Canada and the Haitian Crisis

Abstract

On 30 September 1991 Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown in a military coup, once again crushing the fragile flower of democracy in Haiti. From the very beginning of this crisis, The Canadian government played a significant and high-profile role in seeking the restoration of President Aristide. Through its leadership and diplomatic manoeuvring within such multilateral forums as the OAS and the UN, Ottawa was successful in helping to return Aristide to power in mid-October 1994. It was a classic demonstration of the liberal-internationalist “middle power” strain of Canadian foreign policy. It was also symptomatic of Canada’s growing involvement in the Americas and the importance which it attaches to the promotion and protection of democracy in the hemisphere. This article seeks to examine the nature and extent of Canada’s involvement in the crisis in Haiti. More specifically, it attempts to explain or account for why the Canadian government was actively trying to safeguard democracy in Haiti by returning President Aristide to power.