Edward Said brilliantly taught us how imperialism may be initiated through military combat and conquest, but that the cultural support in the motherlands had to be cultivated through different means. In Canada, our participation in repressions in Haiti are buttressed by the doctrine of our "Responsibility to Protect" - a cultural prism of altruism through which all Canadian are meant to see themselves - and which is part of a larger American global strategy of "democracy promotion."

In a recent article published in Canadian Dimension, Anthony Fenton describes how "democracy promotion" has become the acceptable term for imperialist intervention on the global stage. Canada's piece in this pie is the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine, presented to the UN in December 2001 and at the 2005 World Summit, where Canada advocated for its adoption by world leaders. According to Yves Engler and Nik barry-shaw, the doctrine "asserts that where gross human rights abuses are occurring, it is the duty of the international community to intervene, over and above considerations of state sovereignty."