|
|
 |
Video Interviews
Note: The opinions presented are not necessarily those of the Government of Canada.
(Video players are available here: QuickTime | Windows Media)
Transcript:
Curriculum Vitae
My name is Jean-Louis Roy. I am the President of Rights & Democracy; prior to that I served as an elected Secretary General of La Francophonie for 10 years. I worked to prepare for the Summit of Heads of State and Government and put their decisions into action in various areas: democracy, human rights, cultural cooperation. To give you an example, I remember when we were talking about an idea for a new project that took up only one sheet of paper. That idea became TV5 [French-language cable and satellite channel]. We now have TV5 all over the world-the signal is captured in more than 140 countries.
There was also cooperation in various technical areas, such as energy and environmental issues. It was a huge program of cooperation among the 52 countries that are members of La Francophonie.
Before that I was publisher of Le Devoir for six years. This period, between 1980 and 1986, was extraordinarily busy and also very interesting. The political situation in the country and in Quebec was changing during that time. There was the referendum in Quebec and the answer from the Trudeau government.
Prior to that I was associated with McGill University for 11 years. I was a student there, and when I finished my PhD they asked me to stay and teach, to replace a professor who was sick for a year. He never came back-and so I stayed for 11 years.
I have done many other kinds of activities, like writing-I don't know how many-25 books maybe. I have contributed to all sorts of conferences. I have also been extremely active in civil society organizations, such as la Ligue des droits de l'Homme. When Pierre Trudeau and Jacques Hébert and others, such as Michael Oliver, made their big jump to Ottawa, the Ligue was there to take. There was a bunch of young activists at the time and we took over la Ligue des droits. I was in charge for five years. We were able to convince Mr. Bourassa to create the Quebec Human Rights Commission. It's a very strong Commission with a clear mandate. We were critics at the time, but I know that this Commission was well planned and its mandate is huge.
So I've been here at Rights & Democracy for three years. One of the countries in which we work is Haiti.
Overview of Conflict
The situation was becoming so difficult, so dangerous, for average people in Haiti - the women, the men and the kids, the older people. In this country where democracy is a theoretical reference, instead of a practical political system, curiously violence has never been extremely used. There was violent action and there was absolute disregard for human rights but ordinary people were not fighting against themselves.
They decided that for a period of two years there will be an interim government -- a 'gouvernement provisoire', as they say in French and we are at the end of the two years on February the 7th.
The International Community Responds
During those two years, the international community went to Haiti with a lot of resources. I was surprised to see how strong the international presence is. You have the United Nations with almost 8000 people there; you have the OAS (Organization of American States) with a strong, strong very educated women and men in Haiti; you have the European Union that is also there. And if you look at the entirety of the international presence I think that we can say that there are about 20 countries that are now trying to help Haiti to walk out of this very difficult period.
There are new things that are happening in Haiti. For the first time the most significant Latin American countries like Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Venezuela are extremely active in Haiti. The UN forces are headed by a Brazilian and the civil part of it is headed by a Chilean man. When you ask them "why, for the first time, are you with Canada and others as part of the international teams and regional teams that are working in Haiti?" the answer is extraordinarily interesting. They are there for Haiti of course, but also for Cuba. They want have a precedent. When things happen in Cuba -- whether it be 2 days or 2-3 years or in 200 years, who knows -- because Cuba is very important for them, and symbolic, they will have a precedent. "We are in Haiti for Haiti" but also the answer was very clear when I asked them how come they were so involved -- they are really involved. The answer was, 'We cannot accept that in this Hemisphere, a country like Haiti exists. We want to change this situation but we also want to exist in the Caribbean region.
Security and Elections
What we have all been trying to do for 2 years in Haiti -- very little was done in terms of national policy and this 'gouvernement provisoire' has been largely honest, I think -- is be able to change some of the laws. Not only to protect women's rights but this government, not the people that are in charge of it, but the administration -- the political apparatus in Haiti -- it's a virtual thing. There is a Minister of Education, of Social Affairs, of Health but there is no money, no resources, and no action on the entire territory. Ninety percent of the schools are private. So it is a kind of virtual government. The real thing that was done in the last two years is that they tried to reorganize two things.
(The first,) to create the new conditions for security. Even if the situation is not completely normalized, there was some improvement. I was surprised by the consensus; I was there for ten days and spoke with a lot of people. And no one was in disagreement with the fact that the security situation -- which has been extraordinarily bad for a long time -- was improving. It is notably due to the United Nations security forces that are there and a decision by the Security Council that authorizes them to use more force than they were able to use at the beginning of their stay in Haiti.
The second thing was to try to reorganize, to build a system and to have elections at some point. We are just in that period of time. The election has been postponed four times. It seems completely unreal. But there was no electoral list. There was nothing. There was no administration for electoral purposes. They had to create the Conseil Électoral Provisoire. It didn't work very well so they had to adjust the council given that for the first 18 months the council was fighting -- there was no consensus between the members. They were appointed by political parties. It was quite difficult. The relationship between this Conseil Électoral Provisoire and the international presence was very difficult. But we're not in Switzerland, we're not in Denmark, we're in a very, very impoverished country and society.
During that period of time, for the first time, they were able to build a list of electorates. It's more that just a list of electorates; it's a citizen proof card. It is like our Social Insurance Card in Canada. Every Haitian, of all ages and all groups, will have proof that he is living there. He will use this card to access services, if there are services.
