Canada to deploy Navy vessels to Haiti as violence worsens

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Canada will send navy vessels to Haiti for intelligence-gathering as part of efforts to quell worsening gang violence in the Caribbean nation, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday.

Trudeau made the announcement in the Bahamas at an annual meeting of Caribbean leaders where a key topic has been Haiti’s surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings blamed on gangs emboldened since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, also at the meeting, has pleaded for a full-fledged international military intervention to stem the mayhem. His country requested help from the U.N. Security Council in October, and has suggested the U.S. and Canada lead a force. No such intervention has come together, and neither country has offered to take the lead.

Canada’s move to send ships, announced at the meeting of leaders of the 15-member Caricom trade bloc, comes shortly after the return of one of its surveillance planes on a similar mission to collect intelligence for Haitian police.

“Right now, Haiti is confronted with unrelenting gang violence, political turmoil and corruption,” Trudeau said. “Now is the moment to come together to confront the severity of this situation.”

Trudeau said Canada and Haiti’s neighbors need to work on long-lasting solutions to restore order and security, allow for essential aid to flow and create the conditions for free and fair elections.

The Canadian leader also announced his government would give an additional $12.3 million in humanitarian assistance and $10 million to support the International Office on Migration, to protect Haitian women and children along Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic. The neighboring country has deported tens of thousands of Haitian migrants and those of Haitian ancestry in the past year.