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Vancouver Sun
8 minutes ago
- Vancouver Sun
U.S. offers $5M reward for arrest of powerful Haitian gang leader known as ‘Barbecue'
A federal grand jury has indicted one of Haiti's most powerful gang leaders and a U.S. citizen accused of conspiring with him to violate U.S. sanctions and fund gang activities in the troubled Caribbean country, the U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday. Jimmy Cherizier, best known as 'Barbecue,' is a leader of a gang federation called Viv Ansanm that the U.S. designated as a foreign terrorist organization in May. Cherizier lives in Haiti, and the United States is offering up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction. Chris Landberg, a senior U.S. State Department official, said his 'reign of terror and mass violence against Haiti must end.' Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. However, Jake Johnston, author of 'Aid State' and international research director at the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, questioned the government's reason for offering a bounty. 'This is a guy who is giving international media interviews regularly. I don't think the issue is being able to find him,' Johnston said, adding that the indictment doesn't represent a threat to Cherizier since he lives in Haiti. 'It's hard to see how it'll have much of an effect.' A policeman turned gang leader Cherizier is a former elite police officer who was fired in December 2018 and was later accused of organizing large-scale massacres in the slums of Grand Ravine in 2017, in La Saline in 2018 and in Bel-Air in 2019. More than 100 people were killed in the massacres, which Cherizier has denied organizing. 'Haiti is a hotspot right now … there is incredible violence going on there,' U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Tuesday, calling La Saline killings 'notorious because (Cherizier) both planned and participated' in the slaughter. In June 2020, Cherizier created the ' G9 Family and Allies,' an alliance that grew from nine gangs in lower Delmas and the Cite Soleil and La Saline slums to include more than a dozen gangs, according to a UN Security Council report. The alliance was blamed for the killings of some 145 people in Cite Soleil and the rape of multiple women. In December 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department issued civil sanctions against Cherizier and others accused of being involved in the massacres. The G-9 alliance later became part of the Viv Ansanm gang federation created in September 2023 that saw the merging of Haiti's two biggest gangs that were once bitter enemies: G-9 and G- Pep. Since then, the federation has taken control of 90% of Port-au-Prince. It launched multiple attacks on key government infrastructure in February 2024 and raided Haiti's two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. It also forced Haiti's main international airport to close for nearly three months. The surge in violence led to the resignation of former Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was locked out of his country while on an official visit to Kenya. The gang federation continues to attack once peaceful communities in Port-au-Prince, and it is accused of helping gangs in Haiti's central region. Also indicted is Bazile Richardson, whom officials say is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Haiti who grew up with Cherizier and lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Both are accused of leading a 'wide-ranging conspiracy' by directly soliciting money transfers from members of the Haitian diaspora to raise funds for Cherizier's gang activities in Haiti, according to the indictment. It stated that the money was used to pay the salaries of gang members and buy weapons from illegal dealers in Haiti. Most of the firearms are smuggled in from the U.S. since Haiti does not produce weapons. According to the indictment, there are two other unnamed co-conspirators from Haiti who live in New York and Massachusetts, and five others who live in Haiti. Cherizier said in a video posted on social media that Richardson never sent him money to finance anything in Haiti. 'If the FBI wants me, I'm here. I'm willing to collaborate with them on one condition, there can be no lies told,' Cherizier said, speaking in English. It was not immediately clear if Richardson had an attorney. The indictment noted that Cherizier and Richardson have acknowledged the sanctions against Cherizier, adding that the alleged conspiracy began around December 2020 and continued through January of this year. One voice memo that an unidentified co-conspirator in Haiti allegedly sent to Richardson stated: 'If I have backup, we will take the power, and you will be able to come back to your country. You will need to serve in the new government.' Richardson forwarded the alleged memo to Cherizier in June 2022, nearly a year after former President Jovenel Moise was killed at his private residence. Another person identified only as a Haitian co-conspirator allegedly sent a voice memo to Richardson saying, 'we want to start a revolution in Haiti and are trying to collect funds.' Part of the plan was to have 1,000 individuals give $20 each or 1 million Haitians abroad give $1 each, as well as collect money from 1,000 people for each of Haiti's 10 regions, according to the indictment. 'With this money, they can buy pick-up trucks, weapons, ammunition, clothing to include T-shirts, boots and hats. We want to change everything in Haiti,' according to one alleged voice memo. In June 2021, Cherizier held a press conference announcing the start of a revolution. A crackdown on violence The indictment comes as gang violence continues to surge in Haiti's capital and beyond, with gunmen kidnapping an Irish missionary and seven other people, including a 3-year-old, from an orphanage earlier this month. The office of Haiti's prime minister did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the indictment. Johnston said the broader strategy in the fight against gangs remains unclear. 'It does seem like there's sort of an escalatory framework happening both in Haiti and the U.S.,' he said. 'Where does that actually go?' Darren Cox, acting assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, said the bureau's Miami office is leading the effort to apprehend Cherizier. 'The FBI is focused more than ever on crushing violent crime,' Cox said. 'There is no safe haven for them, or the people like them.' Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Globe and Mail
