Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen, members of the committee, good morning.
I'll spare you having to listen to me on matters that have already come up here and talk instead about the impact of insecurity on the lives of the Haitian people.
The current insecurity is a consequence of poor governance and a people in dire straits because of the absence of social and economic investment on their behalf. When people are left uneducated and children have to fend for themselves on the street, the outcome is inevitably insecurity and the end result is a host of industrial-strength delinquents. I'm talking about thieves, assassins and kidnappers who run a reign of terror to subsist, in the pockets of the powerful: state leaders, political leaders and even corrupt businessmen. Unfortunately, those in power use these vulnerable children to enforce the reign of terror and maintain chaos to defend their own interests.
There is a dilemma with respect to foreign intervention, meaning that some people are opposed to it and others support it. Those who are against it give a variety of reasons: French colonization, American occupation, the American intervention of 1994, the cholera that resulted from the MINUSTAH, dysfunctional institutions, etc. These positions are sometimes justified, but one might well ask what was done at the national level to stop these hardships from continuing to demoralize the country.
You are already aware of all the people being displaced, and the killings that have been happening lately. There is a serious shortage of responsible leaders. The Haitian people are left to their own devices. There is no guidance and no real control over the country. Without wishing to repeat myself, there is no oxygen or dialysis available in hospitals, no drinking water, nothing. You can't even buy water, a basic need. Nothing works in Haiti.
I'm going to tell you about my suggestion. I think I've heard everything here, but there's a much more important proposal. If there is to be an intervention, it would require a transitional structure made up of capable and honest sons and daughters from the Haitian diaspora. It takes real technicians who are prepared to play a role in implementing something like the Marshall plan. Why not? There are resources in Haiti. Let's develop medium-term, rather than immediate, win-win agreements to at least enable Haiti to develop ways of addressing our problem.
If a full-scale military intervention were needed and Canada was to participate, it would have to make sure of a number of things.
Firstly, it would have to be a full-scale military intervention guided by national authorities, and by honest, capable and upright people from the Haitian diaspora who would engage in the mission to guide it.
After that, enough soldiers would be necessary to truly deal with the short-term insecurity problem.
It would also be important to avoid becoming a victim of information asymmetry. There's a lot of talk, it's true.
It would have to involve soldiers who are not from countries where they were used to receiving $2,000 or $3,000 a year. If they come to Haiti, they're going to receive $2,000 or $3,000 a month. And what will they do? They'll start over. They'll arm the gangs as they did in the past, to be able to stay in the country. That will further aggravate the gang problem. That's not what we want. We want to work together. So it takes soldiers to be there on a short-term mission, as I just said, to quickly improve the situation.
There would also have to be serious sanctions on those who do not comply with values commensurate with rights and freedoms, like pedophiles.
Drones and other weapons will have to be used to capture the bandits. The international community certainly has the power to do that. Just recently, an Iranian general was struck by a drone; the Haitian gangs would not be able to avoid them.
Drones can find them, put them out of business and block their sources. The funds and bank accounts of people in civil society, business people and politicians can be blocked from where they are sending munitions to Haiti. And 86% of weapons and ammunition are from the United States. It's therefore important to work with the United States upstream to put a stop to this situation.