I would like to first say something that got by me, which is that I think it's also critical that Canada and other democracies around the world—the middle powers, as Prime Minister Carney mentioned in his recent speech—push the Cubans on the issue of allowing the International Committee of the Red Cross to enter Cuba's prisons.
The last time they were able to visit Cuba's prisons was in 1989. Let us contrast this with the prison at the U.S. base in Guantanamo. They have had over 100 visits of the International Committee of the Red Cross since 2002.
We know of cases of Cuban prisoners.... There was a protest due to the horrible conditions in the prisons in Canaleta. We've heard that between eight and 10 have been killed in the last few days, but there's no independent monitoring by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and that's an outrage. It's been normalized, and I don't think it should be.
On the issue of the matching funds, I think that's a great idea. However, as with any other funds, we need to see the end result. There has to be some sort of accountability, some transparency, to see if it's actually getting to Cubans in need on the ground. That's where, I think, a very active Canadian embassy presence there could monitor to make sure that what these NGOs are doing in Canada to get assistance with matching taxpayer funds into Cuba actually reaches the people who need it and is doing what it's supposed to be doing.
Thank you.