The World : Priest Expelled by Haiti

Father Rene Poirier, 54, a Canadian Roman Catholic priest, was arrested and expelled by Haiti’s military government because he was “guilty of insulting public statements liable to compromise the social and political order,” an Information Ministry statement said. The statement gave no details, but in a radio interview, Poirier’s Canadian assistant, Brother Luc Denomme, linked the expulsion to an argument July 31 between Poirier and a powerful local official. Denomme said the priest had refused to give the official the names of people who took part in a discussion session during a recent Mass, comparing the official to the Duvalier dynasty’s feared Tontons Macoute special militia, which was disbanded shortly after the fall of the dictatorship in February, 1986.