The Canadian government is reducing its diplomatic footprint in Haiti to “essential employees,” at the embassy in Port-au-Prince, but so far has no plans to begin evacuating citizens as unrest continues to grip the Caribbean nation.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly announced the move Thursday, saying the paring down of staff will allow Canada to “maintain our presence in Haiti to support Canadians during this volatile situation, given limited availability of supplies.”
As of Thursday, the Canadian Embassy in Port-au-Prince remains temporarily closed to the public “due to the unpredictable security situation.”
The remaining consular team in the country will continue to provide assistance to Canadians, remotely, alongside those that are now “temporarily abroad,” Joly said.
Non-essential employees have been relocated to the Dominican Republic, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) officials confirmed Thursday during a briefing in Ottawa. This follows other countries that have already moved staff out of Haiti in recent days.
The operational move of Canadian staff took place Thursday morning, using chartered helicopters.
Citing operational security, officials would not confirm the number of evacuated staff, or those who remain. The government also would not speak to whether Canada has increased its security posture at the embassy.
“In terms of ensuring the security of the team remaining in Port-au-Prince, the drawdown is also part of that rationale in terms of being able to focus our security, our assets, our life support, to support that core team that remains in place,” GAC director general of security and emergency management Sebastien Beaulieu said.
Joly said Canada remains committed to supporting the Haitian people in the long-term, but the immediate priority is the safety and security of Canadians.
“This intervention will help ensure it,” she said.
This pivot comes after Canada’s Ambassador to Haiti André François Giroux told CTV News Channel’s Power Play on Monday that embassy staff was “very safe” and had no plan to evacuate, but was “ready for every eventuality.”
Advice to Canadians
Given the instability and surge in gang violence and attacks on infrastructure, GAC updated its Haiti travel advice on March 10, advising Canadians to “shelter in place” or limit their movements if they are unable to, as well as stock up on essential food, water and medications.
There are currently close to 3,000 Canadians in Haiti registered with the Registration of Canadians Abroad service, and the federal emergency response centre had replied to less than 100 enquiries since March 3.
Officials said Thursday that the government is currently in direct text and email contact with Canadians in Haiti about the curfew and other emergency response measures, but so far, there are no plans to offer assisted departures or repatriation flights.
Canada is “planning prudently, but we’re not there yet,” when it comes to evacuations, Beaulieu said.
GAC has said the government is continuing to “monitor and assess the security situation very closely,” vowing to work in coordination with allies on contingences, as the situation evolves.
Haitians need to lead solution: PM
Canada issued a statement yesterday welcoming the news of a political agreement among Haitian stakeholders to move ahead with appointing a transitional presidential council and government, amid the extensive political and humanitarian turmoil that has been proliferating since mid-2021.
Ambassador Giroux is one of the diplomatic staff that will remain in Haiti, to “continue to engage Haitian stakeholders and international partners toward the implementation of the political agreement,” GAC said in a statement following Joly’s social media post.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the current security situation a “catastrophe” and “extraordinarily challenging,” while describing the role Canada is playing in diplomatic talks with CARICOM nations.
“It is obvious that with the ongoing challenge, as much as the international community will continue to have a role to play, if we want a sustainable solution, that has to be led by Haitians themselves,” Trudeau told reporters during a scrum in Windsor, Ont.
Earlier this week, in the wake of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s resignation, community leaders gathered at Montreal’s Maison d’Haiti to ask the Canadian government to step up its efforts to deal with the crisis shaking their homeland.
Trudeau said Thursday that he spoke with members of the Haitian community last night.
“It is not easy… We are extremely active on this file and will continue to be,” Trudeau said.
With files from CTV News’ Genevieve Beauchemin
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This will allow us to maintain our presence in Haiti to support Canadians during this volatile situation, given limited availability of supplies.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
