Latest News from Haiti

by Haiti Solidarity BC
Haitians are being encouraged to go to the polls in three days time to vote for a new president, legislature and one third of the seats in the Senate. The November 28 election has been heavily criticized from within and without Haiti because 15 political parties that registered to run a presidential candidate were banned from doing so by the country's appointed electoral council.

 

Among those is the Fanmi Lavalas party of exiled, former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The election is entirely financed from the outside, including $15 million from the U.S., $5.8 million from Canada and 5 million Euros from the European Union.

Meanwhile, a deadly cholera outbreak is spreading.

 

Last night, the BBC's Mark Doyle told CBC there is a serious lack of medical supplies and personnel in Haiti to deal with it. He quoted a spokesperson for MSF (Doctors Without Borders), "It is spreading everywhere, and the truth is that we do not know where it will stop."

Here are some of the latest stories posted to the website of the Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN). Go to the website for these and many other stories:

* A new, 28-page report by the LAMP for Haiti foundation examines the November 28 election
http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca/content/new-report-lamp-haiti-examines-elections 

* Canada Is Backing a Deeply Flawed Election in Haiti, by Roger Annis and Kevin Edmonds
http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca/content/canada-backing-deeply-flawed-election-haiti

* Washington Post Examines Aid Delays, Broken Promises
http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca/content/washington-post-analyzes-aid-reconstruction-delays-and-promises 

* Compilation of articles, editorials and letters to the editor in the Globe and Mail. Canada's largest national daily has a reporting team in Haiti. A November 24 editorial calls for an investigation into the possible role of UN military forces in introducing cholera inadvertantly to Haiti.
http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca/content/articles-and-editorials-appearing-globe-and-mail-national-daily

* Media watch. This feature on the CHAN website tracks the reporting of major media in Canada:
http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca/mediawatch   

 

 

 

November 25, 2010