[R-G] rabble gets roughed up at Liberal convention

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/rabble-staff/2009/05/rabble-gets-roughed-liberal-convention

rabble gets roughed up at Liberal convention
By Derrick O'Keefe
| May 4, 2009

Canada's participation, along with the United States and France, in  
organizing and supporting the 2004 coup against the democratically  
elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide is scarcely ever brought  
up in the mainstream media.

This has always struck me as irresponsible, given the extensive  
documentation of Canada's involvement in the coup's planning, and  
given its bloody aftermath. Utterly dismal conditions prevail to this  
day in Haiti, still under UN military occupation.

So when, over the weekend, I was at the Liberal convention where  
Michael Ignatieff was confirmed as the new leader, it seemed an  
opportune time to ask some former top Canadian officials about all  
this, given that it was the Liberals who were in power at the time.

First, I approached Bill Graham, the former Liberal foreign minister,  
and asked him if he had any regrets about Canada's role in  
overthrowing democracy in Haiti. He responded, "I'm proud of Canada's  
role." At the time of the coup, Graham had asserted that a  
"constitutional transition" was taking place in Haiti.

Recalling what Graham had told me in 2005 -- "[Colin] Powell called me  
and said Aristide requested a flight out [of Haiti]” -- I asked him if  
he now regretted dispatching Canadian troops on the word of a member  
of the Bush administration.

"Not at all," Graham said, adding that he trusted Powell against the  
word of Aristide himself, who, within hours of being spirited out of  
the country by U.S. Marines and flown to the Central African Republic,  
called friends in the U.S. to say he was the victim of a coup d'etat.

Following this exchange with Graham, I approached Paul Martin, who was  
Prime Minister when the coup took place. As I asked questions of  
Martin, I was aggressively bumped off by a man named Mario (according  
to the convention tag he was wearing).

I protested that I had the right to ask questions of Martin, and  
continued to attempt to do so. Again, Mario interseded aggresively,  
this time ripping my Flip video camera from my hand and smacking me in  
the face while he did so. Mario threw the camera to the ground,  
damaging the device (though I did manage to recover this image of  
Mario in action.)

After recovering the camera and its batteries, several colleagues and  
I followed Martin and his entourage into the Pan Pacific hotel,  
protesting this assault.

Since I was accredited media for the convention, I reported this  
incident to the Liberal Party's media desk. I spoke to Marc Roy, a  
Martin-era PMO spokesperson and party insider, who took my contact  
information and promised to get in touch with me promptly. Roy has not  
been in touch.