OTTAWA, Canada – The head of an interdepartmental task force on Haiti at Global Affairs Canada says the North American country is likely to deploy Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers to Haiti to act as trainers in a multinational military intervention headed by Kenya.
“The RCMP are looking at being focused on technical training,” said Lisa Vandehei, adding that “Canada’s training mission, the planning for it is still underway”.
Testifying before the Senate foreign-affairs committee on Thursday, Vandehel said Canada is still assessing its contribution to the mission, adding that Kenya is prepared to launch a deployment within 90 days of its parliament ratifying the mission.
She said the RCMP will likely train officers of the Haitian National Police on “very surgical, technical areas” through a model that would have each Canadian-trained officer go on to teach other Haitian peers.
“The RCMP are the best in the world in several areas of policing that the HNP need, in certain elements.”
Earlier this week, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution authorizing a Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to Haiti.
The resolution, adopted under UN Charter’s Chapter VII on Monday, which sets out the Security Council’s responsibilities to maintain international peace and security, was penned by the United States and Ecuador.
The UN said the international mission has been approved for an initial period of a year with a review after nine months. Several of Haiti’s Caribbean neighbors including Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, the Bahamas and Belize, have also pledged their support to the mission.
On Tuesday, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, who is also the chairman of the 15 member regional integration movement, CARICOM, said while the United Nations Security Council had passed the resolution “Haiti needs more than that..
“Haiti is going to need a comprehensive set of measures to help it stabilize the situation, bring law and order back into Haiti, but also going forward an economic plan that is well financed by the international community,” Skerrit said, adding that “Haiti is going to need a complete overhaul and a Marshall plan to help it get out of the situation once and for all”.
Haitian Prime Minister Dr. Ariel Henry, who heads the interim government, following the July 7, 2021 assassination of President Jovennel Moise, has in the past called on the international community to send in a multi-national force to his homeland, a position that had also been supported by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the United States and the wider CARICOM grouping.
Henry said the security crisis is exacerbated by the deterioration of the security situation which has impacted institutions hindering socio-economic growth and progress.
“It has now reached a critical point,” he said, noting that on a daily basis Haitians face violent attacks by armed gangs that control various areas in the capital and provisional towns.
Global Affairs Canada said in a statement that Ottawa is also “focused on preventing sexual and gender-based violence” in Haiti, noting gangs have been using sexual violence as a means of controlling the population.
Vandehei in her testimony before the committee, acknowledged that In past military interventions in Haiti, locals have reported widespread sexual exploitation by both fellow citizens and foreign armies.
“We are very much attuned to that, and especially when it comes to sexual and gender-based violence taking place already in Haiti,” she said, adding “we’re looking at working with the Kenyans and the U.S. on … how to bring our own lessons learned to the table from our (historical) work in Haiti as well.”
Vandehei said Canada’s aim with the multinational mission is to ensure police have the training and equipment they need to maintain order in Haiti after foreign forces leave, and that the society has the institutions needed for a viable democracy.
“We’re going into this issue with open eyes, and it’s why we’re creating a multi-faceted solution,” she said, adding “after decades of watching Haiti, she said, “I have a lot of hope here.”
Vandehei said that gangs have become so ingrained in Haiti that they often serve as the effective government and justice system in some areas, despite inflicting “unspeakable violence” on locals.
“We have to be incredibly nuanced in how we’re approaching this complexity<’ she said.
