Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on May 1st, 2007

[Asdrubal Caner Camejo]

It's no problem.

[The Chair, Conservative, Jason Kenney]

Thank you for thinking fast. We try to accommodate the language issue, but we also need to move along, which we will now do by passing the floor to Monsieur Philippe Leroux, de Cuba-Nouvelles.

[Philippe Leroux, Cuba-Nouvelles]

Good morning. First of all, I would like to thank the members of the committee for having invited me to take stock of the human rights situation in Cuba.

First, if I may Mr. Chairman, I would like to inform committee members about the witness who preceeded us, Mr. Nelson Taylor Sol of the Cuban Canadian Foundation. Their magazine, which came out last week, published an ad that I will translate for you as follows: “Reward. If you know any Cuban who asked for refuge or who is here as an independent immigrant and is collaborating against the regime of Fidel Castro, please communicate with us. This information is strictly confidential. National Security Agency.”

This represents a monetary reward for the denunciation of Cubans having political opinions contrary to those of the Cuban-Canadian Foundation. This is illegal under Canadian legislation and it is the kind of abuse of human rights that we seek to expose. If the Cuban government were to publish those kinds of ads in Cuban newspapers, I would not be here to testify.

The three sections of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights open up too broad a field for me to try and provide an overview in the few minutes I have been given, particularly as we are talking about one of the most serious of subjects. This should never be taken lightly. Men and women have sacrificed their lives for these rights. Moreover, this is the case for 650,000 Iraqis, thousands of Afghans and thousands of American, European and Canadian soldiers.

Given that today is the 1^st of May, International Workers Day, I thought it would be appropriate to focus my comments on the situation of labour law in Cuba. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, labour law is dealt with in Article 23 and its four clauses. The first of these subsections reads as follows:

Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

The Journal de Montréal recently informed us that a Cuban doctor living in Quebec had to drive a taxi because he did not have the right to practice his profession, even though it is highly in demand in our province, a situation that is unfortunately not uncommon and which clearly violates the first subsection of this article. In Cuba, there are also doctors driving taxis but they do so because they prefer the higher wage compared to what they would earn as doctors. They have made the choice, which they have the right to do. Their colleagues practice their profession without difficulty and that is the case for all Cuban workers. No Cuban will be refused access to a position in his own profession on the island.

The crisis in the Cuban sugar industry over the last few years has occurred without a single worker being thrown out on the street or becoming unemployed. On the contrary, every worker has been able to choose between early retirement or paid-retraining in the up and coming sector of their choice, with a job related to their training including a salary that is equal or superior to their original position. This is a social approach to industrial transformation that would be the envy of the wood and asbestos industries or of the manufacturing sectors that are in crisis in Canada.

Eliminating unemployment is one of the fundamental challenges of Cuban employment policies. At the end of 2005, Cuba reached a 1.9% unemployment rate, which means one can say that Cuba is a country with full employment. At the same time, the skilled worker shortage in Canada is increasing at the same rate as tuition fees, guaranteeing the most disadvantaged families sustainable unemployment. In the countries that are geographically and economically closest to Cuba, workers are facing recurring unemployment rates of 20 to 60%.

The second subsection of Article 23 stipulates the following: Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

Cuba is the country that has the highest ratio of elected professional women and female managers. Sixty per cent of students registered in graduate programs are women. The last census before the Cuban Revolution in 1953 showed that only 17% of workers were women; one-third were domestic workers, 6% were technicians or professionals and only 2% were in management.

During the 2000 census, Cuban women represented 43.2% of workers, and two-thirds—66.4% precisely—were in professional and technical positions. Over 30% of Cuban politicians are women. The Cuban government includes six female ministers and almost 40 female deputy ministers, while 46% of the most important government corporations are managed by women. According to Canada's parliamentary website, women represent only 20% of elected officials, at the federal, provincial or territorial levels, a percentage that Cuba went beyond in 1993. As far as pay equity is concerned, this is only a recent achievement in Quebec, after years and years of unending union, political and legal battles, and it remains the subject of difficult struggles in many Canadian businesses.

The third subsection of article 23 reads as follows:

Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

Cuba considers that productive work with appropriate income is an essential condition for equity and social justice. Between the months of May and December 2005, Cuba granted substantial increases in allowances for recipients of welfare and social assistance, going as far as tripling benefits in some cases.

In 2005, they also began a process to increase the salaries of over two million workers. This measure includes the implementation of new wage scales, the improvement of interchange and function indicators, and it allows for the setting up of an additional payments instrument as recognition of the qualifications and quality of work.

