Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  First, I would agree with all of those recommendations. I wish we could wave a magic wand and achieve them. I think that rather than Canada alone adopting, say, the Czech approach, if a large grouping of countries—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, I support her views totally. I think if Canada, in unison with Europe and with parts of Latin America and perhaps Japan and Australia—A unified approach by a broader grouping of countries might yield some benefits. Perhaps Cuba would be inclined to listen more to Europe and to Canada if we spoke with one voice.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I certainly think we could do more. Whether it would have much impact at this time is not clear. However, with the changes that may occur in Cuba, especially when Raoul leaves the scene, which may not be too long either—he's only five years younger than Fidel, so he's going to be gone at some point--it may well be that in the absence of Fidel and maybe in the presence or absence of Raoul, pressures of that sort might have some impact.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's a good question. Here I would draw on the insights of my colleague. One thing we could do is to get the United States to normalize relations with Cuba. I think if anything would lead to a groundswell movement within Cuba for democratization, that would be it. The pretext that the government uses for maintaining the current system is the United States and its policy towards Cuba.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's the $10 million question. How do we intervene in the internal affairs of another country in a legitimate, acceptable way? I don't know. I think basically our constructive engagement was squaring the circle or was doing what we could in a polite way. I don't think it was well received by Cuba.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Canada's in the human rights area. And we had interesting things. The 14 points, some of which focused on human rights, were useful—exchange of parliamentarians and so on. What good the exchange of parliamentarians actually had, I'm not sure, but it might have had some benefit. It may have opened the eyes of some Cubans.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think the embargo has damaged Cuba, and the general relationship with the United States has damaged Cuba. And I would emphasize the latter more. The general relationship with the United States has put Cuba on sort of a low-level conflict mode with the United States, so they have had to invest a lot in their military, starting in 1960.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It's often argued with some truth that when Cuba's economy improves, the political situation tightens up. One can look at historical experience and see some truth in that. For example, in the early 1990s, when the economy was facing great difficulty, the Cuban government was casting around for new ideas.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Here's a list. There are 283, according to this list, which you can take a look at.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you very much. With respect to social and economic rights, there is a lot of truth in the general view that those are stronger. What the revolution did very quickly was to broaden education and access to health in Cuba, so that Cuba, in a sense, pulled ahead of the rest of Latin American in the 1960s in education, in life expectancy, in all the things that result from a good health system.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before this committee. I just learned about it on Sunday, so I'm sorry I don't have a written statement for you. I must say, I'm happy that my name is Ritter today, and not Radler, although I'm sure your questioning will be just as tough as what he's facing.