Haitian Quebecers overwhelmed by blows to their home country, but try to find ways to help

Frantz André awoke Saturday to the news of an earthquake as strong as the one that had devastated and destabilized his home country 11 years earlier.

André thought of how the assassination of Haiti's president, Jovenel Moïse, had shocked the country and silenced the streets just weeks earlier. The assassination came as the country's parliament was barely operational and gang activity terrorized several neighbourhoods. 

It seemed like things couldn't get worse. 

"It's very, very painful. I feel helpless right now," said André.

By Tuesday evening, the death toll from Saturday's earthquake had risen to more than 1,900, with an additional 9,900 people reported injured.

Many Haitian Quebecers — who, like André, have family still in the country — anticipate further devastation after a tropical storm lashed heavy rain and winds onto the southern region on Tuesday. People are still trying to rescue the injured from beneath debris and hospitals are overrun, having to station patients on beds outside with little cover.

"The scars of 2010 are reopened. We thought everything was behind us and we were hoping things would change in Haiti, but for some reason it's still happening," said André, who has for years helped asylum seekers make and defend their claims to stay in Canada. 

Now, he is scrambling to find ways to help his home country, while making sure any money collected lands in the right hands. 

"I spoke to two or three other regional associations in Montreal — people who won't spend thousands of dollars on hotels, renting Jeeps and stuff," he said, referring to the mismanagement of funds that occurred after the 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince that killed more than 200,000 people. 

Making sure funds land in right hands

In 2015, NPR found that $500 million that had been raised by the American Red Cross had mostly been squandered in failed rebuilding efforts and mismanaged projects. In five years, it had only built six homes.

Billions more in foreign aid money was sent to the country, but little change was made. 

André and others want to make sure aid money this time goes straight to organizations on the ground that are already working to make a difference. 

Martine St-Victor, a well-known Quebec communications strategist who is also of Haitian descent, is on the board of Kanpé, a Haitian Canadian foundation that helps fund grassroots organizations in Haiti. St-Victor is also the co-host of a CBC podcast called Seat at the Table.

She says Kanpé is helping groups in its network that are focused on health care. 

"Shock and sadness were my first emotions when I saw the images coming through. The reality is that as a member of the diaspora — and I think for many Haitians back in Haiti, as well as for many friends of Haiti — I'm not sure we have the luxury of only being sad," St-Victor said. 

She said she also felt anger when hearing about what was happening because "inefficiencies that we see today are exactly the same" as in 2010, pointing to the lack of hospital supplies and of earthquake-proof buildings. 

"When I look at houses falling like houses of cards, I'm angry," St-Victor said. 

Another Kanpé board member, Francois Audet, who is also a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal, said the foundation is working to make sure the aid in Haiti doesn't stop once the emergency is over. 

"We will be there after that, for the long term, for the organizations [on the ground], for the agriculture, education, good governance, leadership as well, which are key for a country like Haiti," Audet said. 

Both André and St-Victor say their family members are safe as far as they know. But some of André's relatives in Jérémie, one of the hardest-hit cities, are among the tens of thousands now without a home.

He and St-Victor fear what the repercussions of another deadly natural disaster could mean for their families. 

"The mourning is national and it's not even about whether you were personally affected. You have countrymen who are. And so, there's sadness because of that and we accompany them in prayers because it's a very difficult time right now in Haiti," St-Victor said. 

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.