The implementation of this suite of measures has increased the average salary by 282 Cuban pesos from the beginning of 2005, to 399 in June 2006; that is a 40% increase of the average wage over two years, which resulted in an 8% revaluation of the Cuban currency and the purchasing power of this currency.

In addition to these efforts made to improve wages, mention must be made of the subsidies on goods and services which make them available to Cubans for a fraction of their value. Mr. Taylor Sol was speaking earlier on about the fact that the average Cuban wage is $16, but the cost of living is not the same over there. In this way, the kilowatt hour of electricity costs 20 Cuban centavos, that is less than one Canadian cent. The weekly grocery shopping for a family of six, including fish, meat, fruits and vegetables costs two to three Canadian dollars. Also, a single average Cuban salary of 399 pesos will suffice to pay the electrical, telephone, gas and food bills for a family of six people. As for housing, 85% of Cubans are homeowners and therefore have absolutely nothing to pay in this regard. For the others, rent represents less than 10% of incomes. These are privileges Canadian minimum-wage workers would like to have.

I am sure the subcommittee will also be studying the cases of many Latin-American countries where the minimum wage is equal to or less than the Cuban wage, but where goods and services are not subsidized, which sentences a significant portion of the population to extreme poverty.

In her report on human rights in Cuba, the special representative of the United Nations High Commissioner, Christine Chanet, identified the US blockade as the primary holdup of economic social and cultural rights of the Cuban population, but also of civil and political rights.

[The Chair, Conservative, Jason Kenney]

Mr. Leroux, could you move on to your conclusion? Thank you.

[Philippe Leroux]

I have nearly finished.

But the United States is not satisfied with this illegal blockade, which has been almost universally condemned by the international community. The achievements of Cuban workers, retired persons and those on social assistance are threatened.

The president, Mr. George W. Bush, has had a de facto plan to annex Cuba approved, which includes in its first version of May 2004, a chapter entitled: Meeting basic human needs in the areas of health, education, housing and human services. It insists on eliminating the Cuban social security system. According to this plan, the Cuban economy and the government's budget after the transition will not be able to maintain the level and the applications for eligibility that the Communist system allowed for. In fact, this would be purely and simply to abolish the socio-economic rights of Cubans.

This brings me to the fourth and final subsection:Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

The right to free unionization is fully protected under Cuban legislation. All Cuban workers have the right to freely join unions and to set up trade union organizations without any preliminary permission being required. Neither the Labour Code in effecting Cuba nor its complimentary legislation establish any restrictions on the creation of unions. The Labour Code states, in its section 14, that Cuban workers have the right to meet, to discuss and to freely express their opinions on all issues and subjects adversely affecting them.

In Cuba, there are 19 national sectoral unions with communal and provincial structures in 169 communities and the 14 provinces of the country. There are over 80,000 union offices or basic unions, through which over half a million union leaders have been elected by secret and direct ballot. The national unions are part of a central union umbrella group, Central Workers Union of Cuba, founded in 1939, that is to say 20 years before the triumph of the Cuban revolution, through the joint wishes of Cuban workers.

Some would argue that these unions are controlled by the government and have no real power. I have been able to personally observe that this is not the case. Two years ago, the Minister of Cuban Tourism, Manuel Marrero Cruz, presented a code of ethics for employees in the tourism sector who were in contact with foreigners.

This code was an attempt to respond to a pressing demand by the Cuban population, exasperated at seeing the corruption that was developing because of the excessive purchasing power of the dollar in a subsidized economy. As soon as it was unveiled, this code of ethics was distributed and discussed by all workers in the tourist sector in their union meetings. It quickly became apparent that the draft code was considered to be too radical by many workers who agreed with the principles of the code, but not with the provisions and with their inflexibility. The unions reported these discussions to the department, the code was immediately suspended and the minister even apologized to the workers through a video that was broadcast by all the unions.

I personally experienced these events thanks to friends working in this area who allowed me to follow the story. Canadian workers would certainly be very happy if their unions were as powerful as the Cuban unions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Jason Kenney]

You should wind up your remarks.

[Philippe Leroux]

Part of Bush's plan on Cuba is to provide significant financial resources to encourage individuals to support the U.S. anti-Cuba policy, and to hire dissidents to support this policy, some of whom are disguised as so-called independent union representatives. They are not representatives. They were never designated or elected by Cuban workers. Furthermore, they are not in favour of unions, because they refuse to work; they prefer to take the 100-times-higher income guaranteed by the U.S. government. This means they are totally subject to the orders of this government, which considers itself at war with their country and which is starving their families and their neighbours. That is the truth about their so-called independence.

