[Bloquez l'empire!] EMERGENCY DEMO, TODAY 6PM @ UQAM: Pettigrew's in town, Shut him down!

[Jaggi Singh]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 13:03:39 -0500 (EST)
From: Nik Barry-Shaw <nikbarryshaw at yahoo.ca>

EMERGENCY DEMO:
6pm Today (November 10)
UQAM Amphitheatre (SH-2800)
Sherbrooke Pavilion
200 Sherbrooke West (corner Jeanne Mance)
Metro Place-des-Arts

Meeting at 4pm
CFS office
1500 de Maisonneuve (4th floor)
Metro Guy Concordia

Since Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew is in town to deliver a speech 
on “Canada’s International Policy Statement and UN Reform”, Haiti Action 
Montreal invites you to join the Haitian community in "rolling out the welcome 
mat" for Canada's best-dressed imperialist.  As one of the top officials 
responsible for Canada's intervention in Haiti, Pettigrew has frequently denied 
any and all allegations of human rights abuses by the RCMP-trained Haitian 
police (largely composed of the brutal former military).  Be there to let it be 
known that we are not fooled by his spin on Haiti and that we oppose Canada's 
neocolonial "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine, a modern-day version of the 
White Man's Burden.

***
"Police-UN Killings in Haiti" by Aaron Mate
full article at: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=8909

One of the few reporters to raise these killings with a high-ranking leader of 
the countries (U.S., France, Canada) that supported the overthrow of the 
Aristide government and the installment of the interim one has been independent 
journalist Dru Oja Jay (www.dru.ca). This is his exchange with Canadian Foreign 
Minister Pierre Pettigrew at a Montreal press conference, June 17, 2005:


Pettigrew: Well you’re talking about allegations that we do not accept. We have 
here the very chief of MINUSTAH, we have here the minister from the 
transitional government, and you can pretend all kinds of things but what I can 
tell you is that I’m very proud, very proud of the Canadian police contribution 
in the MINUSTAH led by Mr. Valdez. I think the Haitian police is doing its very 
best in extremely difficult circumstances. and obviously, obviously, Canada 
would never condone any activity by which a force would not respect the rule of 
law. Of anyone.



Oja Jay: So just to follow up, do you deny the reports in the international 
press –



Pettigrew: Well if you are referring to the study –



Oja Jay: In the Associated Press, in Reuters – do you deny those reports, where 
journalists have had eye-witness accounts that they have witnessed Haitian 
police killing unarmed protesters. I just want to clarify


Pettigrew: If they did, I have not heard of that. If you are talking about the 
Miami University study* that is pretending all kinds of things that might have 
been taking by some of the members of the press, I absolutely think that it is 
propaganda which is absolutely not interesting. What interests me is the future 
of Haiti, it is the future of Haitians, and the progress of the rule of law.

* University of Miami School of Law Centre for Human Rights, “Haiti Human 
Rights Investigation: November 11-21, 2004”, 
http://www.law.miami.edu/news/368.html.

Pettigrew's past exploits: 
http://www.geocities.com/ericsquire/articles/ftaa/pett030207.htm

Haiti Action Montreal