The next time Bruce Brown and a team of volunteers head to Haiti, they’ll be sure to wear Canadian flags.
That’s because the former RCMP officer is concerned that he and his people will be met with hostility — thanks to an American president who described the country as a “s***hole.”
Coverage of Haiti on Globalnews.ca:
Brown is part of group of B.C. volunteers that includes Rotarians, retired police officers and firefighters.
They’ve visited the country over a dozen times and raised over $300,000 to help an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, grow and become self-sufficient.
“There’s hopes of building a large garden where they can grow vegetables,” Brown told Global News.
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But President Donald Trump’s recent comment, in which he reportedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as “s***holes,” has made matters more difficult for the group.
Trump has denied making the remark.
Brown can’t wait to go back, but he said the group will nevertheless return to Haiti with “eyes wide open.”
“These kids are amazing,” he said of the Haitian children he’s met there.
“They have so much to deal with, yet they are loving and helpful and kind to each other, which is I think the message that we want to try to send, contrary to somebody else.”
One safeguard the group will take on in Haiti?
They’ll be wearing Canadian flags.