Late on the night of May 9, 2004, several months after a coup against the elected government of Haiti in February 2004, American marines armed with grenades attacked the house of Annette “So Ann” Auguste. The soldiers killed Auguste’s dog and handcuffed all 11 people in the house, including children-all before arresting So Ann without a warrant, or even the presence of a Haitian police officer.
Annette Auguste, who will visit U of T this Friday, is a well-known community activist, political organizer, and folk singer whose support for the ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide earned her the enmity of the unelected post-coup government and its international backers: France, Canada, and the United States.
During her more than two years in jail without charge, So Ann was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International and became the focal point of an international movement demanding justice for Haiti’s political prisoners. Not one to be intimidated, So Ann spoke out from her overcrowded jail cell, calling for an end to the murderous repression being committed against the poor majority in Haiti by the unelected, UN-backed interim government. She also continued to organize, holding regular literacy classes in jail for her fellow prisoners, many of whom never had a chance to go to school and were being illegally detained as well. When she finally got to court this August, So Ann was quickly declared innocent because of the lack of evidence against her.
Canadian authorities bear a certain amount of responsibility for the more than two years So Ann spent in jail. Then-Prime Minister Paul Martin’s government participated in a campaign of destabilization against the elected government of Haiti, involving political and diplomatic isolation as well as an embargo on aid to the impoverished country. When Haiti’s imperfect-but democratic and legal-government was overthrown in a coup, the Canadian government stepped in with aid to help the new (unelected) government “reform” the police and judicial system, while turning a blind eye to the massacres the police were carrying out against unarmed demonstrators calling for the return of the elected government. In fact, the Canadian International Development Agency was actually paying Haitian Deputy Minister of Justice’s salary at the time of So Ann’s arrest. Through CIDA, Canada has also provided funding to aid in the prosecution of Yvone Neptune, the former prime minister of Haiti.
During his visit to Haiti in November 2004, at which time So Ann had already been in jail for six months, Paul Martin told the media that “there are no political prisoners in Haiti.”
Many will note that Haiti is a poor country that has long suffered under a weak and corrupt judicial system. But the case of Annette Auguste shows that while the Canadian-supervised Haitian police and judiciary are incompetent when it comes to dealing with common criminals, they have a great capability to crack down on their political enemies and those who criticize the role foreign governments play in Haiti’s ongoing crises.
Many of us are used to hearing only good things about how the Canadian government acts overseas. Considering the role our tax dollars played in imprisoning Annette Auguste, we owe it to her to hear what she has to say and reconsider our opinion of Canada’s foreign policy in her homeland.
So Ann speaks Friday, March 2, 7:00 p.m. in Room 1222 of the Earth Sciences Centre, at 5 Bancroft St. For more information email [email protected]
