On Demand

Haiti Betrayed

par Elaine Brière

Haiti Betrayed reveals how Canada conspired with the United States and France in 2004 to topple the democratically-elected government.

2019 · 1h30m · Canada

Anglais, Français

Anglais, Français (sous-titres)

À propos du film

As Canadians, we often take pride in our international reputation as peacekeepers and defenders of democracy.

But there is a dark side to our foreign policy — a policy that has thwarted the Haitian people’s struggles for freedom and self-determination over the last two decades.

In 1986, Haitians joined their voices together in a cry for a new kind of society. Emerging from years of brutal dictatorship, they dreamed of a democracy that would serve the poor, listen to their voices and bring an end to impunity. And between 1991 and 2004, Haitians managed, against all odds, to elect a succession of governments committed to realizing this dream. The pro-democracy movement’s efforts, however, were ultimately derailed by powerful local elites and their allies in the international community.

Haiti Betrayed reveals how Canada, once seen by Haitians as a constructive partner, conspired with the United States and France to topple the democratically-elected government. Seven years in the making, Elaine Brière’s film meticulously reconstructs Canada’s role in the events that culminated in the United Nations-sanctioned coup d’état on February 29, 2004 and the bloody aftermath that followed. Haiti Betrayed is a searing indictment of Canadian leaders’ complicity in the international oppression of this long-suffering nation.

With the country in the throes of a new popular uprising against corruption and authoritarianism, Brière’s film shows that the roots of the current crisis can be found in the coup d’état backed by Canada fifteen years ago.

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Festivals et prix

1997

Hot Docs, Best Political Documentary

1997

Women In Film Festival, Best Production Award

Producer

Elaine Briere

En lien avec le film

À propos du cinéaste

Elaine Brière

Elaine Brière is a Canadian filmmaker and photojournalist. Her first documentary, Bitter Paradise: The Sell-out of East Timor, won Best Political Documentary at the l997 HOT DOCS! festival and Production Excellence award at Seattle Women in Film in l998. Bitter Paradise aired on TVO, CBC Radio-Canada, CFCF-12 Montreal, BC Knowledge Network, SCN, WTN, PBS and Swedish National Television.

The Story of Canadian Merchant Seamen’s Union, released in 2006, aired on SCN and Knowledge Network and toured extensively in New Zealand, the UK and Australia.

Elaine’s photographs have been collected by the visual arts section of the National Archives of Canada. Her work has appeared in The Globe & Mail, the New York Review, Canadian Geographic, Carte-Blanche, and the Family of Women. East Timor, Testimony, was published in 2004. She is the founder of the East Timor Alert Network and received the Order of Timor-Leste in 2016 for her contribution towards the liberation of East Timor from Indonesian occupation.

Her current feature documentary, Haiti Betrayed, on the role of Canada in the 2004 coup d’état in Haiti, was released in late 2019. It was translated into French in the summer of 2020 and aired on SV5 in Québec and France. Haiti Betrayed was the opening night
film at FICIP, the International Political Film Festival in Buenos Aires, in October 2021. She lives in Nanaimo, BC, Canada.