CBC Ombudsman

ombud@cbc.ca

www.cbc.ca/ombudsman

Reply to “As holidaying Canadians return to Cuba…” article by Evan Dyer on CBC.

March 7, 2023

Dear Ombudsman:

What has happened to journalism in Canada and more specifically to the CBC? 

What has happened to speaking truth to power? 

The unbelievable ignorance and superficiality reflected in the information in Mr. Dyer’s article are astounding. Is it ignorance or is it deliberate in ignoring the elephant in the room: the embargo (conservatively speaking) against Cuba by successive U.S. governments for the last sixty-plus years is never mentioned to round out the present-day context of the problems the people of Cuba are facing. The article reminds me of the proverbial fox in the henhouse and then blaming the hens for allowing themselves to be eaten.

Surely Mr. Dyer and his editors are aware of the U.S. policy of long-term sanctions and actions to destroy Cuba’s economy as outlined in a memo written April 6, 1960, by Lester Mallory, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs in the U.S. government when it became obvious that changing the minds of the vast majority of people supporting the revolution was an impossibility. Mallory proposed that the U.S. “…deny money and supplies…to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.” 

Since then economic and other measures have been initiated by the most powerful country in the world against an island off its coast in order to bring the country under U.S. control again as it was prior to the revolution. Is it deliberate on CBC’s part to present an article that subscribes to this U.S. policy, in effect for decades, by promoting the impression that Cuba’s socialist system doesn’t work? 

Are we to assume now, after a decades-long history of friendship between the Cuban and Canadian governments, that the CBC will now parrot the U.S. line of hostility about Cuba?

Perhaps Mr. Dyer did not do his homework when writing this article but shame on the CBC for aligning itself with a U.S. policy that is consistently condemned year after year in the United Nations by practically all the countries of the world, including our own, and which President Obama himself said did not work. The fact that the people of Cuba have determinedly and consistently resisted these assaults against their sovereignty through the past decades simply shows how doggedly determined the majority of Cubans are to maintain their system of government and the CBC ought to apologize for publishing an article masquerading as journalism.

Lisa Makarchuk, from Toronto, Ontario.

lisamakarchuk@sympatico.ca

 Dear President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico,

 

The Canadian Network on Cuba (CNC), an organization comprised of 24 member-groups across Canada that work in solidarity with Cuba, would like to express our highest commendation and support for your recent statements and declared intention, pledging that Mexico will lead an international movement against the more than 60-year-old illegal US blockade against Cuba, and your rightful recognition of the successes of the Cuban Revolution and the example that the resistance of the Cuban people sets for countries around the world.

 

The CNC applauds Mexico’s position both in the context of solidarity with Cuba, as well as in its broader importance with regards to foreign policy, national sovereignty and independence, and the prioritization of basic, fundamental human rights, such as access to healthcare and education, and food security for all people, as opposed to allowing them to be marketable for profit by oligarchs.

 

Canada and Mexico were the only two countries in the Americas that did not sever relations with Cuba after its revolution in 1959. The CNC fully supports the Mexican people in this endeavor of solidarity with the Cuban people, and we affirm our commitment to join in solidarity with Mexico, and all progressive countries, and contribute to this movement in any way that we can.

 

The United States has no right to subjugate another country or people, and Cuba has been a victim of its terrorism for more than six decades. The Cuban people need our collective solidarity more than ever before, and that we act to demand and actualize the removal of the criminal sanctions against Cuba. The CNC will continue doing everything that it can to show our gratitude to revolutionary Cuba for the precedent that it sets for the world, and that necessitates the elimination of the blockade.

 

¡Abajo el bloqueo! 

 

  

Samantha Hislop

Julio Fonseca

Co-Chairs, Canadian Network on Cuba

               VOLUNTEER WORK BRIGADE

The 29^th annual Che Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade is almost here!

Since 1993 hundreds of people of various ages, skills and backgrounds living across Canada have enjoyed an exciting and informative three week stay in Cuba with the Ernesto Che Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade. The trip provides the opportunity to look at the gains and victories of the Cuban Revolution, as well as to understand the challenges Cuba faces first hand, in particular the impacts of more than 50 years of illegal economic blockade from the United States.

 

The Che Brigade fulfills two main goals. On the one hand, it is a great way to show support for the struggle of the Cuban people to maintain their independence and on the other hand it is an important opportunity for people from Canada to learn and understand the dynamism of all aspects of life in Cuba.

 

The Cuban people, committed to maintaining their Revolution and its great gains, receive the Brigade participants, known as Brigadistas, with warmth and friendship. Brigadistas coming from Canada to share friendship help reaffirm to many people in Cuba the value of social change they are carrying in Cuba for their own their country and also for the world.

 

For more information, questions or to receive updates on the Che Guevara Brigade please contact through email or phone the Che Brigade Coordinator Tyson Strandlund at chevolbrigade@gmail.com or at 250-883-7321. You can also follow the Che Brigade on social media.

 

Please finds us on:

·        Instagram@cdnntwrkoncuba,

·        Facebook at www.facebook.com/CheVolBrigade,

·        Twitter@CheVolBrigade.

 

The Che Guevara Brigade looks forward to travelling to Cuba later in 2023 and we hope you will join us!

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