Cuban-Canadians Say Canada Shouldn’t Support Cuban Regime

A group of Cuban-Canadians gathered in front of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland's office building in downtown Toronto on March 22, 2024. (Liza Domenech)

A group of Cuban-Canadians gathered outside Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland’s Toronto office on Friday at an event they said was to demonstrate solidarity with protesters in Cuba who took to the streets March 17 in protest against food shortages and power outages.

Nelson Taylor Sol, a member of “Cuban Canadians for a Democratic Cuba,” was among dozens who arrived at Ms. Freeland’s constituency office in downtown Toronto at about 3 p.m. local time on March 22.

Mr. Taylor Sol told The Epoch Times a day earlier that members of the group “question Canada’s foreign policy towards Cuba.”

“We point [to] the contradiction of propping up the same regime that’s sending military support to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin as we speak,” he said, referring to a letter he wrote to Ms. Freeland on behalf of the group.

“So, Canada is propping up a regime which in turn supports a Canadian-sanctioned regime.”

In a follow-up email to The Epoch Times the day after the event, Mr. Taylor Sol said his group did not manage to hand the letter personally to someone at Ms. Freeland’s office, as “nobody seemed to be inside,” so they slid it through the mail slot on the door.

Related Stories

‘Predatory and Totalitarian’: Cuban-Canadians Call on Ottawa to Publicly Recognize the Cuban Regime as a Dictatorship

1/22/2021

Cubans Take to Streets in Protest Against Food Shortages, Blackouts

3/18/2024

According to reports by Reuters published last September, young Cuban men had in recent months enlisted in the Kremlin’s military amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, including those joining as mercenaries and others taken as victims in alleged human trafficking schemes.

On Sept. 8, 2023, the Cuban regime said it had arrested 17 people on charges related to the alleged human trafficking ring.

What followed about a week later were apparently conflicting statements made by two different Cuban government officials.

On Sept. 14, 2023, first, Cuba’s ambassador in Moscow said his government did not oppose its citizens’ legal participation in the Russia-Ukraine war. Then, hours later, Cuba’s foreign minister said Cuba rejects its citizens’ participation as mercenaries in war.

Six months later, on Feb. 16, The Wall Street Journal reported that Ruslan Spirin, Ukraine’s special representative to Latin America and the Caribbean, said his government believes that about 400 Cubans are fighting in Ukraine. The report added that Maryan Zablotskyi, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, estimated that between 1,500 and 3,000 Cubans have enlisted to fight for Russia.

The journal reported at the time that neither the Russian Embassy in Havana nor Cuban officials in Washington and Havana replied to requests for comment.

‘Sanction the Cuban Regime’

Mr. Taylor Sol’s letter, viewed by The Epoch Times, says Ottawa has been “propping up” the Cuban regime for decades despite multiple attempts by Cuban-Canadians urging it to stop.

“For 65 long years, several generations of exiles have unsuccessfully questioned the status quo of Canada’s foreign policy towards Cuba, which in a nutshell can be described as utter indifference vis a vis the population, while pretending to be one of ‘constructive engagement,’” the letter said.

“That has been the case regardless of which party holds power,” it added.

Canada’s relationship with Cuba deepened after former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau visited the communist-ruled country in 1976. It was the first visit by a Western leader since 1960—following the 1959 Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro that toppled the government of Fulgencio Batista.

“The visit set the tone for an enduring Canada-Cuba relationship,” said the office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a Nov. 16, 2016, news release.

The letter by the “Cuban Canadians for a Democratic Cuba” says Cuban authorities have been engaging in “ongoing interference and plotting against democracies of the region and elsewhere.”

In an interview on EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program in February 2022, Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat, an exiled Cuban activist, said Cuba is a major hub for a worldwide totalitarian movement and its intelligence network has spread its influence throughout the Western Hemisphere.

“They’re [a] very considerable foe for the United States and the Western Hemisphere,” he told the host at the time.

The letter by the Cuban Canadians’ group urges Ms. Freeland to cut all possible means of support to Russia through Cuba.

“[G]iven your Ukrainian background and clear commitment to supporting Ukraine against Putin’s imperialism, we now request, for Ukrainians’ sake, to stop backing Putin through his Caribbean proxy,” it said.

“For sanctions against Putin’s regime to be coherent, you must as well sanction the Cuban regime.”

The Epoch Times reached out to Ms. Freeland’s office for comment and confirmation that the letter has been received, but did not immediately hear back.

Reuters contributed to this report.