Canada parrots U.S. line on Haiti

[CHIMO]

The United States, aided and abetted by Canada, has just sponsored a coup in Haiti. That's what the supporters of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide say. "Coup" is also the word that Jamaica's government uses to describe the weekend events in Port-au-Prince.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1078139829776&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795

President Aristide:
As a Canadian, if you wish to live here again I would welcome you.

We are open to everyone. Just let it be known.

[Minstrel Boy]

1. Shameful, but a predictable response from Martin.

From Aristide's former home in exile, Montreal:

Another blow to democracy in homeland, local Haitians lament
'Le mal est Infini'. Aristide supporters blame world powers for failure to support elected president
The Montreal Gazette, March 1

"Aristide was kidnapped!" they screamed, draped in Haitian flags. "Election yes, coup no," said the placards they raised in defiance.

...

As Montrealers elsewhere began to discuss Haiti's post-Aristide future, those outside the U.S. consulate on St. Alexandre St. vowed to keep up the fight to bring Aristide back.

"France and the U.S. kidnapped him with a knife to his throat," said Rébert Ismaël. "But the resistance is organized in Haiti to show we will not accept this coup d'état, the 34th coup d'état in our country."

They denounced everyone, from George Bush (Sr. and Jr.,) to the local media for biased reporting. Prime Minister Paul Martin, "an accomplice to Bush assassin," and French President Jacques Chirac, who called for Aristide's resignation.

"We want to know why they took away our president," cried one angry woman, carrying a picture of Aristide, a former priest, now on his way to exile in an undetermined nation.

http://tinyurl.com/yvd4h

[CHIMO]

2. IDEAS

When people think there are unpredictable responses.