I would like to thank you for listening.

[The Chair, Conservative, Jason Kenney]

Thank you, sir.

I will now give the floor to Ms. Colette Lavergne from the Table de concertation de solidarité Québec-Cuba.

[Colette Lavergne, Table de concertation de solidarité Québec-Cuba]

Good morning, and thank you for inviting me to appear before the committee.

What I'm going to be talking to you about today I learned on the ground. I have been working in Cuba for 14 years, and I work with an organization whose objective is to educate people about peace through friendship based on mutual respect and understanding. It said that if we can build friendship with people from a country that is completely different from our own, world peace is possible. We must establish a dialogue and try to understand each other.

I'm going to try to explain the mindset of the people of Cuba by telling you what I have learned. I will start with a little history and will talk about José Martí, Cuba's national hero, the father of independence, the founder of the Cuban revolutionary party, whose objective was to achieve Cuba's independence and to establish the foundations for a future republic.

He used to say: "I want the first law of our Republic to be respect by the people of Cuba for the absolute dignity of human beings." He united the pro-independent forces to achieve victory against Spain in 1898 and he taught Cubans that success lay in a unified nation.

The young Fidel Castro was very marked by José Martí's thinking and he achieved genuine independence for the country through the triumph of the revolution in 1959. This revolution was carried out by, with and for the people. Since Cuban independence in 1898, the island had been run from Washington, and it belonged to American companies. Today, all of Cuban society is based on the principles of José Martí.

Before the triumph of the revolution, there were a number of parties, but no solution. The Cubans established a single party, one which brought solutions to their problems. There was one party, with one education system, one health care system—all for one people. There is justice and equality for all.

The people of Cuba are rebellious. They have not been ground down. Che Guevera used to say that it was better to die standing than to live on one's knees. In Havana, you can see and read the following: "Mr. Bush, you can kill every last one of us, but you will never bring to us to our knees, the way we were before".

The Cuban people are worthy, courageous and determined to defend to achievements of the revolution, despite the inhuman blockade that has lasted over 48 years, the longest in human history. They are revolutionaries, a people of the 1959 revolution who, after the battle of ideas, brought about a revolution in educatin. As José Marti said: “trenches of stone. At the moment, they are involved in the energy revolution.

Let me turn now to human rights.

The right to life. The infant mortality rate in Cuba is 5.2 per 1,000 live births, which is similar to the rate in Canada. Pregnant women are given special care. The health care system is based on prevention: Cuban children get 13 vaccinations in their first year of life. The life expectancy is 76 for men and 78 for women. Those are the up-to-date figures.

Health care. The health care system is free and universal. It is subsidized by tourism. Tourism is the main industry of Cuba, and it is what makes it possible to achieve these results, together with the political will to do this.

The right to education. About 4% of the population is illiterate and will never be able to learn, because they are not capable of learning. At primary school, there is one teacher for every 20 pupils. One child equals one teacher and one school. Wherever the children live, in the mountains or elsewhere, teachers travel to them, by mule if necessary, but every day children have access to a teacher with their school, solar panel, television set, video and computer.

In high schools, there is one teacher for every 15 students, so that teenagers get more attention and are less likely to drop out. That is enviable, is it not? There is also distance education by television and video so that students get the same education whether they live in the mountains or in the capital. Children who have to move to go to high school receive housing, food, transportation, uniforms and school supplies. Everything is free-of-charge.

Property rights. Agrarian reform was the first reform introduced by Fidel Castro. Property rights for farmers mean that the people who farm the land own it. In Cuba, 80% of the land is owned by farmers, who may or may not be part of cooperatives of various types.

As my colleague was saying, 85% of people own property. The houses are built by the government and are paid for at the rate of a few pesos a month. After 25 years, the people own their house. No one rents their houses.

As regards the right of association, I am going to list a number of associations: the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, the Federation of Cuban Women, the National Association of Small Agricultural Producers, the José Martí organization of pioneers, for children aged 9 to 14, the Federation of High School Students, for all teenagers up to university age, the Federation of University Students, the Union of Young Communists, the Association of Cuban Workers and the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba.

In terms of democratic rights, there are free elections every two and a half years at the municipal level, and every five years at the provincial and national level. With respect to freedom of expression, there are open-line shows on the radio and in provincial and national newspapers. Anything can be called into question, except the socialist nature of the revolution, because that was a decision by the people that was ratified in a referendum in 2002.

When Mr. Carter asked that the Constitution be reopened, 10,000 signatures were tabled in Parliament. Even though they were not notarized or approved by a lawyer, and therefore not legal, the Constitution was reopened; there was a referendum in which over 98% of people over 16 took part. Over 92% of the people said they agreed not only with maintaining the Constitution, but also with the irrevocable nature of socialism in the Constitution. So the socialist nature of the revolution is irrevocable: that decision was made by the people.

As far as freedom of religion goes, there are Catholic and Protestant churches, Santeros, which is the Afro-Cuban religion, Santeria, and even some Jehovah's Witnesses. They are all entitled to all services, as are all Cubans, even if they do not take part in any public activity.

As our colleague said, with respect to the right to work, the unemployment rate is below 2%.

I have presented a brief sketch, but it does give you some idea about contemporary Cuba, and I have seen it for myself in all parts of the country. I have lived with farmers working on coffee, tobacco and sugar cane cooperatives, I've worked with fishers.

[The Chair, Conservative, Jason Kenney]

Thank you, Ms. Lavergne.

We will now go to our next witness, Mr. Sean O'Donoghue, from the Caravane d'amitié Québec-Cuba.

[Sean O'Donoghue, Caravane d'amitié Québec-Cuba]

Good morning.

I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to testify before the committee.

The Caravane d'amitié Québec-Cuba has been in place since 1994 and it is well established within Quebec society. We have friends from all walks of life. There are some volunteers who work for us. Our friends include some Quebec parliamentarians. We also work with organizations such as the U.S. Pastors for Peace and similar organizations in all cities throughout Canada.

Our objective is to develop friendship with Cuba and to respect its sovereignty. We are all opposed to outside intervention in Cuba. This country is entitled to develop its own social system and its own society.

Obviously, my presentation deals with the electoral process and the way Cubans choose their government.

The ability to choose one's government is a human right. I affirm that this important right is respected in Cuba. There is a very full participatory electoral process in place, one which is guaranteed by the Constitution.

There was a referendum on the Constitution establishing the political structure on February 15, 1976, following a massive public consultation process that had begun one year earlier. At this referendum, 99.3% of eligible voters aged 16 and up took part in the referendum, and 98% of them voted for the proposal.

As Colette said earlier, elections are held every five years. The deputies and delegates at the National Assembly are chosen by general secret ballot. Municipal elections are held every two and a half years.

People nominate and select candidates at public meetings held in local constituencies of voters. In over 14,000 constituencies broken down into districts and zones, there are some 25,000 electoral colleges where the voters lists are posted, together with the biography and photo of all the candidates.

Members of the municipal and provincial assemblies are elected from among the constituency delegates, who are put forward and elected by the people in the district. Candidates must get 50% plus one in order to be elected, if not, there is a second round.

The deputies of the National Assembly or Parliament are selected from among members of the provincial assemblies and work with representatives of the scientific and administrative sectors, associations of farmers and intellectuals and public organizations. In Parliament, there are lots of seats set aside for the general public from the municipalities and the districts, but also for representative sectors of the country, such as the unions and others. These institutions are entitled to a certain number of deputies.

Parliament elects the members of the Council State from among its representatives. The Council State elects the President, who is Fidel Castro. The elected officials, including the constituency delegates, members of municipal and provincial assemblies and deputies of the National Assembly all perform their duties without any remuneration. However, those in the most demanding positions as representatives are paid. Generally, people who had professions other than that of politicians earn the same salary they were earning before they became politicians.

Periodically, elected officials must report on their work and their mandate can be revoked by the people who elected them. Consequently, they must appear before those who elected them, and if these people are not satisfied with their work, they can lose their job.

The voting age in Cuba is 16. The names of new voters are automatically added to the electoral register when they reach this age, because it's done using the civil registry, which gives the names of all citizens. Voting is a voluntary, free and secret process. There is no law requiring voters to vote.

In each election held to date, over 90% of eligible voters voted. The votes are counted publicly at the end of the voting period by electoral officials in the presence of voters who volunteered to come in to ensure the transparency of the electoral process. In Cuba, the ballot boxes are watched by children, and no ballot box has ever been stolen.

That completes my presentation.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Jason Kenney]

Thank you.

You get extra points, Mr. O'Donoghue, for respecting our time limits here. Thank you very much.

I will now move to questions.

There's one issue that is without precedent in my experience here. Mr. Leroux made some allegations of illegal conduct on the part of Mr. Taylor Sol's organization.

If he wants to, I think it would be appropriate to give Mr. Taylor Sol a brief right to reply to the allegation that he published some kind of illegal ad or something.

If you want to answer, I can give you 30 seconds to respond.

[Nelson Taylor Sol]

I didn't hear what the allegation was. It was not clear for me what the allegation was.

[The Chair, Conservative, Jason Kenney]

All right, we'll let that lie. I just thought it would be fair to let you respond.

We'll pass to Mr. Cotler to ask the first question.

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We have heard extensive testimony today about the plight of political prisoners, the conditions of detention for Cuban journalists, racial discrimination, and the particular plight of elderly prisoners of conscience with health problems.

This question is for any of the witnesses who wish to respond, although Mr. Caner Camejo's speech touched particularly on these points. What has been the effect of Canadian policy with respect to Cuba? Has it helped to protect the situation of human rights in Cuba? If not, what do you think the Canadian government could be doing to assist in the question of those human rights violations in respect of which these allegations have been made?

[The Chair, Conservative, Jason Kenney]

Do you wish to direct it to any particular witnesses, Mr. Cotler?

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

As I say, the particular allegations that were made regarding these questions were made by Mr. Caner Camejo in his presentation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Jason Kenney]

Okay, go ahead.

We'll start with Mr. Caner Camejo. Then if they want to comment....

[Asdrubal Caner Camejo]

I have a site on the Internet, and I wrote several articles about the situation involving constructive engagement of Canada with Cuba. For me it's a total failure--except for Canada, except for the workers in Canada and the government in Canada. For the Cuban people there is nothing. There is nothing, really.

My friends say the salary paid from the Canadian company to the Cubans simply does not match the worth of the work they do. There is a bad situation there.

Also, Canada knows there is a regulation of the International Labour Organization that doesn't allow the company to pay the government; they need to pay the worker. In Cuba the workers receive 5% of the salary that the Canadian company pays to the government.

For me, I repeat, constructive engagement is a big mistake--not only for the Liberal Party but also for the other party that continues this policy on Cuba.

We need Canada in the future, and this policy will give the opposite result, a result that Cuba doesn't want. We need Canada in the future, but there is an increased sentiment among the Cuban people that Canada only looks at its own interests and the interests of the Fidel Castro regime. For that reason I believe there is nothing in this policy that helps the people in Cuba.

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

I appreciate that this is your second intervention before this committee, as you have said, and you've characterized Canadian policy, to use your words, as being a total failure—

[Asdrubal Caner Camejo]

Yes.

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

—and in particular the constructive engagement policy as being a total failure, saying that since your last appearance no action has been taken by the Canadian government regarding human rights violations in Cuba.

What is the specific action you would recommend that the Canadian government take?

[Asdrubal Caner Camejo]

Well, there is at the moment some kind of problem in Europe with the common position of Europe. I believe that Canada needs to see this position of Europe. I don't want Canadian companies to get out of Cuba. I would like them to stay there, but I would like to see a change in this policy, to speak out about the situation of the Cuban people at the moment, and about the political prisoners in Cuba.

At the moment Cuba is at a turning point. There is a very, very bad situation--economical, moral, political, and so on. At the moment there is a conversation between the United States and Europe. I propose that this should also include the Latin American governments who are looking for the same position about the violations in Cuba, to press for some kind of economic reform or political reform in Cuba.

The model that Cuba applies there is a failure. This economy doesn't work. Never. It is felt that 80% of the property of the guajiros in Cuba in agriculture is private property, but 85% of these lands belong to the government and 100% of the industry belongs to the government. This was my PhD investigation in Cuba. They don't allow me to present this document in Cuba to the government, and I know the economy very well. I am an economist. I was a Cuban professor of economy for 24 years. I was investigating everything in this economy. This economy is a failure. It's not in Cuba. It's in the Soviet Union. It's in China. It is everywhere. Why did China change and make big economic and political reforms? They allowed private property because this doesn't work. This is the problem.

At the moment, the situation, the misery, the poverty...and the Cuban government is in full violation of human rights in Cuba.

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

I would invite the other witnesses to make any comments and recommendations to the government they may have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Jason Kenney]

Mr. Cotler's time is up.

Perhaps he'll have a second round. So you can all reserve your comments and bring those forward.

Just to explain to the witnesses, there are seven-minute rounds of questions and answers. The members control those, but over the course of the next hour, we should be able to get everybody's views out here.

Madame St-Hilaire.