So Ann in Montreal

January 31, 2007

So Ann in Montreal

Legendary Haitian organizer, grandmother, folksinger and former political prisoner Annette "So Ann" Auguste was in Montreal this week. Cafe Toc Toc was packed last night for her appearance there, where Dominion contributor Isabel Macdonald's short documentary film, "Our Arms do Not Kill," an investigation into the role of the UN military occupation of Haiti, was also shown, and members of Kalmunity performed.

The Montreal Mirror covered So Ann's visit in their last issue. In a press conference on Monday, So Ann said that Canada was to blame for her imprisonment without trial. During her 800+ days in jail, Paul Martin visited Haiti and claimed that "there are no political prisoners in Haiti", and CIDA provided funding for NCHR and other organizations that took the lead in building bogus cases against So Ann and hundreds of other political prisoners. Many remain imprisoned.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Ambassador to Haiti, Claude Boucher, has praised the UN forces' bloody forays into Haiti's poorest neighbourhoods, where dozens have been killed and wounded in a recent series of massacres.

So Ann was clear about this much: MINUSTAH (the UN military force in Haiti) and the Haitian police know that the kidnappers are not from the poor neighbourhoods, and very likely know who they are, but the kidnappings serve as a political cover to continue terrorizing the people who live in major centres of political resistance.