March 15, 2020
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,
Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, Ontario
Dear Prime Minister Trudeau,
The Canadian Cuban Friendship Association Toronto is writing to bring to your attention an aspect of the COVID-19 crisis that, because it is given little importance by our leading news media, may find its significance undervalued. This possibility looms when Cuba is the focus of concern.
We are primarily troubled by the fact that, even in the face of a UN recognized pandemic, hardly anything is being done by governments of the Western world to ease the burden imposed on the Cuban people. On the contrary, recently added sanctions and the tightening blockade (arbitrary and illegal) seem calculated to make life a living hell for Cubans, its hellish consequences being abated only by the people’s developed skills of analysis and cooperative work.
We believe that countries which possess a capacity for humanitarian sensitivity–and we expect our country Canada to be one of these–should act urgently on this matter, now newly exposed, regarding Cuba and other Third World countries, by prevailing on the U.S. to cancel its relentlessly stifling measures.
Such an intervention on Canada’s part has great potential and practical benefits for Canada and for humanity. Some of them will be surprising to many people. We recently witnessed how a candidate for nomination for the presidency of the United States damaged his candidacy, in a climate primed to be malicious and ignorant, by mentioning favourably just one of the many ways in which the Cuban example would be beneficial to the United States itself.
Because Cuba made the decision to develop its biotechnology, creating, for example, its antiviral Recombinant Interferon Alpha 2B (INFrec)*, and because the island has normal, friendly relations with China, the island has been able to help China quell the ferocious COVID-19 attack. China with its abundant resources is now promptly following the Cuban internationalist example, by sending teams of specialized and well-equipped health workers to curb COVID-19’s cruel threat to life in other countries, such as Iran, South Korea and Italy.
Countries throughout the world are deriving benefits from the progress that Cuba has been able to make in several fields. We beseech our government to be assertive in helping Cuba to free itself of the vicious burdens of the blockade and sanctions so that it may better help itself and humanity.
*Please see: https://www.theyucatantimes.com/ 2020/02/cuban-medicine-used-in-china-to- cure-coronavirus/
Looking forward to your response
Elizabeth Hill, President
Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association Toronto
Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association Toronto
PO Box 99051 – 1245 Dupont St Toronto, Ontario M6H 4H7
Tel: 647-501-1219 Fax: 905-951-8499
Established 1977 CCFA Toronto
Email: ccfatoronto@sympatico.ca
Website: www.ccfatoronto.ca
Member of www.CanadianNetworkonCuba.ca (CNC)