{"id":25256,"date":"2021-02-03T20:46:08","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T20:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=9a085a2cde0ce5e555e75be59416b4ea"},"modified":"2021-02-03T20:46:08","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T20:46:08","slug":"anti-haitian-prejudices-surface-in-canadian-media-coverage-of-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/03\/anti-haitian-prejudices-surface-in-canadian-media-coverage-of-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Haitian prejudices surface in Canadian media coverage of COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"\n              sqs-block-image-figure\n              intrinsic\n            \"\n        >\n          \n        \n        \n\n        \n          \n            \n          \n            <img class=\"thumb-image\" data-image=\"https:\/\/images.squarespace-cdn.com\/content\/v1\/5ddedc989ab6b86728e310e4\/1612385029158-D1FZG79XNU4745ZICYY5\/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kHypHQe_N1xUUgi2ondNYJtZw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWQUxwkmyExglNqGp0IvTJZamWLI2zvYWH8K3-s_4yszcp2ryTI0HqTOaaUohrI8PIoqqPBhMlYe-MW0AquGZyqMoK1z7NxWn-590gylc5NtQ\/haiti+mask.png\" data-image-dimensions=\"768x384\" data-image-focal-point=\"0.5,0.5\" alt=\"A mask with the Haitian flag on it.\" data-load=\"false\" data-image-id=\"601b0b04d7f27a503594a9e9\" data-type=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/images.squarespace-cdn.com\/content\/v1\/5ddedc989ab6b86728e310e4\/1612385029158-D1FZG79XNU4745ZICYY5\/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kHypHQe_N1xUUgi2ondNYJtZw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWQUxwkmyExglNqGp0IvTJZamWLI2zvYWH8K3-s_4yszcp2ryTI0HqTOaaUohrI8PIoqqPBhMlYe-MW0AquGZyqMoK1z7NxWn-590gylc5NtQ\/haiti+mask.png?format=1000w\" \/>\n          \n        \n          \n        \n\n        \n          \n          <figcaption class=\"image-caption-wrapper\">\n            <p class=\"\">A mask with the Haitian flag on it.<\/p>\n          <\/figcaption>\n        \n      \n        <\/figure>\n      \n\n    \n  \n\n\n  \n\n\n\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/anti-haitian-prejudices-surface-in-canadian-media-coverage-of-covid#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|zh-CN');return false;\" title=\"Chinese (Simplified)\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"Chinese (Simplified)\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/anti-haitian-prejudices-surface-in-canadian-media-coverage-of-covid#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|en');return false;\" title=\"English\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"English\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/anti-haitian-prejudices-surface-in-canadian-media-coverage-of-covid#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|fr');return false;\" title=\"French\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"French\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/anti-haitian-prejudices-surface-in-canadian-media-coverage-of-covid#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|de');return false;\" title=\"German\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"German\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/anti-haitian-prejudices-surface-in-canadian-media-coverage-of-covid#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|it');return false;\" title=\"Italian\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"Italian\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/anti-haitian-prejudices-surface-in-canadian-media-coverage-of-covid#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|pt');return false;\" title=\"Portuguese\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"Portuguese\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/anti-haitian-prejudices-surface-in-canadian-media-coverage-of-covid#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|ru');return false;\" title=\"Russian\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"Russian\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/anti-haitian-prejudices-surface-in-canadian-media-coverage-of-covid#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|es');return false;\" title=\"Spanish\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"Spanish\" \/><\/a>\n\n\n\n<br \/><select onchange=\"doGTranslate(this);\"><option value=\"\">Select Language<\/option><option value=\"en|af\">Afrikaans<\/option><option value=\"en|sq\">Albanian<\/option><option value=\"en|ar\">Arabic<\/option><option value=\"en|hy\">Armenian<\/option><option value=\"en|az\">Azerbaijani<\/option><option value=\"en|eu\">Basque<\/option><option value=\"en|be\">Belarusian<\/option><option value=\"en|bg\">Bulgarian<\/option><option value=\"en|ca\">Catalan<\/option><option value=\"en|zh-CN\">Chinese (Simplified)<\/option><option value=\"en|zh-TW\">Chinese (Traditional)<\/option><option value=\"en|hr\">Croatian<\/option><option value=\"en|cs\">Czech<\/option><option value=\"en|da\">Danish<\/option><option value=\"en|nl\">Dutch<\/option><option value=\"en|en\">English<\/option><option value=\"en|et\">Estonian<\/option><option value=\"en|tl\">Filipino<\/option><option value=\"en|fi\">Finnish<\/option><option value=\"en|fr\">French<\/option><option value=\"en|gl\">Galician<\/option><option value=\"en|ka\">Georgian<\/option><option value=\"en|de\">German<\/option><option value=\"en|el\">Greek<\/option><option value=\"en|ht\">Haitian Creole<\/option><option value=\"en|iw\">Hebrew<\/option><option value=\"en|hi\">Hindi<\/option><option value=\"en|hu\">Hungarian<\/option><option