I'll give you a very short answer. Canada is only 1 of the 192 member States of the United Nations. We don't pretend to believe that we have the ability and the power to manage what is happening in Cuba. As a country—as Ms. Savoie was saying earlier on—it is not Canada's tradition to interfere in the affairs of others, to decide on behalf of the population of another country.
You asked me what the situation is and what we can do. I would say that the 49 years of the American economic embargo with Cuba, of media wars, even terrorist activity at a certain point in time have given the results we are all aware of. It is an impoverished country in which the human rights situation is very difficult.
What can Canada do now? I would say first of all that it could perhaps stop denouncing the embargo, and perhaps finally demand that our principal ally and partner abandon this embargo, which is recognized as being the first source of the attack on human rights in Cuba. Secondly, it could recognize that Cuba is the only Latin American country where, over the last few decades, no journalist has been assassinated, and recognize that Cuba is the only Latin American country where, over the last few decades, no unionist has been assassinated.
Canada could also conduct a real inquiry, in light of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, summing up the respect and status of human rights in each of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Following that, it could probably work with Cuba in order to send doctors to Haiti and to Afghanistan, rather than having our soldiers killed there. Also, it could work with Cuba on literacy in Latin America so that the citizens of those countries could obtain basic human rights. Let us not forget that an illiterate person is a person who is deprived of all political and civil rights. Currently, Cuba is one of the rare developing countries in this world to fight against illiteracy. Finally, Canada could carry out a factual and objective analysis of the true situation as far as the respect for the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are concerned in the Latin American countries. It would therefore see that Cuba is probably not the place where human rights are the most threatened.