Canada should increase aid to Cuba and work with other countries to ease impact of U.S. sanctions

The Christian Centre for Reflection and Dialogue - Cuba, delivers healthy, tasty food by bicycle trolleys in Cardenas to over 100 people daily. Those receiving the food often live alone, lack family support, live with disabilities and/or are seniors.

Call on the Canadian government to increase food and medical aid to Cuba and work with other countries to ease the impact of U.S. sanctions.

Take Action Now

Canadian churches, trade unions and other non-governmental organizations are working together to encourage the Government of Canada to increase aid to Cuba in this time of exceptional need and ensure humanitarian aid and development assistance is not restricted by U.S. sanctions and other measures.

Cubans describe their current living conditions as the worst they have experienced since before the 1959 revolution. Cuba is still suffering an economic slump provoked by the COVID pandemic. Effects of the downturn are magnified by the decades-long imposition of sanctions (sometimes referred to as the “embargo” or the “blockade”) by the United States. Between 2007 and 2022, Cuba has dropped 30 places in the Human Development Index (from 53 in 2007 to 83 in 2022).

In 2024, UNICEF placed Cuba—for the first time—as a country where a third of the country’s children are living in poverty. This year, also for the first time, Cuba requested support from the World Food Program for powdered milk for children under seven.

What’s Happening in Cuba
Cuban partner organizations and recent visitors say conditions in Cuba today are much more difficult than in the early 1990s when the implosion of the Soviet Union led to a massive deterioration in living standards. The pandemic shuttered the tourism industry, a main source of revenue used to acquire food, medicines and fuel from abroad. Cuba has also suffered a series of hurricanes, droughts and floods, leading to lost crops and food shortages. Energy shortages limit public transit and even the collection of garbage. Punitive U.S. measures under both Trump and Biden have also reversed the many gains delivered by the easing of such measures by the Obama administration.

The return of Trump in 2025, and appointment of Marco Rubio, a vocal proponent of increased sanctions on Cuba, as U.S. Secretary of State, means additional measures against the Cuban people may be imposed. U.S. measures not only prevent U.S. citizens and businesses from providing support to the Cuban people, they also interfere with the delivery of humanitarian aid by other countries because banks limit transactions; suppliers face risks of U.S. retaliation; and shipping of freight becomes more complicated and costly.

Try to imagine what living conditions are like for the average Cuban:

  • Daily power outages
  • Spending 70% of income on food
  • Inflation rate of 31%
  • Monthly salary of US$16-23, enough for 3 kilos or powdered milk or a tray of 30 eggs
  • Pension for seniors is about US$5/month
  • Ration book supplies cut drastically: no coffee, bread rolls reduced from 80 to 60 grams
  • Cuba imports 80% of its food as national production dropped
  • 10% of the people lack sufficient water
  • Hospital conditions have deteriorated: the infant mortality rate has increased 50% in recent years; 12,000 doctors (with a similar number of nurses) have left the profession
  • Cuba is short 24,000 teachers in the 2024-25 school year
  • Insufficient fuel means fewer garbage trucks and buses
  • Friends and family are leaving: 1 million since 2020, mostly from 15-49 age cohort

Fortunately, asking Canada to support Cuba in this way is consistent with Canada's history of strong relations with Cuba and the fact that Canada has maintained an independent foreign policy:

  • Canadian non-governmental organizations, faith-based groups, trade unions and civil society groups have worked continuously with Cuban partners to maintain strong people to people connections and to provide humanitarian and development assistance.
  • In 2024, Canada contributed $1.7 million in humanitarian assistance in response to several emergencies including Hurricanes Oscar and Rafael. Funds were shared via multilateral agencies including the World Food Program and UNICEF, along with NGOs including CARE Canada, the Canadian Red Cross and Humanity and Inclusion.
  • Canadian “blocking legislation” seeks to protect Canadian corporations from U.S. measures that aim to prevent foreign countries from engaging in international trade with Cuba.
  • Canada and Mexico were the only two countries in the Western hemisphere in the 1960s to preserve diplomatic relations with Cuba.
  • Cuba was the first country to be granted permission to fish in Canadian waters when Canada extended the 12-mile territorial limit to 200 miles.
  • Today, Canadians comprise the largest number of tourists to visit the island (34% of all tourists to the island).
  • Cuba is Canada’s top market in the Caribbean/Central American sub-region and is Canada’s largest merchandise export market in that region.

