Quebec investigators are accusing two Canadian aid workers with committing sex crimes against children at a Haitian orphanage.

Quebec provincial police arrested the two Quebec City men on Wednesday morning.

Sgt. Richard Gagné says the men are charged with multiple counts of sexual assault against children in Les Cayes, Haiti.

Haitian police began an investigation in 2007 after hearing a broadcast on a local radio station, said Sûreté du Québec spokeswoman Ann Mathieu.

"It was allegations that [had] been brought up by members of the population concerning some sexual crimes that were happening in an orphanage" in the port city on Haiti's southwestern coast, Mathieu told CBC News. 

Haiti authorities requested the assistance of United Nations mission workers, who then contacted the RCMP and provincial police, she said.

Arman Huard, 64, and Denis Rochefort, 59, were charged under rarely used provisions of the Criminal Code that allow police to charge Canadians with child-sex crimes committed in foreign countries.

Investigators say both men have done humanitarian work in Haiti for several years.

The men are to appear in court Wednesday afternoon.

With files from the Canadian Press