ttp://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/4_13_8/4_13_8.html
HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti — The situation in Haiti was thrown into further confusion on April 12 as the Haitian parliament passed a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis. Led by rightists in Haiti's parliament such as Senators Youri Latortue, Adris Riche and renegade Lavalas party Senator Roudy Herveaux , the vote of censure was passed on April 12, 2008 at 11:55 am EST.
President Rene Garcia Preval, following controversial U.N.-sponsored elections in 2006, appointed Alexis as Prime Minister. Alexis served for an administration touted as a coalition government backed by the United States and the international community that included members of the so-called opposition that forced former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile in 2004. Alexis' administration gave the final appearance of a legal veneer to the ouster of Aristide and his political movement known as Lavalas by co-opting former grass-roots leaders into his government.

By Yves Engler

Over the past century, a line has divided the left around the world. On one side sit “progressive forces” willing to support imperialism and war, usually in return for a “seat at the table” or some other perk of power. The most discussed example of Left support for imperialism was at the beginning of the First World War when most parties of the Second International sided with their own ruling class and governments in the slaughter that followed. On the other side of the Left divide, are those individuals and organizations that take a principled position in favour of real democracy for all the world’s people and oppose imperialism and colonialism in all its forms, especially when it is their ruling class involved. Some might say the former is the “pretend Left” and the later the “authentic Left.”

So what sort of Left is there left in Québec? To help answer this question the case of Haiti is instructive.

Haitian solidarity: Local group strives to draw attention to Canada's role in the country's grief
Sarelle Azuelos
Gauntlet News
February 28, 2008
http://gauntlet.ucalgary.ca/story/12221
Haitian people have suffered a history of almost constant violence and strife. Four years ago Canadian, French and U.S. forces, with support of the UN, held a military coup against the democratically elected then-leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Great debate surrounded the continuing involvement of foreign influences in Haiti's government.

The Canada Haiti Action Network is hosting a solidarity demonstration on Fri., Feb. 29 to raise awareness of Haiti's plight and hopefully encourage the Canadian government to respect the country's sovereignty.

Peter Hallward Untangles the Truth About Haiti From a Web of Lies
By: Joe Emersberger - HaitiAnalysis.com
In "Damning the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment" Peter Hallward meticulously explains how, on February 29 of 2004, the U.S. managed to "topple one of the most popular governments in Latin America but it managed to topple it in a manner that wasn't widely criticized or even recognized as a coup at all." Imperial powers do not reinvent the wheel when it comes to undermining democracy in poor countries. Hallward identifies valuable lessons for people who wish to limit the damage that powerful countries inflict on the weak.
The narrative he presents is not complicated, but to present it he must expose countless lies and half truths and brilliantly explore many simple questions that corporate journalists invariably failed to ask.

HAITI LIBERTE - "Justice. Verite. Independance."
* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *
December 19-24, 2007
Vol. 1, No. 22
AN INTERVIEW ON WBAI
PETER HALLWARD: MAKING SENSE OF THE 2004 COUP

Did He Jump or Was He Pushed? Aristide and the 2004 Coup in Haiti
by Peter Hallward
December 15, 2007
haitianalysis.com

One Lavalas official freed in Haiti, second remains missing
Haiti Information Project
October 31, 2007

by Isabel MacDonald

Last December, I visited Annette “So Ann” Auguste, a popular Haitian folksinger, Lavalas activist, grandmother, adult educator – and, since her violent May 2004 arrest at the hands of US Marines1 – one of Haiti’s most high-profile political prisoners. Even in the overcrowded prison where she has been jailed for nearly two and a half years without charges, So Ann continues to teach literacy through informal classes with her fellow inmates. I never specifically discussed the role of education in Haiti’s democracy with So Ann. However, her patience in explaining to us blancs (as all foreigners are known in Haitian Creole) the basic principle of Haitian national sovereignty – a lesson that citizens of the world’s first black republic impressed upon world powers when they wrested France’s most prosperous colony on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola from the hands of French colonial slave holders over 202 years ago – clearly told me that she sees education as a crucial aspect of the Haitian grassroots movement for democracy. The education of Canadians, that is.

March 19th, 2007
Chavez and Venezuela: Duty, not Charity to Haiti
By: Wadner Pierre - HaitiAnalysis.com
On Monday March 12, 2007, beginning at about 7:30 AM throughout the streets of the capital the cry of "Chavez" was heard. In front of the airport in Port-au-Prince legions of supporters arrived minute after minute. "Chavez, Chavez, it is you whom we seek... President Preval needs your help to return Aristide" people sang joyfully on their way to greet Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
By 10:00 AM supporters had set up signs and streamers praising Chavez and denoucing Bush.: "Viva Chavez, Down Bush", "President Aristide must return to his country". "We love you, Chavez". Supporters from Cite Soleil denounced the violence of the "blue helmets" in their community. Tens of thousands had gathered.

Massive demonstrations in Haiti catch UN by surprise
(HIP) — Challenging recent assertions made by the United Nations that the
Lavalas movement is dead, crowds estimated at well over 100,000 took to
the streets of seven major cities throughout Haiti on February 7 to
demand an end to the UN occupation, freedom for political prisoners and
the return of exiled president Aristide. Lavalas is the political
movement of Haiti's desperately poor majority and the political party
of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was ousted on February 29, 2004
in a coup reportedly backed by the United States, France and Canada.