Resources

United Church support for farmers with dis abilities in Cuba
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flfb2ax8Sj8&list=PLQDu-SgFb3RhYlxVfQOxbo1DjO9ezW-sR&index=8&t=191s

Biden’s Cuba Policy Leaves the Island in Wreckage
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/where-to-watch-the-debateand-a-dispatch

Crisis in Cuba: a role for Canada?
https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/crisis-in-cuba-a-role-for-canada

TAKE ACTION
To counter the impact of U.S. measures, Canada should:

  • Continue to scale up efforts to provide immediate food, medicines and medical supplies and ongoing development assistance to Cuba;
  • Strengthen its commitment to an independent foreign policy with Cuba based on dialogue, constructive engagement and respect for self determination rather than punitive measures such as sanctions that only hurt the Cuban people;
  • Work with other countries, including from Latin America, the Caribbean and others, to prevent U.S. measures that isolate and harm the Cuban people and that interfere with the delivery of humanitarian assistance by other countries, including Canada.
  • The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs
  • The Honourable Michael Chong (Conservative Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs)
  • Député Stéphane Bergeron (Porte-parole du bloc québécois en matière d’Affaires étrangères)
  • MP Heather McPherson (NDP Foreign Affairs Critic)
  • Sylvie Bédard (Director General, Central America and Caribbean Bureau, Global Affairs Canada)
  • Marianick Tremblay (Canadian Ambassador to Cuba)
  • MP Anita Vandenbeld (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development)
To The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs,

I write to encourage the Government of Canada to continue to increase emergency and development assistance to Cuba in this time of exceptional need and to expand diplomatic efforts to ease the negative impacts of sanctions imposed by the United States.

In the wake of the three-year COVID-19 pandemic, the Cuban economy weakened dramatically, with dire impacts for the Cuban people. While tourists have begun to return, effects of the pandemic linger and are magnified by the decades-long imposition of sanctions (sometimes referred to as the “embargo” or the “blockade”) by the United States. Worse still, the Trump administration put Cuba on its list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, making financial transfers—even family remittances—and trade even more difficult. It remained there until President Biden's final week in office and may be restored by the incoming Trump administration. 

On April 13, 2023, Canadian churches, trade unions and aid organizations wrote to you and to the development minister to ask:

• That Canada use its significant capacity to scale up its efforts to provide immediate food, medicines and medical supplies to Cuba, and to do so directly through bilateral government to government relations, through multilateral fora like the United Nations and through Canadian and Cuban civil society initiatives. In particular, there is urgent need for powdered milk and other milk products, basic grains and antibiotics.

• That the Canadian government press the U.S. government to ease sanctions and to remove Cuba from its list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. That mechanism even limited financial support from individuals to family members and transfers from non-governmental organizations attempting to assist Cubans. 

Given the change of administration in Washington in January 2025, Canada will need to maintain the independence and integrity of its foreign policy—free from US interference—and continue its historic approach of constructive engagement with Cuba. Canada should also work with allies in Latin America, the Caribbean and elsewhere to resist U.S. laws that hinder or restrict relations by other countries with Cuba and its people.  

I urge the Government of Canada to act now. These proposals would assist the Cuban population as it struggles through the most difficult period it has faced in the past sixty years. Given our close bilateral ties on the one hand, and the huge difficulties faced by the Cuban population on the other, any humanitarian and diplomatic support for the Cuban people would be enormously helpful and would benefit Canadian relations in the region. We remain convinced that constructive engagement is a better approach than willful and harmful isolation.

Sincerely,
[your first name] [your last name]
[your email address]
[your postal code]