Haiti Betrayed
Elaine Briere, Vancouver, B.C.
Volume 37 Issue 10, 11 & 12 | Posted: January 3, 2023
As Canadians, we often take pride in our international reputation as peacekeepers and defenders of democracy.
But there is a dark side to our foreign policy — a policy that has thwarted the Haitian people’s struggles for freedom and self-determination over the last two decades.
In 1986, Haitians joined their voices together in a cry for a new kind of society. Emerging from years of brutal dictatorship, they dreamed of a democracy that would serve the poor, listen to their voices and bring an end to impunity. And between 1991 and 2004, Haitians managed, against all odds, to elect a succession of governments committed to realizing this dream. The pro-democracy movement’s efforts, however, were ultimately derailed by powerful local elites and their allies in the international community.
Haiti Betrayed reveals how Canada, once seen by Haitians as a constructive partner, conspired with the United States and France to topple the democratically-elected government. Seven years in the making, Elaine Brière’s film meticulously reconstructs Canada’s role in the events that culminated in the United Nations-sanctioned coup d’état on February 29, 2004 and the bloody aftermath that followed. Haiti Betrayed is a searing indictment of Canadian leaders’ complicity in the international oppression of this long-suffering nation.
With the country in the throes of a new popular uprising against corruption and authoritarianism, Brière’s film shows that the roots of the current crisis can be found in the coup d’état backed by Canada fifteen years ago.
2019 – 1h30min – Canada
English, French
English Subs
Elaine Briere, Vancouver, B.C.