value=\"en|is\">Icelandic<\/option><option value=\"en|id\">Indonesian<\/option><option value=\"en|ga\">Irish<\/option><option value=\"en|it\">Italian<\/option><option value=\"en|ja\">Japanese<\/option><option value=\"en|ko\">Korean<\/option><option value=\"en|lv\">Latvian<\/option><option value=\"en|lt\">Lithuanian<\/option><option value=\"en|mk\">Macedonian<\/option><option value=\"en|ms\">Malay<\/option><option value=\"en|mt\">Maltese<\/option><option value=\"en|no\">Norwegian<\/option><option value=\"en|fa\">Persian<\/option><option value=\"en|pl\">Polish<\/option><option value=\"en|pt\">Portuguese<\/option><option value=\"en|ro\">Romanian<\/option><option value=\"en|ru\">Russian<\/option><option value=\"en|sr\">Serbian<\/option><option value=\"en|sk\">Slovak<\/option><option value=\"en|sl\">Slovenian<\/option><option value=\"en|es\">Spanish<\/option><option value=\"en|sw\">Swahili<\/option><option value=\"en|sv\">Swedish<\/option><option value=\"en|th\">Thai<\/option><option value=\"en|tr\">Turkish<\/option><option value=\"en|uk\">Ukrainian<\/option><option value=\"en|ur\">Urdu<\/option><option value=\"en|vi\">Vietnamese<\/option><option value=\"en|cy\">Welsh<\/option><option value=\"en|yi\">Yiddish<\/option><\/select>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=23489112\" data-patreon-widget-type=\"become-patron-button\">Become a Patron!<\/a><p class=\"\">Written by: Yves Engler<\/p><p class=\"\">Many who would deny prejudice or racism continue to apply centuries old stereotypes to Haitians with seeming impunity or even self-awareness.<\/p><p class=\"\">\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/torontosun.com\/news\/local-news\/third-flight-from-haiti-lands-with-many-covid-infected-passengers\"><span>Third flight<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;from Haiti lands with many COVID-infected passengers\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"applewebdata:\/\/988f55ce-e364-4c33-a910-1dbdaa4b9640\/COVID-infected%20flights%20from%20Haiti%20under%20scrutiny\"><span>COVID-infected<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;flights from Haiti under scrutiny\u201d, noted two&nbsp;<em>Toronto Sun<\/em>&nbsp;headlines last month. Another&nbsp;<em>Sun<\/em>&nbsp;story reported, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/torontosun.com\/news\/local-news\/covid-infected-flights-from-haiti-under-scrutiny\"><span>questions<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;are still swirling about two flights from Haiti that landed in Montreal last week, apparently with so many COVID-19 infected passengers that Health Canada said all rows were potentially impacted.\u201d A few days earlier&nbsp;<em>Le<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Journal de Montr\u00e9al<\/em>&nbsp;bellowed: \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/netalkolemedia.com\/actualite-deux-vols-en-provenance-dhaiti-bourres-de-cas-de-covid\/\"><span>Deux vols<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;en provenance d\u2019Ha\u00efti bourr\u00e9s de cas de COVID\u201d (Two flights from Haiti full of COVID cases) while CTV declared \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/montreal.ctvnews.ca\/many-covid-infected-passengers-aboard-three-haiti-to-montreal-flights-federal-data-shows-1.5276880\"><span>Many COVID<\/span><\/a>-infected passengers aboard three Haiti-to-Montreal flights, federal data shows\u201d.<\/p><p class=\"\">But the COVID-19 rate is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2020-12-lax-covid-haiti-scientists.html\"><span>far higher<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;in Montr\u00e9al than Port-au-Prince so from a macro public health standpoint it makes little sense to be particularly worried about Haitians infecting Canadians. In fact, Haitians should be concerned about Canadians traveling there. Ostensibly, the&nbsp;<em>Sun<\/em>&nbsp;and other media are focused on Haiti because Ottawa delayed by 15 days (Jan 6 to Jan 21) implementing a requirement for inbound travelers to show a negative COVID-19 test.<\/p><p class=\"\">While it\u2019s difficult to parse out legitimate public health concerns from deeply entrenched anti-Haitianism, historically it is clear that Haitians have repeatedly been stigmatized as diseased. Most infamously, Haitians were labeled as the originators of the HIV virus in the US in the early 1980s. As a result, the country\u2019s significant tourism industry basically collapsed overnight. Some Haitian exports were even&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/spectrum.library.concordia.ca\/987018\/1\/Young_PhD_F2020.pdf\"><span>blocked<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;from entering the US!<\/p><p class=\"\">The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) labeled Haitians a risk group, which gave rise to \u201cthe 4-H\u2019s\u201d designation of Homosexuals, Hemophiliacs, Heroin addicts and Haitians. At the time the Canadian Red Cross publicly identified Haitians as a \u201chigh-risk\u201d group for AIDS, the only nationality singled out. In 1983 they called on homosexuals and bisexuals with multiple partners, intravenous drug users, hemophiliacs and recent immigrants from Haiti to voluntarily stop giving blood. But, it\u2019s unclear if the incidence of AIDS in Haiti was greater than in the US. By 1987 it was lower in Haiti than in the US and other Caribbean nations.