I want to bring in my next guest he’s a Canadian from Saskatchewan who is currently stuck in Haiti Richard Phillips is an agricultural consultant he traveled to Haiti to train Haitians on the use of farm equipment so Richard welcome thank you for joining us thank you you have been to Haiti many
Many times in the past I’m I’m hoping that you can walk us through why this is different how it feels different this time around well we we’ve had issues in the past we’ve had security concerns in the past but we’ve never had the the International Airport closed for this
Long um there’s and in the P if you go back a couple years there was actually roads available you could always get to the Dominican Republic border on one of the one of the main roads out of the Cities but this time the roads are impassible The Gangs control all the
Exits out of the city The Gangs control the port and the gangs are close enough to the airport they don’t actually control it but they’re close enough to to shoot at any airplanes that come in or helicopters that come in which of course then stops all commercial traffic
So the airport’s closed all roads are closed and there is simply no way out and it’s gone on for over a week now so um this is more than what we see normal and how does that leave you feeling I have to imagine that that is is rather
Terrifying to be to be stranded there at this moment um well we were down close to the airport and that was uh a little more hair raising because there was lots of gunfire down there every day and every night so we’ve uh we packed up we’ve
Moved up to the outskirts of uh P of and we’re in a safe home actually a Canadian’s home where we feel fairly secure uh we went out for a quick zip around this morning just a little ways down the hill to look and with the announcement of the uh prime minister
Resigning there appears to be an a better feeling in the air right now so I see we saw Haitians on their tap tops going to work on Motas going to work so it looks like at least in some parts of the city they’re starting to regain down
Closer to the airport though I think it’s pretty bad still um we’re not sure how this is going going to shake out yet so we’re just sitting here um staying safe and keeping our heads down until this clears up somehow and and what sort of efforts have you made at this point
To try and get out I do understand that you tried to hire a private plane talk to us a little bit about what you’ve done so far to try to get out of Haiti oh we we’ve we’ve talked to helicopters uh from the Dr but the airspace is
Closed and so they’re not allowed to come here or or come out um even if they got here uh the the the fear up until at least today was that if a helicopter was coming in or plane was coming in it would get shot at because people might
Think it’s actually the Prime Minister trying to return and take power again and so for good reason all the pilots have refused to come here and so the airports do remain closed we’ve uh examined uh some possible CrossCountry routes to get out but they’re uh extremely dangerous terrain uh you could
Just as easily die on the train as you could being captured by gang members so we’ve looked at all the options there are no good options and so as the Canadian embassy says to us every day just stay where you are stay down stay safe it’s it’s been good advice and
We’re following it that’s our plan but that means then that there there really is no sort of immediate plan for you to get out of the country no we we’ve we’ve we’ve looked at all the options and and there’s nothing available and and the and the embassy would say the same thing until
The airport opens there really no safe way to get out as you are stuck in the middle of this like you say you actually went out briefly just to have a look around today uh but you are stuck in Haiti right now you are seeing you are hearing this
Violence I’m wondering if you can talk to us a little bit about the Haitian people and how you’re thinking about them at this moment I know that you have been to the country some 37 times in the past 8 years obviously a place that
Means a lot to you what is this like to watch the Haitian people experience this yet again oh it it’s tough we we have a number of haian friends who we talk to regularly down here and it’s really tough you know they want to move on with
Their lives they want schools to reopen they want the kids in school they want Safety and Security for the families and it’s really tough to move forward when there’s so many kidnappings and so much violence around that normally you would walk your children to school but now you
Can’t even do that because they might grab you and your child if the kidnappers are there so it’s really tough for them to move forward with their lives the the people I would also recognize I think is the Haitian police they’re to go to work when they’re often
Outgunned and outmanned uh these are incredibly brave people and for them to continue guarding the airport continue doing the work they do um I think one of your previous speakers mentioned them too but man uh hats off to them for their bravery are you at all optimistic Richard that perhaps uh the
International Community might be able to find some Way Forward at this moment for Haiti and for the people of Haiti I I think if the International Community can just help the Haitians come to this transitional Council and so if they have some people in the council from the various political parties
Perhaps they can find some collaboration of some kind and select a prime minister who can uh bring some peace and hopefully then they can have some more peace and stability uh the inter International Force if it comes would be a probably a welcome relief to the
Haitian police I think who are out over overworked and out outman and have to be fatigued so whatever could be done to strengthen the local police but the solutions at the end of the day I think have to come from the Haitian transitional counil and haian themselves
I don’t think foreign government be it Canada the us or the Europeans trying to impose something here will work it’s always backfired in the past and it’ll backfire again so the Haitians they really need some PE some chance peace and stability maybe some elections at some point and and move forward on their
Own but they need to take control of this themselves Richard thank you for this we do hope that you stay safe thank you good thank you very much for calling Richard Phillips is a Canadian stuck in Haiti
Richard Phillips is a Canadian agricultural consultant who regularly travels to Haiti to train workers on the use of farm equipment. He says this is the first time criminal gangs have shut down traffic to the Dominican Republic at the ports and the international airport.
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