Haitian-Windsorite details country’s heartbreaking tumble into turmoil

When Betty Sylvain was a teenager, she fled Haiti amid the unrest of the 80s and 90s. Now she watches from her home in Windsor as chaos once again befalls her home country.

“When I see those kids running down the street? That reminds me of when I was going down the street, getting caught in tear gas,” she said. “It saddens me to see that is still ongoing - and to be honest I don't see any end in sight.”

Thursday, Canada announced it was pulling nonessential employees from the embassy in Port-au-Prince amid increasing conflict in the Caribbean nation.

Violent gangs fight for control of the country, with innocent civilians often caught in the crossfire.

Sylvain said the images seen these days do not reflect the Haiti in which she was raised.

“There is Haiti that I know and this Haiti you see on television,” she said.

Brought up on a farm, Sylvain recounted her “peaceful” upbringing. Peace she said was disrupted when she was 10 years old.

“That’s when the country went sideways. And kept going downhill since then,” she said.

It has been 15 years since Sylvain was last in Haiti.

Glen Jackson, a Lakeshore-based philanthropist, hasn’t been in four.

“The gangs took over, and they warned me not to go,” he said.

Jackson has been working to bring aid to Haitians since the catastrophic earthquake in 2010.

As the president of Javelin Education and Medical Fund, he helps run schools and clinics in the country’s north.

He said he’s hearing horrific firsthand accounts of the gang violence.

“I got an email from a young man in Port-au-Prince recently who said the gangs came into his house one night,” Jackson said.

“He escaped with his son and a cell phone. That's all he got and everything else was destroyed. And there's no reason for this man to be a target. He's just a guy.”

Jackson’s organization will host a gala on April 13 with funds benefiting their efforts in Hiati.

CTV’s Bob Bellacicco will host, with tickets on sale for $100 or $75 for students.

He recommends calling Maggie at 519-890-8240 to purchase.