Canada sharing Haiti sanctions evidence with other countries: UN ambassador

"We continue to share whatever information we can - with respect to the decisions that we have made - with other countries,'' Bob Rae said in an interview.

Ottawa is sharing confidential dossiers in a bid to convince countries like France to join its efforts to sanction Haiti’s elites, says Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations.

“We continue to share whatever information we can – with respect to the decisions that we have made – with other countries,” Bob Rae said in an interview.

“Canada still maintains the right to make its own decisions as well, which is what we’re doing.”

Rae visited Haiti last December as part of Canada’s efforts to try forming a political consensus on how western countries should best respond to the country’s cascading political and humanitarian crises.

Violent, feuding gangs have taken over the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince since last summer. A UN report last October said gangs are sexually assaulting women and children, in addition to curtailing access to health care, electricity and clean water.

The gangs have reportedly killed and kidnapped hundreds, while filling a power vacuum in a country led by politicians whose terms have expired. No elections have been held since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The country’s unelected prime minister, Ariel Henry, has requested a foreign military intervention, which Washington says Canada ought to lead, though the idea is divisive among Haitians.

Instead, Canada has sought a political consensus in Haiti, and has sanctioned 15 of the country’s political and economic elite, accusing them of emboldening the gangs.