“Tomorrow, October 28th, Canada must stand with Cuba as the Canadian people are demanding the standard Cuba and to reject this economic war.” The next speaker is Isaac Saney, he is on the executive committee of the Canadian Network on Cuba and a professor at Dalhousie University of Black and African diaspora studies and history. “On October 28th, 2026, which is tomorrow, Canada will once again have an opportunity to make a consequential statement at the United Nations General Assembly to vote in support of Cuba's resolution calling for an end to the United States economic, commercial and financial war against the island nation. This vote is about nearly seven decades of aggression of Washington against Havana. It concerns the fundamental principles of international law, national sovereignty, multilateralism, and the rights of people to determine their own future. It is an opportunity for Canada to demonstrate that its foreign policy will not be dictated by U.S. imperial might. Since 1992, Canada has consistently voted for the resolution. This position has reflected a long standing recognition that unilateral economic coercion, particularly when extended beyond the borders of the country imposing it, undermines international law and the principles governing relations amongst nations, particularly among sovereign nations. Canada's vote in October 28th must reaffirm that position at the moment when, under the Trump regime, Washington's war on Cuba has relentlessly intensified and become an overtly genocidal siege. Let us be clear: Cuba's shortages and economic distress are not the result of natural disaster or internal collapse. They are the foreseeable and intended outcomes of a systematic campaign by Washington, now intensified by Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, to strangle Cuba’s access to fuel, medicines, medical equipment, foreign exchange and trade. Washington's goal is to induce mass starvation and desperation. This intent was clearly outlined by Lester Mallory, then Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, as one of who and who was one of the architects of the US policy towards Cuba. In a now declassified an infamous memorandum of April 6th, 1960. And I quote: “Most Cubans support Castro, the only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection, based on economic dissatisfaction and on hardship. Every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba, denying money and supplies to Cuba, decrease monetary and real wages to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of the government.” The question is therefore straightforward: Will Canada repudiate Washington's onslaught and asphyxiation of Cuba? Will Ottawa defended the principles it claims to uphold or will it allow US pressure to erode its commitment to international law, to sovereignty and peaceful relations amongst nations? If Canada fails at this, this will amount to an unambiguous and equivocal complicity in this genocidal siege. Tomorrow, October 28th, Canada must stand with Cuba as the Canadian people are demanding the standard Cuba and to reject this economic war.”