Canadian Network on Cuba organized demonstrations against U.S. oil blockade and other attacks on Cuba in a number of cities across the country Feb. 21-22, including Toronto, above. Photo: Tony Difelice/Militant.
By Philippe Tessier – Jun 3, 2026
Canada’s capitalist rulers, along with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party government, are backing U.S. imperialism’s accelerating attacks on Cuba with the same goal — overthrowing Cuba’s socialist revolution. At the same time, a growing number of unions here are speaking out against Washington’s attacks and demanding Ottawa oppose them.
After the latest U.S. sanctions, Sherritt International, a Canadian-owned mining conglomerate and one of the last foreign companies working in Cuba, announced May 4 it was suspending all mining on the island while it sells its properties. It has been the main foreign investor in the Moa nickel and cobalt mine there. Nickel is one of Cuba’s key sources of hard currency. Sherritt’s decision deals a serious blow to Cuba’s economy.
Tourism, Cuba’s most important source of foreign exchange, is also under attack. In 2017, it generated $3.3 billion, 10% of Cuba’s gross domestic product.
Canadian airlines flying to Cuba — Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Air Transat — announced Feb. 9 that they suspended all flights to the island, claiming this was due to a shortage of aviation fuel in Cuba.
But that is just a pretext. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum offered the airlines refueling facilities Feb. 13. Many other international airlines have continued flights to Cuba, stopping in third countries to refuel. Air France is refueling in the Bahamas, Iberia in the Dominican Republic.
Some 750,000 Canadians visited Cuba in 2025, 40% of all tourists going there. But in March 2026 only 511 Canadians visited the island, a 99% plus drop from the same month a year earlier. Ottawa issued a warning to Canadians to avoid all nonessential travel to Cuba.
“Canada’s travel advisories and airline cancellations have played an active part in the economic asphyxiation of the Cuban people,” the Canadian Network on Cuba wrote to member organizations. “As Cubans brace for the possibility of invasion, the Canadian Network on Cuba must intensify our political campaigns.”
The Canadian navy has worked hand in hand with the expanding U.S. armada in the Caribbean in its so-called anti-narcotics operations since 2006. It joined the U.S. Navy in surveillance missions there earlier this year. Ottawa permits the U.S. Coast Guard to operate directly from Canadian ships.
Defend Canadian Sovereignty: Ottawa Must Reject Washington’s Illegal Economic War Against Cuba
The Canadian government welcomed Washington’s overthrow of the Nicolás Maduro government in Venezuela. It remained silent over the U.S. rulers’ ending Venezuela’s critical shipments of oil to Cuba, Washington’s oil blockade of Cuba and its additional sanctions.
While the Canadian capitalists have taken advantage of the U.S. embargo of Cuba to expand their own trade and investments on the island, they’ve always looked to the overthrow of Cuba’s socialist revolution.
They had major investments in Cuba before the 1959 revolution when the revolutionary government nationalized them. Ottawa, along with Washington, backed the murderous dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista against the Rebel Army led by Fidel Castro.
When former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2021 said that Ottawa stands “with the people of Cuba in their aspiration for democracy,” he was not defending Cuba against U.S. imperialism’s threats. Calls for “democracy” by Washington, Ottawa and other imperialist powers are calls for overthrowing the revolution, which put workers and farmers in power in Cuba, and restoring capitalist exploitation. Canada’s ruling rich share Washington’s class hatred of the revolution and of the example it sets for workers worldwide.
While Ottawa backs Washington’s attacks, a number of major unions in Canada have demanded an end to the U.S. oil blockade, including the United Steelworkers, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions. The USW contributed nearly 16,000 Canadian dollars ($11,500) worth of medical supplies and equipment to Cuba.
The Canadian Labour Congress issued a statement adopted at its conference May 11 demanding that Ottawa oppose the “United States blockade on oil and other measures impacting the Cuban people,” “support the people of Cuba through increased humanitarian and solidarity aid,” and undertake “solidarity campaigns with Cuban workers and people.”