When I was there, I went to the OEA (Organisation des États Américains), the organization that is putting the list together. I was really impressed. It is very difficult. There is no precedent. You have to go to very distant place - there are no roads, so they were traveling by helicopter. You must triple check everything to make sure that the list is ok. It isn't completed but I would say that 75% of the citizens have been included on the list. This list will be permanent. Les Haitians will have a proof that they are part of that nation and community.
During that difficult period of time, they were also able to develop a huge network in all parts of the territory of the places where people will go to vote. It seems so easy -- but talk to Election Canada, and you will find out how complicated it is to have those places and also to have security -- there is also this dimension -- security for the people, security also for the result. They were able to organize all this and to form people to perform at election time.
They were also able to define criteria for candidacy. They recently published the list of candidates the list of candidates that will at some point in the next weeks try to have the trust of the Haitian people.
When we talk about it, it seems easy. We can summarize it in a three minute talk. But this is a huge and difficult task. I think that the results are serious. The results are good. And Canada has played quite a role in that.
Canada and Haiti
I was extremely impressed by what Canada is doing in Haiti. If there is a trust between the Haitian people and foreigners it is between them and us. They have a lot of criticism concerning everyone. Concerning Canada they found that we're more prepared to listen to them. We are more prepared to take into account their difficult history and situation. They find that we want things to move, that we are not prepared to wait for another century. They have been impressed by the fact that the Prime Minister went there and the foreign affairs minister went there two times. The minister responsible for CIDA went there, the President of CIDA, Mr. Greenhill went to Haiti. Mr. Codere, the representative for the Prime Minister for Haiti went there ten times. Plus the involvement of Elections Canada.
Elections Canada is in a very interesting situation. Elections Canada is chair of a group of seven countries that will monitor the election, and they have been there for every step of building the electoral apparatus. They have been very low key, very respectful, but at the same time efficient. Elections Canada clearly has things moving.
The Haitian people are also impressed by the fact that the Canadian's activities in Haiti is not just limited to government, departments in the government, institutions, the electoral process, but also civil society. Canada through CIDA has a local team of really great Canadians and Haitians, some that have worked as part of the team for many years. They know Haitian groups, and all those groups told me, "you know people are asking us for proof of what we're doing, why...". Canadians came and said, "we want to know what are your goals, we are prepared to support you", and they did that.
You know in a country where there is no resource at all, where people have really nothing, to have a foreign country come in, working with the political system, trying to help build this electoral apparatus, but also going to the citizens and trying to talk with them. I was also impressed by the comment made by many people in the media who said, "we have access to Canadians when they are here or Canadian's who are living here, the ambassador, the staff etc.".
They also value a lot what we're doing in the domain of security, we're not doing a lot of press conferences of what we're doing in terms of security in Haiti. We send regular cops from Montréal, from Quebec, from other cities in Canada. Just walk into a police station in Port-au-Prince or elsewhere and try to understand what is the situation, how can it be improved. We're there to help create the conditions for security, this was highly appreciated also.
But there was also a question that was asked of our country, how long will you do that? Are you here like in 1993, 1994 for 18 months or two years doing quite a job and then saying goodbye we have other things to do in other parts of the world. The request for us to be with them for a longer period of time and convince other countries that what we're and other countries are trying to in Haiti will take time, will cost a lot. But maybe will take less money then we will have to spend if we left Haiti and were forced to return in 2014 or 2012, I don't know.
Future Prospects
This dimension of our foreign policy in Haiti, cooperation with women's groups, with groups of lawyers and youth groups, I would say its the Canadian mark, that's the part of Canada's presence in Haiti that is highly appreciated and they need that, absolutely, otherwise you're talking about maybe 500 people that are vice-ministers etc. and playing political games, and not knowing exactly will be the result.
Haitians will change their country, regular people. And I was really impressed, like I have been in Africa, by those who have a chance to go to live elsewhere, in the United States, in Canada and in Europe, and have decided to stay in very difficult conditions, hoping they will be able to contribute to building a decent society. I met a lot of them, we know many people have quit Haiti and are all over the place, but there are people that are still in Haiti, a lot of them, very responsible people working hard to change the situation and that's encouraging, but it's them that will change the situation. We can help, we have to help, it's a scandalous situation that we have in our hemisphere that we have a country that is so badly disorganized in all ways possible. And if you look at the figures, the Dominican Republic is on the same island as Haiti, people have an annual income six times that of the average Haitian. I've seen a lot of things, I was in India in 1962, 63, in Kolkata, but what I saw in Haiti, I think there is no equivalent in the world today. This level of poverty, this level of physical poverty, this level of social poverty, and I would say this level of psychological poverty; they are completely disorganized.
They have been under dictatorship for seventy-five years in the last century, and then there has been many crazy situations in the last twenty-five years. It's not just the physical situation and social situation. I would say it's also the psychological situation that is completely upside down. They don't know anymore what are the good things to do, what are the references, and they're searching and finding answers to their questions. It means that our presence will also have to take into account, not only political system, or health care, education etc., we'll have to help them restore social research, cultural research. They are in bad need of rediscovering themselves.
The Haitians also need to walk out of their difficult history. we have to help them understand that all this is a terrible heritage, but the future is the most important thing. When you're in Haiti, it's like seeing the sky every morning, 60% of Haitians are under 16 years of age. The future of those millions, it's six million that are less than 18 years old. No jobs, no school, no investment, nothing, for them, and I understand it's a difficult situation but let's hope that this government elected this January or March, will be a decent one and and they will try to, not solve what happened to them in the past, that will always be with them, but they have to add to the building of the future for all of them. |
Curriculum Vitae