Parliamentary Committee Notes: Funding to support the international security assistance efforts in Haiti
Proposed Response
- The Government of Canada remains deeply concerned about the ongoing political, security, and humanitarian crisis in Haiti.
- Canada is committed to aiding the Haitian National Police in combatting gang violence.
- The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) continues to leverage its national policing expertise to provide advisory services that support the Haitian National Police to enhance safety and security in Haiti.
Financial Implications
- The RCMP is receiving funding of $2.4 million ($2 million in voted authorities and $0.4 million in statutory authorities) for 2024-25 to support Canada’s continued response to the security crisis in Haiti.
- The RCMP will utilize this funding to support the continued operations of the Haiti Integrated Intelligence Cell (HIIC).
- Led by the RCMP, the HIIC enables a cohesive government response to the crisis in Haiti through interagency collaboration and coordination, and provides the Government of Canada and its allies with integrated, all-source intelligence and analysis of the evolving security situation.
If pressed on the specific law enforcement role of the RCMP in Haiti.
- Via the Canadian Police Arrangement (CPA), the RCMP has deployed law enforcement personnel into peace operations activities since 1989, participating in more than 65 operations worldwide and involving more than 4,000 Canadian police officers.
- Enabled by the CPA, the International Peacekeeping and Peace Operations Program provides a more permanent capacity to deploy Canadian police officers to international peacekeeping and peace operations missions.
- The RCMP continues to provide support and training to help the Haitian National Police build best practices and skillsets to form a foundation to grow its capacity, and provide for the safety and security of its citizens.
Background
The RCMP is seeking access to new resources for 2024-25 to support Canada’s continued response to the security crisis in Haiti by supporting the Haiti Integrated Intelligence Cell. The Haiti Integrated Intelligence Cell is currently staffed via deployments from existing intelligence teams in the RCMP. It provides tactical and operational intelligence to Canadian decision makers and works to identify opportunities to disrupt Haitian-linked criminality. Rapid, temporary assignment of internal RCMP intelligence personnel from intelligence areas in RCMP Headquarter and Divisions was implemented in order to meet the immediate needs of the Government of Canada in its coordinated response to the crisis.
The Canadian Police Arrangement and Canadian Law Enforcement Deployments
The Government of Canada, via the RCMP, has deployed law enforcement personnel into peace operations activities since 1989, participating in more than 65 operations worldwide and involving more than 4,000 Canadian police officers. The International Peacekeeping and Peace Operations Program (IPP Program) was created in 2006 to provide a more permanent capacity to deploy Canadian police officers to international peacekeeping and peace operations missions.
The IPP acts as a foreign policy tool aiming to stabilize fragile states and conflict-affected situations through the re-establishment of effective public institutions. Police deployments fulfill a niche role within the Government of Canada’s overall security sector reform toolkit. Canadian police deployments support critical changes within foreign security forces and institutions, working to stabilize the security situation of fragile and conflict-affected states, and contribute to Canada’s commitments to advance the women, peace and security agenda.
The Role of Canadian Law Enforcement in Haiti
The role of law enforcement personnel deployed to Haiti is to provide advice and capacity-building for local law enforcement in order to build best practices and skillsets, to form a foundation for the HNP to grow its capacity and provide for the safety and security of its own citizenry. Train and assist missions go a step further and provide direct training to recipients in law enforcement techniques, practices, and procedures at the tactical and strategic level. From an international perspective, the RCMP is implicated in sanctions enforcement and cases where there are links to criminality in Canada (e.g. kidnappings, financial crime, drug trafficking, etc.).
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