bcholmes | She Writes Letters

I'd meant to get around to this a few weeks ago. It's part of a letter-writing campaign that various Haiti groups are organizing. Some early reports suggest that the campaign is having some effect.

And Canadians on my reading list: wanna write Minister Kent?

B.C. Holmes
Queen St. W.
Toronto, ON

July 30th, 2009
The Hon. Peter Kent
Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas)
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
110 Justice Building
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
cc: Bob Rae, Olivia Chow, Paul Dewar
Dear Minister Kent,
I am writing regarding the case of the Haitian prisoner Ronald Dauphin. Ronald Dauphin was a grassroots activist for the Lavalas party in Haiti, and he has spent the last five years in prison, without a trial.
The difficult conditions of Haiti's prisons are taking their toll on Mr. Dauphin's health. A recent US-based human rights delegation from the state of California saw Mr. Dauphin during a visit to the National Penitentiary on April 16. The delegation included a nurse and an emergency medical technician, who examined Mr. Dauphin and concluded that he suffered from multiple serious and perhaps life-threatening health problems. This is consistent with reports from Mr. Dauphin's family.
Although Mr. Dauphin's family and his attorney have tried to obtain medical treatment for Mr. Dauphin, the prison authorities have failed to provide authorization. His lawyer has written and visited to the prison authority's headquarters asking for authorization for a private Haitian doctor to visit and treat Mr. Dauphin.
Mr. Dauphin was arrested by paramilitary forces, without a warrant, on March 1, 2004, the day after President Aristide was forced from Haiti. He was charged in 2005 with participating in a massacre, but on April 13, 2007, the Appeals Court ordered the Trial Court to address many procedural issues of the charging documents. For the last two years, the case has been stuck in legal limbo and has not advanced; it does not even have a Trial Court judge assigned to it.
As I am sure you are aware, Amnesty International and many other human rights organizations have documented repeated cases of human rights violations against leaders and activists associated with the same Lavalas party with which Mr. Dauphin is associated. The continuing mistreatment of Mr. Dauphin suggests that this pattern of rights violations in Haiti continues.
On the one hand, this might seem like a matter that's purely internal to the Haitian government. For my part, I don't see it that way, and here's why:
First, these allegations of massacre only exist because of questionable human rights organizations that Canada has helped to fund via CIDA and the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations. The La Scierie massacre appears to be a fabrication of a group originally called NCHR-Haiti (National Coalition for Haitian Rights – Haiti). NCHR-Haiti also claimed that former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune took part in the La Scierie massacre, a claim that has been thoroughly discredited by groups as varied as Amnesty International and The Inter-American Court of Human Rights. NCHR-Haiti is such a discredited group, that its own parent organization, NCHR, announced that it disagreed with HCHR-Haiti's position (NCHR-Haiti is now know as Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains, or RNDDH). Canada's role in funding an organization that has wrecked such havoc in Haiti is something that we need to take responsibility for.
Secondly, while I was travelling in Haiti as part of a human rights delegation in August of 2007, I had the opportunity to speak to a number of government officials about the judicial backlog in Haiti. Blame was universally placed on inadequate police paperwork. The police would not produce any supporting documentation for their arrests. Some of these officials stated, candidly, that although the judges were inclined to dismiss the cases after several months of unanswered calls for documentation, the judges were scared off because the police would engaged in smear campaigns against anyone that tried to throw out charges. This had the effect of making officials unwilling to take a stand. And this was all taking place at a time when Canada was bragging about the RCMP officers who were training the Haitian National Police. I fail to see any evidence that our training has played a positive role in Haitian law enforcement, and that's another reason why I think we need to speak up in the Ronald Dauphin case.
Minister Kent, it is not an exaggeration to suggest that Ronald Dauphin's legal limbo is close to becoming a de facto death penalty.
I respectfully request that you instruct the Canadian Embassy in Haiti to immediately contact the Haitian Government to express Canada's concern over the violations of Ronald Dauphin's civil and healthcare rights, and recommend that Mr. Dauphin be immediately transported to a hospital for full treatment of his illness. I also request that the Canadian Embassy urge the Haitian Government to take all appropriate measures to ensure that Mr. Dauphin is granted pre-trial release from prison, and that his case is either dismissed or promptly brought to trial.
I would appreciate your communicating to me any information regarding actions that your office or Canada’s Embassy in Haiti will be taking in this matter.
Thank you for your time,
B.C. Holmes