<\/p><p class=\"\">Decades later the stigmatization remains. In 2017 US President Donald Trump reportedly said Haitian immigrants \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2017\/12\/23\/politics\/donald-trump-oval-office-immigration\/index.html\"><span>all have AIDS<\/span><\/a>\u201d and in 2016 former MP Andr\u00e9 Arthur claimed \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/sortonslespoubelles.com\/policiers-canadiens-faisant-des-enfants-en-haiti-on-sen-christ-tu-selon-arthur\/\"><span>Haiti is<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;the country where AIDS started\u201d. The Quebec City radio host added that the \u201chopeless\u201d, \u201csexually deviant\u201d, nation should be taken over by France&nbsp;as in the \u201cheyday of colonial Haiti\u201d&nbsp;(\u201cbelle \u00e9poque de l\u2019Ha\u00efti colonial\u201d).<\/p><p class=\"\">In another example of stigmatizing Haitians over disease, CDC incident manager for the Haiti cholera response Jordan W. Tappero blamed Haitian cultural norms for the 2010 cholera outbreak in that country. He told Associated Press journalist Jonathan Katz that Haitians don\u2019t experience the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2017\/03\/when-the-u-n-sowed-cholera-in-haiti-how-fast-did-americans-know.html\"><span>shame associated<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;with open defecation.\u201d As was then suspected and later confirmed, cholera was introduced to Haiti by a UN base that followed&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/yvesengler.com\/2011\/09\/12\/un-forces-filthy-record-in-haiti\/\"><span>poor sanitation<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;practices, dumping feces from recently arrived Nepalese troops into a stream people drank from. More than 10,000 Haitians died and hundreds of thousands were made ill as a result of the waterborne disease.<\/p><p class=\"\">Impoverishment and weakness are part of what makes it possible to blame and stigmatize Haitians. But there is also a broader, deeply entrenched, anti-Haitian discourse.<\/p><p class=\"\">Vodou, for instance, has been demonized for two centuries. In 1986 a CBC Journal reporter casually noted, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/archives\/entry\/jean-claude-duvaliers-last-days-in-haiti\"><span>large numbers<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;of Haitians are driven by wild stories and voodoo rituals and myths\u201d while a 1994&nbsp;<em>Montreal Gazette<\/em>&nbsp;article calling for \u201ctrusteeship\u201d of Haiti claimed: \u201cThe true religion of the people is voodoo, with its fearful profusion of capricious spirits, the \u2018loa,\u2019 who always threaten to punish human beings who fail to placate them by sacrifices. Haiti is a society with little solidarity.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"\">Important for securing Haitian independence, Vodou offered spiritual\/ideological strength to those who rose up against their slave masters. A Vodou ceremony at Bois Ca\u00efman in August 1791 helped launch the slave revolt that became the Haitian Revolution.<\/p><p class=\"\">Some two centuries later evangelical Christians openly denigrated the Bois Ca\u00efman ceremony as a \u201cdeal made with Satan.\u201d After the deadly 2010 earthquake influential US pastor Pat Robertson claimed it was a punishment for making a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2010\/US\/01\/13\/haiti.pat.robertson\/index.html\"><span>deal made<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;with Satan\u201d at Bois Ca\u00efman. He told his TV viewers Haitians \u201cwere under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever \u2026 And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, \u2018We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.\u2019 True story. And so, the devil said, \u2018OK, it\u2019s a deal.\u2019\u201d Robertson added, \u201cyou know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"\">The 1791 \u2013 1804 Haitian revolution dealt a crushing blow to slavery, colonialism and white supremacy globally. \u201cArguably\u201d, notes Peter Hallward in&nbsp;<em>Damning the Flood: Haiti and the Politics of Containment<\/em>, \u201cthere is no single event in the whole of modern history whose implications were more threatening to the dominant global order of things.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"\">In the aftermath of the Haitian Revolution thousands of photos, articles and books denigrated Haiti, depicting the slaves as barbaric despise the fact 350,000 Africans were killed, versus 75,000 Europeans, over 13 years.&nbsp;The reason was the fear of successful revolt instilled in the \u2018white\u2019 world.<\/p><p class=\"\">There is a connection between the reaction to the Haitian Revolution and&nbsp;COVID-19&nbsp;headlines in Canadian newspapers today. Anti-Haitian sentiment runs deep.<\/p><p class=\"\"><em>Support an ongoing general strike in Haiti and&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/actionnetwork.org\/letters\/stop-supporting-duvaliersm-in-haiti\"><span><em>email new<\/em><\/span><\/a><em>&nbsp;Foreign Minister Marc Garneau to call on Ottawa to stop supporting president Jovenel Mo\u00efse who is reviving the spectre of the brutal Duvalier dictatorship.<\/em><\/p><hr \/><p class=\"\"><span><strong>More Articles<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/anti-haitian-prejudices-surface-in-canadian-media-coverage-of-covid\">Articles - The Canada Files<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>            A mask with the Haitian flag on it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25256"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25257,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25256\/revisions\/25257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}