by Aaron Lakoff
January 20, 2006, Port au Prince

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-->To view photos of the consequences of Canadian and UN policy in Haiti,
visit:
http://gallery.cmaq.net/album52
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In his book “The Uses of Haiti”, author Paul Farmer writes;

“...the world's privileged are protected from suffering violence, they are
protected from having to perpetrate it – directly – and they are protected
from having to apologize for it. This, then, is the political economy of

Elite Pressure UN in Haiti
Four more killed in Cite Soley

http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/1_18_6/1_18_6.html

An HIP Special Report
by Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff

HIP - Haiti . Pressure from the elite sector of Haitian society has been
mounting against the U.N. Mission in Haiti during the past several weeks.
As the on again, off again elections approach the renewed deadline of Feb.
7, the United Nations Stabilization Mission (MINUSTAH) in Haiti has been
led to believe in and listen to Haiti's most reactionary voices. The U.N.
is being pressured to crack down hard on poor neighborhoods that remain

Haiti's Deadly Class Divide:
Class war takes on a new meaning in Cite Soley

by Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff

Port-au-Prince, January 10/06 - Driving into Cite Soley on January 8th, the day Haitians were supposed to go to the polls in a presidential election, there is no mistaking the fact that we are entering an occupied
zone. The streets are almost deserted, the atmosphere tense, and UN armored personnel carriers patrol the streets.

Cite Soley, one of Port-au-Prince's poorest neighborhoods, is home to around 500,000 people living in abject poverty. According to Jean-Joseph Joel, the Secretary General of the local branch of Fanmi Lavalas, the area's residents are virtual prisoners, and their movements restricted by armed police at checkpoints. Vilified as bandits or chimeres by the elite-run press, he says they face persecution if they do manage to escape

Political Prisoners Rot in Haitian Jails While Canadian Politicians Lie

--My meeting with So Anne Auguste

by Aaron Lakoff

Port-au-Prince, January 10/06

Consider the following to be somewhat of a transcription of an interview.
These are some of the powerful words of a woman spoken from behind bars,
and I feel responsible to be a conduit to get them out – at least beyond
those prison bars.

Today I met one of Haiti's more prominent political prisoners, Annette “So Anne” Auguste. Like so many political prisoners throughout the world, So Anne isn't in jail for what she's done, but for what she represents.

Bel Air: Betrayed by the UN

by Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff

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To view the photos which accompany this story, visit;
http://gallery.cmaq.net/belair
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January 6, 2006 - Port au Prince, Haiti

Our second day in Haiti brought us to the slum of Bel Air, an area extremely
different than other areas of Port au Prince. Not far from the glistening
Palais Nationale, Bel Air is a poor neighborhood which has been hit hard since
the February 2004 coup. It's own residents describe a campaign of political

{"Pettigrew, you're killing our kids in Haiti!"}
by Aaron Lakoff

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To view a photo-essay from the demonstration, visit:
http://gallery.cmaq.net/pettigew
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Montreal, January 2, 2006 - Exactly 202 years and one day after the slaves of the colony of Hispaniola succeeded in overthrowing their French masters and colonizers – leading to the birth of the republic of Haiti – about 45 members of the Haitian community gathered in the Villeray area of Montreal to celebrate, but also to vent their rage.

CKUT Radio: Haiti - Mastering the Art of Trap Avoidance
Escaping a 'people-less' democracy

Listen to an interview with John Macdonald and Patrick Elie in Port au
Prince, Haiti. John is a Haiti solidarity activist and independent
journalist from Montreal, and Patrick is a long-time grassroots organizer
in Haiti. Here they talk about the upcoming presidential elections, the

Amplifying the Voices of Haiti

A funding appeal for an independent media project in Haiti – January 2006.

Dear friends and allies,

We are writing to you to inform you of an important project we are
undertaking, and to seek financial support for this project.

In early January, 2006, two independent journalists and social justice
organizers, Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff, will be travelling to Haiti.
For one month, they will filing reports from the ground in Haiti, looking
at the situation after the presidential elections and Canada’s role in the
country.

Following an American, French, and Canadian-sponsored coup d’etat that

CKUT Radio: ISM Montreal reports from Palestine

Listen to an interview with Sarita Ahooja, a Montreal-based activist, currently in occupied Palestine as a delegate for the International Soidarity Movement's (ISM) Freedom Summer campaign.

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To download or listen to the interview, visit:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=13382
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Sarita Ahooja is a Montreal-based anti-imperialist activist. She arrived in occupied Palestine this week.

Ahooja is one of many delegates working with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) on their annual Freedom Summer campaign. Freedom Summer consists of weeks of non-violent direct actions around the West Bank to challenge the ongoing and illegal Israeli occupation.

(From June 18-25, Solidarity Across Borders, a coalition of refugees,
migrants, and their supporters, will be marching from Montreal to Ottawa
to make demands for regularization on Immigration Canada.  The following
article seeks to explore and outline the analysis and politics behind this
march.)

Status, Survival, and Solidarity
Non-Status people and the politics of precarity

by Aaron Lakoff and Seth Porcello

Just a few weeks ago, Manuel, a 19-year old refugee, sat alone in a jail
cell in a detention center in Laval, just north of Montreal.  Frightened
and tired, he awaited his deportation back to Mexico.  It was one of those