A senior senator says Canada will soon host a high-level Cuban delegation as parliamentarians debate how Ottawa should respond to the island nation’s deepening economic collapse, political repression and humanitarian crisis.“Cuba is on the ropes,” Sen. Peter Boehm, chair of the Senate foreign affairs committee, told a committee hearing. “It’s entirely true. Cuba needs friends.”Boehm said a senior delegation from Cuba is expected in Canada in the coming weeks and that some senators plan to meet with its members. He provided no further details.The Ontario senator, a former Canadian ambassador to the Organization of American States, said his connection to Cuba dates back to his early years in the foreign service.“My association with Cuba goes to my first posting in the foreign service,” said Boehm. “I was a junior officer who went out and spoke with the dissidents.”Blacklock's Reporter said Boehm also criticized the United States, arguing Washington has acted unilaterally toward Cuba without sufficient regard for regional institutions or allies.“The current situation is unprecedented in the sense the United States is moving in a way, in a manner, all its own with no regard to the Organization of American States, no regard to the hemisphere,” he said. “I suppose the consultation with us is minimal.”Foreign Affairs officials painted a bleak picture of conditions on the island.Mark Richardson, director general of the department’s Caribbean bureau, told senators Cuba is enduring the worst economic and energy crisis in its history. Canada has advised against non-essential travel to Cuba since Feb. 11.“Cuba is experiencing the worst economic and energy crisis in its history,” Richardson said. “The country is experiencing repeated nationwide power grid failures with blackouts lasting up to 48 hours.”“At the same time its government continues to restrict the political and economic rights of its people and to keep hundreds of political prisoners in detention,” he added. “This means there is no viable opposition within the country. Cuba is at a crossroads.”.Sen. Yuen Pau Woo challenged Richardson’s characterization of the crisis, questioning whether Ottawa was assigning sufficient responsibility to decades of U.S. sanctions.“You began your presentation by talking about the gravest humanitarian crisis facing Cuba and then quickly pivoted to the lack of political freedoms in the country,” said Woo. “Are you trying to suggest the gravest humanitarian crisis facing Cuba today is because of the Cuban government?”Richardson responded that the causes were complex and longstanding.“The senator asks an excellent question in terms of the causes of the current crisis today,” he said. “Historically we have seen Cuba has faced significant challenges, economic and political, for quite some time.”Woo also pressed officials on whether the U.S. embargo was the immediate cause of Cuba’s humanitarian emergency.“Our position is the current situation today is caused by an extremely complex geopolitical situation,” Richardson replied.Sen. Michael MacDonald took a sharply different view, arguing Canadians should avoid supporting Cuba’s Communist government through tourism.“I am one of those people who won’t go to Cuba out of principle,” said MacDonald. “I believe we are propping up a Communist government, a dictatorial government, by going to Cuba.”MacDonald said Cuban expatriates in Halifax had expressed similar concerns.“They tell me one of the worst things we can do is spend our tourism money in Cuba because all that money goes to prop the army up,” he said..Asked whether Canadians should continue travelling to Cuba, Richardson noted that between 700,000 and one million Canadians have historically visited the country each year.The federal government has continued providing aid to Cuba despite the turmoil. Ottawa has provided $13.5 million in assistance since February, following $6.84 million in aid last year.Appearing before the Commons foreign affairs committee on Feb. 24, Cuban Ambassador Rodrigo Diaz acknowledged the severity of conditions in his country.“We are having problems, not only with the access of medicine or equipment, but even for fuel to move the patients to hospital,” Diaz testified.When asked by Conservative MP Lianne Rood how many political prisoners Cuba currently holds, Diaz denied that anyone is jailed for political beliefs.“In Cuba, no one is in prison for their beliefs but for breaking the law,” he said.
