Canada is protecting a dictatorship. It’s time to stop

March 16,. 2026.

When U.S. forces captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, 32 Cuban soldiers died protecting him.

Havana declared two days of national mourning. For anyone paying attention, the episode was clarifying: Cuba is an active participant in a global authoritarian project, and Canada has spent decades looking the other way.

A new report from Human Rights Action Group and Democratic Spaces documents what this project actually looks like. The findings should alarm anyone who believes Canada stands for universal human rights and democratic governance, because our Cuba policy suggests otherwise.

» READ THE FULL OP-ED ON THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR

Michael Lima is a researcher and director of the NGO Democratic Spaces. Isabelle Terranova is a legal researcher with Human Rights Action Group. Sarah Teich is an international human rights lawyer, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and co-founder and president of Human Rights Action Group. 

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