“Tomorrow, October 28th, Canada must stand with Cuba as the Canadian people are demanding the standard Cuba and to reject this economic war.” The next speaker is Isaac Saney, he is on the executive committee of the Canadian Network on Cuba and a professor at Dalhousie University of Black and African diaspora studies and history. “On October 28th, 2026, which is tomorrow, Canada will once again have an opportunity to make a consequential statement at the United Nations General Assembly to vote in support of Cuba's resolution calling for an end to the United States economic, commercial and financial war against the island nation. This vote is about nearly seven decades of aggression of Washington against Havana. It concerns the fundamental principles of international law, national sovereignty, multilateralism, and the rights of people to determine their own future. It is an opportunity for Canada to demonstrate that its foreign policy will not be dictated by U.S. imperial might. Since 1992, Canada has consistently voted for the resolution. This position has reflected a long standing recognition that unilateral economic coercion, particularly when extended beyond the borders of the country imposing it, undermines international law and the principles governing relations amongst nations, particularly among sovereign nations. Canada's vote in October 28th must reaffirm that position at the moment when, under the Trump regime, Washington's war on Cuba has relentlessly intensified and become an overtly genocidal siege. Let us be clear: Cuba's shortages and economic distress are not the result of natural disaster or internal collapse. They are the foreseeable and intended outcomes of a systematic campaign by Washington, now intensified by Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, to strangle Cuba’s access to fuel, medicines, medical equipment, foreign exchange and trade. Washington's goal is to induce mass starvation and desperation. This intent was clearly outlined by Lester Mallory, then Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, as one of who and who was one of the architects of the US policy towards Cuba. In a now declassified an infamous memorandum of April 6th, 1960. And I quote: “Most Cubans support Castro, the only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection, based on economic dissatisfaction and on hardship. Every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba, denying money and supplies to Cuba, decrease monetary and real wages to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of the government.” The question is therefore straightforward: Will Canada repudiate Washington's onslaught and asphyxiation of Cuba? Will Ottawa defended the principles it claims to uphold or will it allow US pressure to erode its commitment to international law, to sovereignty and peaceful relations amongst nations? If Canada fails at this, this will amount to an unambiguous and equivocal complicity in this genocidal siege. Tomorrow, October 28th, Canada must stand with Cuba as the Canadian people are demanding the standard Cuba and to reject this economic war.”

Isaac Saney of the Canadian Network on Cuba and a professor at Dalhousie University of Black and African diaspora studies and history: “Many economists, many specialists in Cuba, point to the principal cause of the Cuban economic distress as being this unprecedented economic war waged against Cuba that has now become a genocidal siege. It's become an obsession of Donald Trump, but particularly Marco Rubio, to starve an entire people into submission by deeming, by denying them basic access to trade, to fuel and the basic necessities. One question I'd like to point out: What country could withstand this would stand what Cuba has done for the last nearly nine, ten months of this vicious, vicious economic warfare raids against it? What would happen to Canada if somebody were to cut off its access to international trade and so forth? It would lead to chaos. And so I think it's important to bear in mind that what Cuba is undertaking, as Julio has pointed out, with its 176 measures, has been long debated and discussed about improving the efficiencies of the economy. But as the United Nations report and many scholars have pointed out in the studies, the principal cause of Cuba's economic distress is this is this criminal, illegal and immoral economic war waged by Washington.”

Canadians call for independent foreign policy of peace with Cuba and to oppose the blockade at the United Nations 🇨🇺 The Canadian Network on Cuba— a coalition of 26 solidarity organizations—held a press conference in Ottawa today to demand that the Government of Canada take immediate and concrete action to counter the devastating impact of the United States’ economic war against Cuba in the name of Canadian sovereignty. The press conference comes after a parliamentary petition was presented by Member of Parliament Leah Gazan (NDP). This is the third petition on this topic to come to the floor in 2026, collecting thousands of signatures, and arrives just before Canadian delegates will vote on the position of the United States blockade at the UN General Assembly on Oct. 28. The petition and coalition call on Ottawa to undertake the following measures without delay: 1. Deepen and defend economic and cultural exchanges between Canada and Cuba in the face of United States aggression; 2. Enforce the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act, to protect Canadian corporations who do business in Cuba against United States sanctions; 3. Lift the Government of Canada’s advisory against non-essential travel to Cuba and expand opportunities for tourism and trade; and 4. Reaffirm Canada’s historic opposition to the United States embargo against Cuba at the United Nations and support the annual resolution on the Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo. The CNC states that the deliberate use of economic coercion to deprive a population of essential resources raises grave humanitarian and international legal concerns. It calls for an immediate end to measures that threaten the well-being of the Cuban people. Canada must also take concrete measures to protect Canadian businesses and institutions from the extraterritorial application of U.S. sanctions. We heard first from Juilo Fonseca, Co-Chair of the Canadian Network On Cuba and member of the Juan Gualberto Gomez Association of Cuban Residents in Toronto.