moved that Bill C-54, an Act to amend the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act, be read the third time and passed.
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to speak in support of Bill C-54, an act to amend the foreign extraterritorial measures Act. There is no doubt in my mind that we must resist any foreign intervention in our affairs. Under the Helms-Burton Act, the United States is extending its reach to threaten legitimate business between companies from other countries and Cuba. We cannot accept that the foreign extraterritorial measures Act (FEMA) is our answer.
We find ourselves at loggerheads with the U.S. on Helms-Burton partly because of very different approaches to dealing with Cuba. We both share the desire for a strong democracy in that country, fully respecting human rights. But we have been taking different paths to that goal. We believe in engagement and dialogue; the United States favours isolation.
So let me talk about our relations with Cuba before I go further into FEMA.
At the outset, let me say that I am proud of our Cuba policy. It has strong support from all political parties and from interested Canadians. It is also quite similar to that of most other countries in Latin America and Europe.
Canada values its friendship and over 50 years of unbroken relations with Cuba. Unofficial links go back much further, building on trade and investment links with Atlantic Canada. For decades, Canada and Cuba have discussed common goals and interests, learning from each other. There has been co-operation to our mutual benefit in such diverse fields as international fisheries, social policies, the environment, science, culture and international arms control issues.
There are also numerous links between Canadian and Cuban organizations, research centres and universities, and between ordinary canadians and Cubans.
Our goal overall is to help bring Cuba into the community of democratic nations with a genuinely representative government and an open economy.
Unlike the US approach, which has been characterized by punitive measures such as the embargo, we prefer a policy of engagement and dialogue. A significant part of that dialogue indeed focuses on human rights, democratic reform and good governance.
Our longstanding relations, however, have not stopped us from expressing our concerns on Cuba's human rights performance.
Canada has publicly pressed the Cubans concerning violations, such as last February when we condemned the shooting down of two U.S. civilian aircraft by the Cuban air force and the tragic loss of life resulting from this incident. This action, taken by the Cuban government, was an excessive and inappropriate use of force which violated internationally accepted rules for the interception of civilian aircraft.
Canada has raised individual human rights cases with the Cuban government. Human rights was a major item on the agenda during the visit last year of Cuban foreign minister Robaina. I should add that during his visit minister Robaina also met with the UN commissioner for human rights, who was also in Ottawa at the time, Mr. Ed Broadbent of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, and Mr. Jean-Pierre Kingsley of Elections Canada.
Canada was also among the first to express concern at the severe sentence handed down last year against Cuban human rights activist Francisco Chaviano. We have also responded very strongly to the harassment early this year of the Concilio Cubano, an emerging coalition of human rights activists. Canadian embassy officials in Havana also meet regularly with human rights activists and have attended trials of dissidents.
This constant dialogue which Cuba has had with Canada and other countries has helped lead to reforms. Cuba is moving ahead with changes to economic policy. There are changes as well in the human rights areas. For example, Cuba ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture in May of 1995.
Our well known commercial ties, which are the target of the Helms-Burton legislation, are but one element in a range of connections that Canadians and Cubans have made over the years.
Parliamentary exchanges are an important part of our strategy with Cuba. They allow each country to understand better their systems of governance and perhaps benefit from each other's experience.
The president of the Cuban National Assembly visited Canada in April 1995. The Speaker of the House of Commons travelled to Cuba in October of 1995 and at the same time provided a major donation of medical supplies.
In May of this year Senator Jacques Hébert and other members of the parliamentary friendship group Canada-Cuba had the opportunity to welcome another parliamentary delegation headed by the Cuban minister of education. During these meetings Cubans posed extensive questions on the workings of the Canadian parliamentary system, and Canadian members were able to make strong representation supporting further progress in democratic reform and in the protection of human rights.
We are also working with the Cuban government to pinpoint areas where Canadians can help Cuba modernize some of its key economic policy institutions. Assistance to the Cuban ministry of finance to develop a new taxation system has begun with technical assistance from Revenue Canada. This program will include training in tax collection and client relations and computerization of taxation information. Assistance to the Bank of Cuba from the Bank of Canada, on the other hand, is concentrating on upgrading its informatics and basic training in economics and accounting.
Encouraging Cuba to open to the rest of the world and to modernize its machinery of government and its key economic bodies will help the majority of its citizens. We are working with the Cuban government to bring about a better future for all the people.
In the area of social programs, the marked decline in the Cuban economy from 1989 to 1993 has resulted in significant underfunding of all social programs.
When I went to Cuba in June of 1994, Canada launched a small but important package of assistance channelled through the non-government sector.
This has allowed Canadians in the non-governmental sector to assist Cubans at a time of economic difficulty and to build bridges with Cuban institutions such as the university system. By the end of that year a small bilateral program was under discussion and this has led to the development of several projects that I have just outlined.
As a result, Canadian NGOs, churches, labour unions and universities are working with a variety of Cuban organizations, a number of which are in transition from a very close association with the Cuban government to a more independent stance. We are eager to support this transition.
Last March CIDA and OXFAM Canada signed a co-operation agreement for a major effort to strengthen the NGO sector in Cuba. With nearly $1 million over the next three years, the project will support the work of Cuban NGOs and churches with, for example, income generation projects for poor women, training for independent small farmers and linkages with Canadian NGOs, including internships for five Cubans at Canadian agencies.
Prior to 1994 when we put in place our assistance package for Cuba, several Canadian universities already had co-operation agreements with Cuban universities. Since 1994 many more universities, community colleges and institutions have joined them.
I could go on about the many links that Canada has now and is developing with Cuba, links with the Canadian and Cuban artistic communities for example. Jazz musicians like Vic Vogel and Jane Bunnett have travelled to play with Cuban counterparts. On a recent trip Bunnett arranged to have three Toronto technicians give much needed instrument repair workshops for young musicians in Havana. The Quebec television and film industry has shot several feature films and a major television series in Cuba. The list goes on and on.
However, there have also been linkages established between labour unions. Last year Bob White of the Canadian Labour Congress travelled to Cuba to meet with representatives of the Cuban Congress of Workers. They in turn sent a delegation to Canada on a fact finding mission.
One hundred and forty thousand Canadians visit Cuba each year.
We believe it is through this multitude of engagements at many levels that Cubans will undertake their own reform which will eventually open their society to more liberal, economic and political institutions.
As I said earlier, we do not quarrel with the American objective of moving Cuba peacefully to a more democratic society. We do quarrel with the use of Helms-Burton as a tool to fix an American problem with Cuba. Helms-Burton targets companies and other countries doing legitimate business with Cuba.
The United States could have followed the same route as other countries and settled its dispute bilaterally. Having chosen this path, the U.S. risks hurting its friends and allies while aiming at Cuba through Helms-Burton. In this situation we had to do what we could to protect Canadian citizens and Canadian firms.
The Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act was a logical path to take and the changes it proposes are necessary. However, it is my sincere hope that it will not be necessary to use them. That of course will depend on whether the Helms-Burton claims provisions and other similar measures are used against Canadian firms.
I hope that Helms-Burton is just a brief blip on the screen. The Canada-U.S. relationship is a strong and fruitful one and we should not have to squabble over irritants of this kind.
In closing this part of the debate, I regret that I will not be able to be in attendance for the rest of the debate this afternoon due to prior engagements, but I will look with interest at Hansard so that I can have the opportunity of reading further on this debate.
