Photos posted on social media by Canada’s embassy in Cuba show a member of the Royal Canadian Navy band leading congas during a performance in downtown Havana, interactions that call into question defense minister Bill’s description. Blair, of a port visit by a warship as a deterrent against Moscow.
The Canadian government has been criticized for making a friendly three-day naval stop in Cuba, a staunch ally of Russia that is also reportedly allowing China to build a spy base on the island.
The port visit by Canadian warship HMCS Margaret Brooke came after US and Canadian warships and surveillance aircraft tracked a Russian naval flotilla across the Atlantic Ocean as it conducted military exercises. Russian naval vessels, including a frigate and nuclear submarines, had been sent to Cuba after a warning from President Vladimir Putin that Moscow could arm countries to attack Western targets, in response to Ukraine’s allies allowing Kiev to attack targets. within Russia.
Blair’s office told reporters earlier this week that Canada does not consider Cuba an ally and the defense minister himself defended the port visit – something normally reserved for friendly nations – as an intention to send a message to Russia.
“Presence is deterrence. We were present,” he told reporters Monday.
In a June 17 post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Canadian embassy posted photos of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) entertaining people. “The musicians of the Naden Band of the RCN took the time this weekend to play music for an appreciative crowd in the Plaza de Armas in front of the Museum of the City of Havana,” one of the posts read. The photos included images of a member of the Canadian naval band leading members of the crowd in a conga.
The Globe and Mail requested an itinerary for the port visit from the Department of National Defense. Spokesman Kened Sadiku said HMCS Margaret Brooke co-hosted a meeting with the Canadian ambassador “for officials from many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Chile, Ecuador, Brazil and the host nation of Cuba.”
Lt. Commander Linda Coleman, senior communications advisor for the Department of Defense, said the musical performance was organized by the Department of Global Affairs.
“During their stay in the country, the ship’s personnel also participated in cultural exchanges in the Havana area,” he said. “A small number of personnel participated in this particular exchange, which was planned by the Canadian embassy in Havana, and served as a secondary event in addition to the military purpose of the visit.”
He said that only four sailors from the crew participated in this musical performance. Ships in this class have a maximum crew size of 85, she said.
However, Lt. Cte. Coleman emphasized that “the primary purpose of the visit was military.”
He said Canada is “committed to maintaining a military presence at sea and in the air around our continent, and foreign actors entering our neighborhood can expect to see our armed forces fulfilling their mission” of protecting Canada.
The Associated Press reported last year that China has been operating a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019, as part of a global effort by Beijing to improve its intelligence-gathering capabilities. The news service cited an unnamed member of US President Joe Biden’s administration as its source.
Michael Lima, a Cuban-Canadian and pro-democracy activist who criticizes the authoritarian government in Havana, said it is difficult to see how the Royal Canadian Navy’s musical entertainment fits in with a deterrence operation.
He said it’s disappointing to see a member of the Canadian navy “leading congas in a country with more than 1,000 political prisoners.” (Prisoners Defenders, a human rights advocacy group, said in a May 2024 report that the number of political prisoners in Cuba was 1,113.)
Mr. Lima said Canada’s friendly military visit to Cuba “raises strong ethical, moral and human rights questions.”
“On July 11, 2021, thousands of Cubans took to the streets in dozens of cities, from Havana to Santiago, calling for the resignation of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, in what international media called the largest anti-government demonstrations on the island. communist in decades. The protests erupted amid Cuba’s worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union, its former ally, and a record rise in coronavirus infections. The government’s reaction was ‘brutal and systematic repression and censorship. “, according to Human Rights Watch, an international human rights group.
Cuba, facing economic difficulties due to factors such as decades of embargo by the United States, has strengthened its relationship with Russia after Moscow’s assault on Ukraine in 2022. Hundreds of Cubans are reported to be fighting for Russia in the war against Ukraine , although Havana has publicly repudiated this recruitment.
In November 2022, Mr. Díaz-Canel, the Cuban president, visited Moscow where he and Mr. Putin inaugurated a monument to Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, pledging to deepen their friendship in the face of US sanctions against both countries.
Conservative Party defense critic James Bezan said Canada’s friendly gestures toward Cuba send “a disturbing message to Canada’s Ukrainian community and our ally Ukraine, that Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is celebrating a regime it supports.” actively to Vladimir Putin.
However, relations between Cuba and Canada have warmed under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He visited the island in November 2016 and, when Mr. Castro died later that month, issued a statement celebrating the authoritarian leader as a “legendary revolutionary and orator” and a “larger-than-life leader who served his people.” .
Por: Steven Chase
SENIOR PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
This article originally appeared in The Globe and Mail
Source: via Michael Lina
