Trudeau to attend Caribbean summit in Bahamas as Haiti crisis deepens – National | 24CA News

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is anticipated to depart Wednesday for the Bahamas, the place members of the Caribbean Community are gathering to debate regional points, together with a deepening disaster in Haiti.

Trudeau is taking part as a particular visitor on the summit of 20 Caribbean leaders in Nassau, because the group celebrates its fiftieth anniversary.

His workplace says the journey will permit leaders to contemplate political, safety and humanitarian help to Haitian individuals and “Haitian-led solutions to the ongoing situation.”

The nation is embroiled in disaster, with violent gangs jockeying for territory within the capital Port-au-Prince and worldwide watchdogs reporting rampant sexual assault, kidnappings and a worsening well being emergency.

Haiti’s unelected prime minister Ariel Henry, who is anticipated to take part within the Nassau assembly, has requested for a international navy intervention _ and the United States has prompt that Canada lead one.

2:56Trudeau says Canada and its companions have mentioned varied situations ought to scenario worsen in Haiti

But the Canadian authorities has up to now saved its powder dry, as an alternative looking for a “consensus” on the bottom and levying financial sanctions in opposition to elites accused of supporting gang exercise.

Emmanuel Dubourg, Canada’s solely Haitian-born federal member of Parliament, prompt in an interview that the federal government isn’t leaving something off the desk because it considers methods to assist.

“We are trying our best to have that consensus to have a diplomatic solution,” the Liberal MP stated.

“But we also heard that the national police is under-armed, and the situation, it’s really difficult there. So we are discussing all types of options to help people in Haiti.”

Dubourg added {that a} dialogue about Haiti is more likely to play into Trudeau’s conversations with U.S. President Joe Biden in March, when he’s anticipated to go to north of the border.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino stated in French on Tuesday that Canada would proceed working with the U.S. and different allies to assist enhance the scenario on the bottom.

1:06Haiti cops block roads, break into foremost airport to protest officer killings

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh additionally responded to questions on Haiti in French exterior the House of Commons, saying that he thinks it’s essential to work with Haitian individuals on a means ahead quite than “forcing a solution” as a international nation.

Trudeau was final anticipated to affix the Caribbean leaders at a gathering in February 2020, however cancelled the journey amid criticism of his authorities’s dealing with of anti-pipeline blockades in Western Canada on the time.

More than two million Canadians journey to the nations represented within the group yearly, and Canada’s two-way commerce with them totalled almost $6 billion in 2021.

The prime minister is anticipated to return to Ottawa late Thursday night.

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