2026 UN General Assembly Vote on the Resolution to End the Economic,
Commercial & Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States Against Cuba
The Canadian Network on Cuba congratulates the resounding support of the United Nations General Assembly for the annual resolution on the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba, adopted on October 28th.
Once again, the world stands overwhelmingly with Cuba against the illegal and barbaric US blockade. Moreover, Canada has taken steps to restore its integrity at the UN by reaffirming its historic opposition to the US economic war on Cuba.
Since July of this year, when Canada abstained from a UN resolution to debate the US blockade, the Canadian Network on Cuba has been actively campaigning to ensure this outcome, and to prevent Canada from descending further into a policy of compliance with US aggression in Latin America and the Caribbean. Thousands of Canadians signed Parliamentary Petition e-7649, demanding that Canada reaffirm its thirty-three-year record of support for Cuba at the UN, which was presented to the House of Commons by MP Leah Gazan on October 23rd.
Faced with an immense pressure campaign from the United States, Canada’s support for Cuba at the UN was by no means assured. In fact, we have received reports of Marco Rubio himself attempting to extort a “no” vote from Canada amid an escalating trade war; and a greater number of UScompliant governments in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe abstained than in previous decades.
Canada’s support for Cuba was secured by a resounding chorus of concern from labour, faith groups, and civil society. This is a triumph of solidarity—but our work is far from accomplished.
The US economic blockade continues, and since January of this year, has escalated into a starvation campaign backed by the threat of armed invasion. Canada maintains an advisory against nonessential travel to Cuba, separating families and stifling friendship and cultural exchange between
Canada and Cuba.
The Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act, which ought to protect Canadian companies doing business in Cuba from US sanctions and provide crucial leverage in an escalating trade war, is yet to be invoked this year—even as Canadian companies find themselves on the receiving end of comprehensive secondary sanctions.
The Canadian Network on Cuba itself, as well as our annual Che Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade, has been explicitly targeted by an hallucinatory, neo-McCarthyist report of the US State Department—and all sections of the Canadian government have been silent in our defence.
More importantly, Canadian aid to Cuba remains wholly insufficient and accompanied by extortionate political conditions. As Washington’s campaign of “energy warfare” only intensifies, Canada must act to break the blockade and to explicitly oppose this policy of collective punishment—not only with words of diplomacy, but in urgently needed material aid to the Cuban people and their government.
Against the backdrop of this week’s powerful victory at the UN, our work continues.
NO WAR ON CUBA! LET CUBA LIVE!
Executive Committee
Canadian Network on Cub
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