Twenty years ago today, Canada played a key role in overthrowing the president of Haiti and thousands of other elected officials, significantly increasing foreign influence and triggering the country’s ongoing downward spiral. On February 29, 2004, Canadian special forces took control of the airport, facilitating US Marines’ removal of elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whom they forced onto a plane bound for the Central African Republic, an action Aristide described as “kidnapping.” Immediately following Aristide’s removal, five hundred Canadian troops were dispatched to patrol the streets of Port-au-Prince.

The ouster of a leader, whose policies of redistribution angered a small, predominantly light-skinned elite who controlled the economy, marked the peak of a destabilization campaign led by the United States and supported by Ottawa. This campaign included military and paramilitary interventions, initiatives to create a compliant civil society, and an aid embargo aimed at crippling Haiti’s economy.

Additionally, it featured a full-scale disinformation campaign waged by Haitian elite-owned and international corporate media, alongside concerted diplomatic efforts to ensure the international community accepted the regime change and the public found it credible. Ottawa’s role in overthrowing Haiti’s most popular government is a critical example of Canada’s role in subverting democracy around the globe, as discussed in the book I coauthored with Owen Schalk and Rob Rolfe, Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy.