The day prior to the opening of the April 20–22 Summit of the Americas held in Quebec City reporters asked Chrétien why Cuba was excluded from the meeting. According to an EFE news dispatch, Chrétien justified the action by claiming that the Cuban "regime" had failed "to take any action in regards to human rights," despite his having "spent hours trying to convince" Castro to do so during talks held by the two heads of state in Havana in April 1998.

In his televised response, Cuban president Castro explained that the meeting with Chrétien "had barely begun when [Chrétien] rather abruptly placed a short list of names on the table, a list that he had obviously received shortly before." This has commonly occurred, said Castro, whenever "we were visited by a political figure from a U.S. ally or an American politician: the State Department would hand them a list of people tried in a court of law or sentenced for counterrevolutionary activities."

Castro said he told the Canadian prime minister, "It is only in exceptional cases that the authorities proceed to arrest and prosecute those" whose "acts of provocation are grave or totally unacceptable." He contrasted "the misdeeds and crimes committed against Cuba by the United States" with the "irreproachable conduct and ethics of our Revolution despite the deluge of slander and lies heaped on Cuba."

From the very first years of the revolution, he said, including in the case of the 1,500 mercenaries who invaded the country with U.S. backing in 1961, the Cuban government "has been releasing those who had tried to destroy" the revolution over the course of four decades.

A number of other questions were discussed at the meeting, said Castro.

The Cuban president proposed that Cuba and Canada "set an example of cooperation by working out a joint health-care program for Haiti where Cuba would send the medical personnel, and Canada would provide the necessary medicines and equipment." He explained that Haiti is "one of the poorest countries in the world, with terrible health indicators, including the prevalence of AIDS, which threatened to become a human catastrophe."

Chrétien replied that he was "interested in projects for Haiti," said Castro. "He said he would study the proposal, and I said I would talk to the Haitian government."

"It would appear," the Cuban leader stated, "that this idea immediately brought another [project] to his mind." The Canadian prime minister proposed a joint effort with Angola and Mozambique to remove anti-personnel land mines. "You can contribute the workers, we will contribute the money," Chrétien told Castro.

"He undoubtedly did not realize," Castro said, "how offensive his proposal could be: a humanitarian cooperation project in which Canada and other rich countries provide the money, while we take on the risk of mutilation and death of our soldiers."

"I had the strong impression that he wanted to hire us as mercenaries," he said. "For a moment I felt overwhelmed by a sense of outrage, recalling the selfless spirit of sacrifice, the clean and noble history of a people who had confronted a brutal economic war and special period ready to die for their ideas. Could anyone pretend to take advantage of this situation to try tempting us with such a mission?"

Instead, Castro said, "I proposed what I considered a reasonable solution. We were willing to train all of the necessary personnel from Angola, Mozambique, and any other country affected by such problems to carry out this task in their own territories."

By "November 1998," reported Castro, "seven months had passed, and there was still no word from Chrétien about the projects we had discussed."

When Hurricane Georges struck the Caribbean in September of that year, Castro challenged other governments to join in providing assistance to Haiti, where 150,000 people had been left homeless. In a speech at the 5th Congress of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), quoted in the television program, he said, "I am asking the international community: Do you want to help this country which, not so long ago, experienced a military invasion and intervention?" Castro proposed that "if a country like Canada...or France...or Japan would provide the medications, we are prepared to provide the doctors."  
 
Cuba responds to Hurricane Georges
On December 4 Cuba sent its first emergency brigade to help the victims of Hurricane Georges on its own. Medical groups continued to arrive in the following weeks. "Meanwhile," Castro said, "our Canadian friends did not show any sign of life." Later, Cuba received a message through unofficial channels that Ottawa would donate $300,000 to the medical project in Haiti.

Then, out of the blue, in March 1999, the Canadian minister of foreign affairs, Lloyd Axworthy, wrote the Cuban government a letter stating that due to certain court proceedings and draft legislation in Cuba, "I am asking my officials to refrain from undertaking new joint initiatives" and urging other Cabinet members to "reflect on their own programs of bilateral cooperation with Cuba."

Axworthy added he had put on hold "the Cuban request to undertake third country medical cooperation in Haiti."

"What bothered me most," about the letter, added Castro, "were not the punitive measures and threats against Cuba--after 42 years we are used to such treatment--but rather the fact that the $300,000 would never reach the sick people in Haiti."

The Cuban president said that despite the inaction of the Canadian government, there are today 469 Cuban doctors and health-care workers in Haiti who provide medical care to 62 percent of the Haitian population.

"Today, nobody can sabotage Cuba's cooperation with other countries in the Third World." What counts, he said, are "actions, not words, rapid responses, not waiting until kingdom come while there are human beings in poor countries dying every day and every hour."  
 
 
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