Your letter is needed: Canada must vote yes at crucial vote on Cuba
On October 27 and 28, the United Nations General Assembly will vote to end the decades-long U.S. embargo on Cuba. In the above video, Moderator Kimberly Heath urges us to send letters regarding the profound humanitarian crisis facing partners in Cuba to the Prime Minister and other key officials, letting them know that Canadians care, that Cubans cannot wait, and that Canada must act with courage, compassion, and urgency.
Your letter is needed now. The US administration continues to threaten military attacks against Cuba, causing increased stress and harm to the well-being of Cubans. While other leaders across Latin America condemn these threats, Canada has remained silent. This vote is another important opportunity for Canada to take clear and public action to respect the principles of national sovereignty and international norms, and to prevent war against Cuba and help end the full-blown humanitarian crisis. Canada must continue to vote "yes" in favour of ending the U.S. embargo, as it has done consistently for 33 years.
The United Church of Canada has been in partnership with churches and ecumenical organizations in Cuba for 50 years. These include the Cuban Council of Churches, the Martin Luther King Memorial Centre, the Christian Centre for Reflection and Dialogue, the Ecumenical Seminary for Theology, and the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba.
Partners tell us that the Cuban people are living in a profound humanitarian crisis. The U.S. fuel blockade, and the tightening of other U.S. coercive sanctions, has caused an unprecedented scarcity of food, access to potable water, transportation, basic medicines, and needed medical procedures. As a result, Cubans every day face slow and preventable deaths in inhumane conditions, with rural areas hit the hardest.
The country has experienced multiple blackouts that left the totality of its population without power for extended periods of time. Partners are responding through humanitarian relief for the most vulnerable, including children, seniors, and people living with disabilities. Partners provide pastoral support and accompaniment in the face of this asphyxiating blockade.
A group of independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council have urged swift action by the international community and civil society to prevent a “silent Gaza” from unfolding on the island. They stated that “Measures that knowingly deprive a population of the means to survive strike at the most basic guarantees of the rights to life and diminish the core of human dignity.”
Your letter will not only tell Canadian officials to vote “yes” the annual UN resolution to end the U.S. embargo on Cuba, but will ask them to:
- Publicly oppose and work to stop a U.S. military intervention in Cuba
- Speak out forcefully against unlawful U.S. coercive measures to withhold fuel and starve the Cuban people
- Work more determinedly with the United Nations and other countries, in ways that respect Cuban sovereignty, to get fuel and other life-sustaining supplies to Cuba.
- Increase Canadian government aid to Cuba (currently just $13.5 million to date)
Partnership with Cuban churches and ecumenical organizations has involved the exchange of personnel between theological schools, long-term relationships between local congregations, and sharing financial resources through the Mission and Service Fund. It has also involved advocating together for the end of the blockade against Cuba, for economic and gender justice, and for other key global ecumenical issues.