Haiti, Capital And The Responsibility To Protect  Why did Canada
help overthrow Haiti’s elected government in 2004? That’s a
question I heard over and over when speaking about Canada in
Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority, a book Anthony Fenton
and I co-wrote. Most people had difficulty understanding why
their country – and the US to some extent – would intervene in a
country so poor, so seemingly marginal to world affairs. Why
would they bother?   It is also worth noting that at the start
of 2003 the Haitian minimum wage was 36 Gourdes ($1) a day,
which was nearly doubled to 70 Gourdes by the Aristide
government. Of course, this was opposed by domestic and
international capital, but especially Canadian capital. The
largest blank T-shirt maker in the world, Montreal-based Gildan
Activewear employs up to 5,000 people in Port-au-Prince’s
assembly sector. Most of Gildan’s work is subcontracted to Andy
Apaid, who was the leader of the Group 184 domestic “civil
society” that opposed Aristide’s government.  It i