In Toronto Star, Christie Neufeldt calls on Canada to increase assistance and oppose US violation of international law and Cuban sovereignty
Cuban partners of the United Church are facing the worst crisis in their history.
Electricity generation, hospitals, health services, sanitation, public transport, food distribution, and clean water access are paralyzed, with island-wide power outages reported.
A Toronto Star article published this past weekend featured an interview with the United Church’s Christie Neufeldt, Global Partnerships Coordinator, Latin America and the Caribbean and member of the Americas Policy Group, who spoke to the desperate need for Canada’s humanitarian assistance in Cuba.
“The Cuban people lack sufficient food and medicine, and access to safe drinking water, health care and transportation is deteriorating,” said Neufeldt. “Just days ago, partners said a pregnant woman gave birth on the street.... At the Santa Marta maternity hospital, there has been no fuel to prepare food for patients. Staff have gathered firewood to cook food for patients.”
The United Church of Canada emphasizes that dialogue surrounding the crisis that Cubans face must centre on the urgent need for life-saving support and ending the long-standing US blockade against Cuba. The blockade has been recognized for decades by the United Nations as a violation of international law and human rights, and includes comprehensive, multi-layered economic, commercial, and financial sanctions that have affected Cubans’ access to the basics of life, including food, energy, transportation, and healthcare.
Partners in Cuba work daily with local communities and congregations to attend to the needs of those most affected by the crisis—including women, children, seniors, and people living with disabilities. They provide humanitarian assistance, medical supplies, access to water and food, among a whole host of other programs.
From March 28 to 31, United Church General Secretary Rev. Michael Blair is joining several ecumenical partners in a visit to Cuba to bring solidarity and support to the church’s partners. While assistance that the United Church and other Canadian churches and organizations have sent them has been able to mitigate hunger in communities, more is needed.
Get involved
Canada must act now. Mission and Service partners in Cuba are experiencing severe shortages of medicines, water, food, transportation, and energy. Please add your voice to urge Canadian elected officials to increase humanitarian assistance, oppose the US oil blockade, and uphold Canada’s commitment to Cuba’s self-determination. Take action today.
“The humanitarian crisis is partly the result of a deliberate, cruel, 60-year-old U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade. President Trump’s threat of tariffs on countries that provide fuel to Cuba has made an already dire situation worse… if we truly care about the Cuban people, the blockade should be lifted,” said Neufeldt in the Star.
The blockade has seen a drastic escalation in the Trump era, with 240 additional punitive measures to Cuba introduced in Trump’s first term. In January 2026, the Trump administration introduced coercive tariffs against any country that directly or indirectly provided fuel to Cuba, directly precipitating the present dire crisis in a country highly dependent on imported fuel for essential services.
It is crucial, Neufeldt argued, for Canada to stand by its long-held foreign policy position of opposing American intervention to bring about regime change in Cuba: “Canada has a duty to uphold territorial integrity, sovereignty and the right of people to live without fear of invasion.”
“Humanitarian assistance should follow the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. [Assistance] must be based on need alone and not subject to political conditions,” she said.
Congregations take action
Your congregation can get involved too: at Westworth United in Winnipeg, the Social and Environmental Justice team presented a petition for congregational members to sign, which was sent to The Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Information has also been given to the many members who’ve inquired as to how to get funds to Cuba, and the congregation is organizing a fundraising concert in early April for Cuban partners.
This is the fruit of a long relationship with Mission and Service partners in Cuba, including the Luyanó Congregation of the Presbyterian Reformed Church of Cuba, the Ecumenical Seminary of Theology, and the Cuban Council of Churches.
Members of Trinity United in Lively, Ontario, visited the Christian Centre for Reflection and Dialogue (CCRD) in Cardenas in 2024 to learn more about their work and the context in Cuba. As a result of this growing relationship, Trinity and the region recently sent $7000 to CCRD to support their agroecological farm, key for their food security programming, and are raising funds to support them in the current crisis.
Read the article in the Toronto Star now. Note that the article’s framing and quotes are heavily edited from the original interview, resulting in lack of context and clarity.