Justin Trudeau to deploy Canadian Royal Navy to Haiti for surveillance

• The Royal Canadian Navy will be sent out in the upcoming weeks to conduct surveillance.
• Trudeau also announced further penalties against two more Haitian.
• Over seven out of ten Haitians accept the idea of establishing an international force.

The Royal Canadian Navy will be sent out in the upcoming weeks to conduct surveillance, gather intelligence, and maintain a marine presence off the coast of Haiti, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who made the announcement on Thursday.

Speaking at a CARICOM summit in the Bahamas, Trudeau stated, “We are working closely together to assist address the political, security, and humanitarian crises in Haiti.”

Canada, which this month sent vehicles, security equipment, and surveillance aircraft to Haiti, announced that it would send more vehicles in the near future.

Without revealing their names, Trudeau also announced further penalties against two more Haitians found to be assisting gangs, raising the country’s total number of sanctioned individuals to 17.

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In October, the United Nations proposed sending a “quick action force” to Haiti to curb the rise in gang violence, whose turf wars have resulted in hundreds of fatalities and thousands of displaced people. According to U.N. estimates, the violence has resulted in the internal displacement of more than 100,000 Haitians.

But, a lot of people have expressed suspicion about the plan, noting abuses from earlier missions and questioning a force supporting Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s administration, which has been operating without democratically elected officials since early January.

According to a survey conducted in January, over seven out of ten Haitians accept the idea of establishing an international force to assist the national police in battling violence from armed gangs that have increased their territory since President Jovenel Moise’s killing in 2021.

Although members of the Organization of American States last week agreed to organize a working group to explore the proposal and other issues like gun trafficking to Haiti, no country has yet offered to lead such a team.

Helen La Lime, the UN representative in Haiti, expressed “still hope” that the force might be established and emphasized the importance of moving quickly.

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