec unions, political parties and  
grassroots organizations. If the example of Haiti is an indication,  
it’s about time they look elsewhere for inspiration.