Canada advises citizens against travel to Haiti amid unrest

The federal government has issued a new advisory for Haiti, saying Canadians should avoid all travel to the Caribbean country as it works to get out citizens trapped there.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa Friday the government is deeply concerned about what’s going on in Haiti.

“Many Canadians have family members and friends in Haiti that they are of course worried about, and our hearts go out to them,” Trudeau said.

Global Affairs Canada said it upgraded its advisory late Thursday due to ongoing civil unrest throughout the country. The notice warns that the “security situation could further deteriorate quickly” and that people should “consider leaving by commercial means while they are available.”

More than 100 Canadians have been unable to leave Haiti since protesters blocked major highways across the country in an effort to pressure President Jovenel Moise to resign. Protesters are angry over skyrocketing inflation and the government’s failure to prosecute embezzlement from a multi-billion Venezuelan program that sent discounted oil to Haiti.

“We’re also obviously preoccupied with a number of Canadians who are in Haiti right now who are looking to come home to Canada in this crisis situation,” Trudeau said. “We are working with them, Global Affairs Canada and all our diplomatic corps is very much engaged in this.”

Ottawa-based physician Emilio Bazile and three members of his group from the Maritimes are among the Canadians stuck in Haiti following the violent protests that have claimed several lives over the past week. His 10-member medical team has been in southwestern Haiti providing care to locals.

Reached by The Canadian Press Friday, Bazile said his team set out in two vehicles that morning to try to get to the airport but encountered numerous roadblocks.

“We left Aquin which went well, but every 10 kilometres there is barricade after barricade,” Bazile said in a brief interview. “We just passed one that was very dangerous because there were tires on fire. We had to pay a lot to pass.”

Bazile said the main highway is almost empty with no police to be found. His group’s goal remains to get to the airport.

“We don’t need to know if there’s a plane or not, we just want to get to the airport and sleep there,” said Bazile, who was still about 60 kilometres away from the airport.

A team of 26 aid workers with a missionary group from Quebec is also among the scores of trapped Canadians.

Air Transat said 111 Quebecers are stuck in a hotel, unable to reach the Port-au-Prince airport because of the protests.

“The situation is still pretty much the same. We’re still looking at all options,” Christophe Hennebelle, vice-president human resources and corporate affairs for the airline, said Friday. “We know that ground transportation is not feasible at the moment.”

The next scheduled flight is Sunday, but Hennebelle said the airline has a plane on standby in Canada and is prepared to fly passengers out on an emergency basis if needed. Getting to the airport remains the primary obstacle.

“As soon as we have something that we know is going to be safe, we’ll do it,” Hennebelle said. “For the time being, the clients are safe in the hotel, and we’re not going to put them in danger.”

Global Affairs said it is providing consular advice to tour operators and has people on the ground in Haiti to provide assistance to Canadian citizens. The Canadian embassy in Port-au-Prince has been closed since Wednesday.

Marie-Christine Remy, whose mother Terry Watson is among the Quebec vacationers trapped at the hotel, said her mother received a message that Transat would move them when it is safe. Meanwhile, she said, the situation at the hotel remains stable, but the uncertainty is weighing on her mother.

Remy said Watson spoke to four members of a humanitarian group who elected to stay in the country, and it took them nearly 11 hours to travel from the airport to the hotel — usually a 90-minute trip.

“Every road blockage they encountered, they had to give money to protesters that were there,” Remy said. “This group of people were saying it’s very unsafe — they’re known in the community and they had a lot of trouble getting through.”