Canada’s Bid to Foster Rights in Cuba Tests Long Friendship

For nearly 40 years, Canada has cultivated what its ambassador to Cuba, Mark Entwistle, calls “a special relationship” with President Fidel Castro’s government.

Now, it is testing that relationship in a risky and controversial effort to improve human rights in the island dictatorship. If it works, Canadian officials believe that they will have fostered a more tolerant government in Havana and demonstrated the superiority of their policy of maintaining diplomatic and trade links with Cuba over the U.S. policy of isolation.

“We are not in the depose-Fidel business,” said Entwistle in a recent interview here in the capital. “The business we are in is we’d like to see changes in Cuba; we’d like to see better protection of citizens’ rights in Cuba; we’d like to see establishment of judicial institutions.”

Canada’s initiative grew out of an accord signed in January by Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy and his Cuban counterpart, Roberto Robaina Gonzalez.

Under the pact, Canada will send government human rights and judicial officials, members of Parliament and anti-terrorism experts to Havana. The Canadians hope to broker agreements on individual rights, strengthen legal institutions and help develop civic organizations in Cuba, Entwistle said. Also in the works is an April seminar in Havana on women’s and children’s rights. Talks on these issues began this week in Havana.

The program is typical of the independent course Canada has charted in its relations with Cuba since Castro’s 1959 revolution. Canada and Mexico alone in the Western Hemisphere have refused to follow the U.S.-led embargo of Cuba.

One result is a strong Canadian business presence in Cuba; the two countries did more than $430 million in trade last year, and 156,000 Canadians visited Cuba. Another is the special relationship Entwistle mentioned.

Canada’s program is viewed skeptically in Washington, in part because the program is committed to working with the Cuban government. According to independent human rights groups, Castro has shown no sign of relaxing restraints on nonviolent expression; in the past year, dissidents and journalists have been jailed and exiled, grass-roots human rights organizations have been outlawed, and outside observers have been barred from entering Cuba.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch/Americas in Washington, said the Canadian effort will be judged on its ability to get short-term concessions from Castro.

“I’m not sure the Canadian government is ready to start talking business with the Cuban government on human rights,” Vivanco said in an interview. “The challenge for the Canadians is to protect the credibility of their policy by showing results in a reasonable time . . . meaning months, not years. The Canadian government should realize that expectations are pretty high.”

But Entwistle, who has been Canada’s ambassador to Havana for four years, said he does not expect to easily break down Castro’s “siege mentality,” which he attributes to U.S. hostility. “There aren’t going to be multi-party elections the next day,” Entwistle cautioned.

The Canadian project is predicated on convincing Castro that permitting human rights groups to develop will not necessarily lead to an overthrow of the government, Entwistle said.

“At the end of the day, we’ll have to know if the Cubans are willing to play fair ball with us,” he said. “We probably won’t know that for two months. . . . But the issue is: Do you try or do you not try?”

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Accord Between Canada and Cuba

Among other issues, the two nations agreed last month to:

* Cooperate on judicial issues, including exchanges of judges and judicial training.

* Support exchanges between the Canadian House of Commons and the Cuban National Assembly.

* “Broaden and deepen cooperation on the issues of human rights” through joint seminars and academic exchanges.

* Continue cooperating on such economic issues as taxation and central banking.

* Cooperate on interdicting illegal narcotics.

* Carry on talks related to combating terrorism and cooperating on health, information and sports issues.

* Provide Canadian aid in response to Hurricane Lili, which hit Cuba in October.