8 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Quebec says Bill 21 opponents are trying to overturn established law
The Quebec government says legal opponents challenging its secularism law at the Supreme Court of Canada are merely rehashing old, failed arguments in an effort to overturn established legal precedent. On Tuesday, Quebec filed 100 pages of legal arguments to the Supreme Court ahead of a hearing in which it will defend Bill 21 in court for a third time. The province won two previous decisions in the lower courts in Quebec, which led to the current appeal at the Supreme Court. Quebec's Bill 21, enacted in 2019, bans public sector workers, including teachers, from wearing religious symbols such as hijabs on the job. The province's goal is to promote secularism in Quebec, but critics argue it is an attack on minority rights. Record number of groups to speak at Supreme Court case against Quebec secularism law Quebec has won two court battles for overriding Charter rights to implement its secularism law. Now the fight hits the Supreme Court The Bill 21 case represents a landmark hearing at the Supreme Court, where the country's top court will consider governments' ability to override the rights and freedoms of Canadians in detail for the first time in almost four decades. The provincial government used Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the notwithstanding clause, to shield the secularism law from constitutional challenges on the basis of freedom of religion and other rights. The province's Tuesday filing says opponents are trying to circumvent its proper use of Section 33. In French, the filing says such arguments are asking the Supreme Court 'to amend established law.' Quebec further said its opponents are using legal arguments that have previously failed and that the challengers have not exposed errors in last year's Quebec Court of Appeal decision on Bill 21, which broadly upheld the provincial government's actions. The appeal court, Quebec said in its filing, 'conducted a detailed and meticulous analysis of all the arguments raised by the appellants and rightly dismissed them.' The key precedent is a 1988 case called Ford, where the Supreme Court considered Section 33 on a narrow legal basis but didn't delve in deeper questions about the notwithstanding clause. The Supreme Court at the time said the 'essential requirement' is for a government that uses Section 33 to name the Charter sections it aims to override. The basis of Quebec's Bill 21 argument is that the Ford decision is a precedent that should not be reconsidered. In Bill 21, Quebec stated it was using Section 33 to override the 10 sections of the Charter to which the notwithstanding clause can apply. But in the decades since Ford, and especially in recent years as more provincial governments have used Section 33 to shield laws, legal academics and others have argued there may be more for the top court to say about the notwithstanding clause. That includes whether it can be invoked pre-emptively, as Quebec did with Bill 21, or whether a court can declare rights have been violated even if a law is allowed to continue to operate because of Section 33. This week, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal said there is room for such judicial declarations. Last year, the Quebec appeal court came to the opposite conclusion. Six groups are appealing last year's Quebec Court of Appeal decision. They filed their legal arguments in mid-April. The appellants want the Supreme Court to overturn Bill 21. Among the arguments is a call to reconsider the 1988 Ford precedent. Further arguments include looking at other parts of the Charter, the Constitution, Canada's history and the limits of provincial powers to question the validity of Quebec's use of Section 33 in Bill 21. In Quebec's arguments filed Tuesday, the province said the Bill 21 case 'does not raise any new issues distinct from those considered in Ford.' Quebec then suggested that two of the appellants are effectively trying to rewrite Section 33 of the Charter 'to add conditions that are not found there.' A Bill 21 hearing has not been scheduled, but it could happen this winter. Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner has said it could be heard over three days. Most Supreme Court hearings take one day; rare cases occupy two days. The landmark Bill 21 case has attracted a record number of intervenors, as 38 outside groups will present written legal arguments to the court by mid-September. The federal government is also set to file its legal arguments at the same time, alongside six provincial attorneys-general, including Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. Ottawa has previously expressed concern about provincial governments pre-emptively invoking Section 33.
CTV News
8 minutes ago
- CTV News
Yukon, Alaska sign agreement to address missing and murdered Indigenous people
The coat of arms of Yukon is seen on the outside of the Yukon Legislative Building, in Whitehorse, on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck WHITEHORSE — WHITEHORSE — The Yukon has signed an agreement with the state of Alaska to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people. The territorial government says the memorandum of understanding was initiated in April 2024 and was signed in Whitehorse on Tuesday. It says in a news release that the document marks a 'significant milestone' that will strengthen cross-border collaboration. The territory says it will unite efforts and enhance communication to improve safety and better respond to gender-based violence in northern communities. It says the agreement fulfils a milestone under the Yukon's strategy for responding to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The territory says Yukon and American officials met after the signing ceremony to exchange expertise. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2025.
