Thread: Too soft on Cuba?

U.S. diplomats damned Ottawa for being soft on Cuban abuses - The Globe and Mail

Jonathan Farrar, the U.S. head of mission, complained that Canada “ failed to meet with the independent civil society or make public pronouncements [on human rights] after the visit of Minister Kent.”

The cable continued that “this was surprising, since Kent and Prime Minister [Stephen] Harper had been publicly critical of Cuba's human-rights record.”

Mr. Kent did raise the issue of political prisoners, but only in closed-doors meetings with Cuban officials, according to the cable.

For half a century Washington has used diplomatic and trade levers to squeeze Cuba, in the hope of forcing a change of regime from the Communist authoritarian state imposed by members of the Castro family.

That Canadian companies continue to do business with Cuba has always been something of a bilateral irritant for Washington, but the leaked State Department cable amounts to a rare public criticism of Canada’s foreign policy

Thoughts?