Toronto Haiti Action Committee (THAC)

On the Fourth Anniversary of the coup d’etat that overthrew Haiti’s democratically elected government, the Toronto Haiti Action Committee joins in the worldwide day of mobilization and solidarity with the Haitian people.

FOUR YEARS AFTER THE KIDNAPPING OF A POPULARLY ELECTED PRESIDENT…
FOUR YEARS AFTER THE DISMANTLING OF AN ELECTED GOVERNMENT…
FOUR YEARS INTO A BRUTAL UNITED NATIONS MILITARY OCCUPATION…
FOUR YEARS INTO A DESTRUCTIVE PROJECT IN NATION BUILDING…

Toronto - Members of the Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN) as well as groups in the Haitian community in Montreal are planning a seven-city day of information, action and protest this Friday to mark the four-year anniversary of the imposition of a United Nations regime in Haiti.

On my last trip to Haiti, the guest house where I stayed had some copies of Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path for the Poor in the Age of Globalization by Jean-Bertrand Aristide. I took some notes of some of my favourite passages when I read it:

The Toronto Haiti Action Committee and Community Development @ CESAR would like to extend an invitation to your organization to participate in the upcoming Haiti-Canada student solidarity conference taking place in Toronto from February 20th, 2008 to February 22nd, 2008.

Our next organizing meeting will take place at OISE (252 Bloor Street West) in Room 2198.
We look forward to welcoming new members or anyone curious about the work of the committee

HAITI

Wilson Mésilien (m) aged 39, human rights activist, interim coordinator of the Fondasyon Trant Septanm (30 September Foundation)

A new documentary film that profiles Father Christopher Hartley, a Spanish priest who travels to the Dominican Republic to stop a modern-day slavery operation. Thousands of Haitian men are forced to work in inhumane conditions to harvest sugar cane for obscenely rich sugar barons. In the face of multiple death threats, Father Hartley works with these dispossessed workers to stand up for themselves. This screening is hosted by Toronto Haiti Action Committee.

Where: The Brunswick Theatre, 296 Brunswick Avenue, at Bloor, west of Spadina, www.brunswicktheatre.ca

I'm staying in a guest house in Haiti, and yesterday morning, the person who runs the house was telling me that one of the initiatives that Cuba has here is an initiative to save electricity. Cuba hired people to go door to door and take people's incandescent bulbs and replace them with fluorescent "green" bulbs. They figure that the reduction in energy consumption might be enough to enable big cities to have 24-hour electricity.

Cuba's projects, here, are always simple, down-to-earth programmes.

Ontario Bicentenary Exhibit
880 Bay Street
Toronto, ON M7A-2C1

FREE of charge

The Ontario provincial government is marking the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act with projects to remember, educate and commemorate the history of the abolition of slavery in Ontario. The Ontario Bicentenary Exhibit will be hosting Haiti Day – Commemorating the battle of Vertières.

Haiti: A Modern Tragedy

An Unbroken Agony
Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President
By Randall Robinson
Basic Civitas Books 280 pages, $26.00 US

By Roger Annis
Randall Robinson has written the story of a great tragedy of recent times--the violent overthrow of Haiti’s elected president and government on February 29, 2004. An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President gives a blow by blow account of the events surrounding that tragedy.