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Upheaval in Haiti: the Criminal Threat to Canada

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Upheaval in Haiti: the Criminal Threat to Canada Upheaval in Haiti: The Criminal Threat to Canada A BACKGROUND STUDY PREPARED BY STEWART PREST CARLETON UNIVERSITY JUNE 2005 A Report Commissioned by Criminal Intelligence Service Canada Feedback is welcome and may be sent to [email protected] David Carment, Principal Investigator http://www.carleton.ca/cifp B ACKGROUND S TUDY – H AITI - II About the Project In January 2004, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) initiated Project SOOTHSAYER. The goal of the project was to develop a strategic early warning system (SEWS) for organized and serious crime in Canada. The project had three broad objectives: I) the development of a methodology suited to intelligence warning for law enforcement; II) the establishment of a reporting mechanism; and III) the development of dissemination and communications methods (i.e. a product line). SEWS focuses on emergent events and phenomena – be they local, national or international, demographic, economic or technological – that could potentially alter the organized and serious crime situation in Canada. CISC sought out the support of the Country Indicators for Foreign Policy (CIFP) at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, which had a demonstrated expertise in warning for state failure, risk assessment and early warning. A central element of this venture was the development of the project’s scanning component, known as the SENTINEL Watch List. This report, commissioned by CISC and produced by CIFP, is the essential background to the SENTINEL. About the Author Stewart Prest is a Masters candidate at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University. He has been involved in the SENTINEL project since collaboration began between CIFP and CISC in January 2004, co-authoring several reports, along with the overall project concept paper. His own research interests include the role of effective analysis, risk assessment, and early warning in the prevention and management of conflict, both civil and international. He is also researching the effects of development aid and other types of intervention in weak state environments – those countries considered most vulnerable to conflict or failure – and the attendant need for international coordination throughout all stages of involvement in such states. He is currently working on a project that explores elements of multicausality found in democratic and liberal peace theory, particularly with respect to civil conflict. His work seeks to incorporate disparate factors – from the role of gender to the effects of transnational crime – within the more standard discussions of the democracy-trade-peace nexus. Stewart is the co-author of the Russian Criminogenic report also located on the CIFP site. B ACKGROUND S TUDY – H AITI - III TABLE OF CONTENTS: I Executive Summary II 1) Overview IV 2) Conditions in Haiti IV 3) Conditions in Canada V 4) Conclusions V II Haitian Indicators 1 1) Summary 1 2) Conflict History 2 3) Governance 4 4) Economics 8 5) Human Development 11 6) Demographics 12 7) Society 14 8) Environment 15 9) International Involvement 16 10) Criminality 18 III Canadian Indicators 21 1) Summary 21 2) Demographics 22 3) Criminal Context: History and Trends 24 IV Conclusion: Possible Haitian-Canadian Crime Links 26 V Areas for Further Research 27 VI Bibliography 28 Appendix Acronyms Note: References to organised criminal activity associated with particular ethnic-based groups are not meant to suggest that all members of that specific ethnic group are involved in organised crime. These references allude to the illegal activities of particular criminal organisations that tend to self-identify with a particular ethnic origin. B ACKGROUND S TUDY – H AITI - IV I - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1) Overview Haiti is a troubled country, beset by a range of Hemisphere, Montréal has become home to a economic and social problems and plagued by thriving, vibrant Haitian-Canadian community. recurrent conflict. As governmental authority With roots extending back more than half a and capacity continues to erode, the island century, Haitian-Canadians have become an nation has increasingly come under the integral part of the city. domination of local gangs and militias, and Unfortunately, the last 20 years have seen the international drug cartels. growth of several Haitian-Canadian-dominated Canada has long claimed to have a “special” street gangs in the Montréal area. Two gangs relationship with Haiti; language, geography, in particular – the Bo-Gars and the Crack Down economics, and political considerations have Posse – have emerged as formidable and all played a role in the formation and evolution ruthless competitors in Montréal’s criminal of that relationship. Canada has repeatedly marketplace. Should these two gangs develop taken a lead role in international efforts to more formal links to criminal groups operating intervene in the country, providing financial, in Haiti, the consequences for the Montréal military, and humanitarian support to the island would be significant. on numerous occasions. This report attempts to ascertain the current In many ways, Montréal is the fulcrum of the extent of any criminal Haitian-Canadian nexus, bilateral relationship, the point at which the two evaluate its likely evolution, and assess its countries physically intersect. As the dominant probable impact on Canada, with a particular Francophone metropolis in the Western emphasis on the Montréal region. 2) Conditions in Haiti: Key Indicators Governance: Haiti is verging on ungovernable; Environment: Tropical storm Jeanne conditions are ripe for a partial balkanisation of adversely interrupted virtually all economic the country and criminalisation of governmental activity in Haiti, including multinational criminal institutions. This situation is unlikely to improve operations. Current chaos thus ensures that without significant and prolonged international new exportable criminal activities are unlikely involvement in the country. to emerge in the short term. The high level of environmental degradation ensures that future Economy: Chronic civil unrest and hurricane disruptions will be virtually inevitable. damage have left vast portions of the population without even minimal economic Criminality: Haiti’s ongoing political unrest will support; drug trafficking is virtually the only likely create new criminal opportunities in the economic activity with growth potential in the medium to long term. Moreover, Haiti’s short to medium term. importance as a trafficking nation has increased markedly in the last decade as Conflict history: Though the current conflict Central American drug cartels seek alternate renders increased export of criminal activity trafficking routes. Caribbean traffickers are unlikely in the short term, the perennial increasingly involved not only in the transport instability of the country ensures a high degree but also the distribution of drugs in North of lawlessness and lack of coherent law America. Haitian groups involved in this enforcement over the medium to long term. process will likely look to connections in Society: Haiti is currently rated among the Canadian and American cities – particularly most corrupt countries in the world. Corruption areas with large Haitian populations, such as taints all levels of government and all parts of Montréal – to assist in drug marketing and the political spectrum. While most Haitians feel distribution. this is a serious problem, few believe that addressing it should be the government’s top policy priority. Most simply accept it as a fact of life. 3) Conditions in Canada: Key Indicators Current crime trends: The Bo-Gars and in drugs, prostitution, and other criminal Crack Down Posse, the two major Haitian- enterprises. Further, both gangs have a Canadian-based Street Gangs (HSGs) in demonstrated propensity for open violence, Canada, are among the groups competing to and may therefore pose particular hazards not fill the partial vacuum left by outlaw motorcycle only to surrounding populations, but possibly to gangs (OMGs) in the Montréal area. There is a law enforcement personnel as well. strong potential for their increased involvement 4) Conclusions: Possible Haitian-Canadian Crime Links Current Trends: Conditions in Haiti and directly into Canada through an emerging Canada favour the continued growth of a Haitian-Canadian network. formalised and structured nexus between Future Threats: One area of concern arises criminal organisations in both countries in the from the Canadian practice of deporting medium to long term. Although there appear to Haitian-born but Canadian-raised landed be no formal links between criminal actors in immigrants that have been convicted of a Haiti and in Canada presently, individual HSG serious crime in Canada. Such deportees gain members have established criminal links with a working knowledge of official and criminal the island. In addition, the HSGs as a whole systems in both countries; members of this may also be cultivating informal inter-group group that continue their involvement in links with counterparts in Haiti. Moreover, the criminal activity in Haiti become extremely well- continuous flows of people, money, and equipped to facilitate further criminal linkages materiel between the two countries ensure between the two countries. such links will remain viable in the long term. Finally, it is possible that Haitians living in The most likely evidence of an emerging formal Canada may begin to use the country as a link between criminal
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