From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Haitians/Daniel Gay
The structure of Haitian life in Canada is based on both formal associations and informal networks. Little is known about how the informal networks operate. Most of the formal associations fulfil a specific function, although some are multi-functional. Such associations have existed at least since the early 1950s, especially in Quebec City and Ottawa. Most of the ones mentioned below were founded in the early 1970s, a period of heavy Haitian immigration to Canada.
Some associations promote the general interests of the community (Association des Haïtiens du Canada, founded in 1972). Others offer information, assistance, emergency services, or popular education that can help immigrants adapt to their new country (Bureau de la Communauté Chrétienne des Haïtiens de Montréal, 1972; Carifesta Canada-Caraïbéen, 1976; Association des Citoyens d’Origine Haïtienne du Canada, 1978; Centre Haïtien d’Orientation et d’Information Scolaire, 1980). Still others are directed towards promoting friendship between Haiti and Canada (Association Haïti-Canada, founded in Ottawa in 1974) or between Haiti and Quebec (Mouvement Fraternité Haïti-Québec, 1975), familiarizing Quebec society with essential aspects of Haitian culture (Société Toussaint L’Ouverture, 1975), or redefining or strengthening Haitian cultural identity (Lakou Lakay, Mapou Ginin, Asoto: the first means “the courtyard of our house” while the other two are Voodoo terms).
Working-class and professional Haitians alike have organized in separate occupational groupings: on one hand, the Association des Travailleurs et Travailleuses Haïtiens au Canada and the Association des Chauffeurs de Taxi d’Origine Haïtienne; and on the other, the Association des Médecins Haïtiens à l’Étranger, Association des Infirmières Noires du Québec, Association des Pasteurs Haïtiens au Québec, Association des Anciens Normaliens, Association des Écrivains Haïtiens à l’Étranger, Association des Gens d’Affaires Haïtiens, and the like. There are local Haitian associations in a number of major cities: Quebec City, Montreal, Sherbrooke, and Ottawa. Wherever numbers are sufficient and circumstances are favourable, major universities have associations of Haitian students. There are also associations that have been formed to meet specific needs – religious (Bureau de la Communauté Chrétienne des Haïtiens de Montréal), athletic (Haïtiana, Aurore), or other. In addition, especially in Montreal, Haitians have formed groups on the basis of the town or region where they were born: the Alliance Gonaïvienne de Montréal, the Association des Haïtiens Originaires du Cap-Haïtien, the Fraternité Valléenne, and associations of Haitians born in Verrette, Dessalines, Gros-Morne, Desdunes, St-Marc, Les Cayes, and other places.
Unfortunately, little information is available about the size of the membership of these associations. Their fortunes can be affected by ideological positions and by changes in immigration. Some individuals and groups encourage the adaptation or cultural integration of immigrants into Canadian society. By contrast, others are drawn more towards political action and participate in mass political movements and organizations, such as the Mouvement Anti-raciste du Québec and SOS-Racisme.
There is little useful information available on attitudes towards illness and towards the use of services provided by the community and society for the care of the sick. Many Haitians from the rural and urban working class, along with an indeterminate number of people from the middle and upper classes (including some who are educated and some Catholics), tend to believe that the source of physical or mental illness is a curse from the Voodoo gods. They readily call on the services of Haitian specialists in traditional medicine – hougans or Voodoo priests, dokté-feuilles or practitioners of “natural” healing – or even masters of the art of black, red, or white magic, for purposes of prevention, cure, or vengeance. This cultural model appears to be especially prevalent in areas such as the Montreal suburbs of Saint-Laurent and Montreal North.
Voodoo adherents and even some Haitian Catholics have a generally suspicious attitude towards Quebec’s community health centres, the Centres de Loisirs et de Santé Communautaires (CLSCs), and towards representatives of modern, technical medicine. Many believe that illness originates with evil spirits and that the only effective methods of dealing with it are ceremonies, exorcisms, ritual baths, the calling up of protective spirits, and the like. This belief leads to the notion that people need to be cautious, draw back, and sometimes even resign themselves to what in many situations is perceived as an unhappy fate.
Young black people are overrepresented in the youth-protection system in Quebec. Sixteen percent of the young people taken away from their families and placed in detention centres in 1991 came from visible minorities; of these, 60 percent were of Jamaican or Haitian origin. The president of the Conseil de la Communauté Noire du Québec noted that this “tragedy in human and financial terms” was more than just clear evidence of institutional racism. It was also proof of the government’s well-known incapacity to respond effectively to the needs of marginalized groups in the black community, especially in the areas of housing, employment, and education.
