Hon. Leo Housakos: Honourable senators, I rise today to give thanks to the Macdonald-Laurier Institute for their work earlier this week in hosting a very distinguished panel of guests to discuss Canada and Cuba in the world of expanding authoritarianism and for inviting me to be part of the discussion.

Those distinguished guests included none other than the pro‑democracy activist and defender of human rights Rosa María Paya, who has dedicated her life to promoting international solidarity with the people of Cuba and seeking justice for her father, Oswaldo Paya, a name many of you may be familiar with.

Rosa is the founder of an organization called Cuba Decide. She was joined by other freedom fighters and defenders of human rights: Michael Lima, Sarah Teich of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Dr. Angel Omar Vento and Josefa Vento.

During the event, we discussed the ongoing struggle of the Cuban people for freedom, dignity and basic human rights. The Cuban people have long suffered under generations of vicious dictators who have curtailed the rights and freedoms of the citizenry with oppressive acts of violence, murder and detention. And never has their struggle been more apparent than in the events we have seen unfold in the past few years.

But we also spoke about how that fits into the rise of authoritarianism around the world and what countries like Canada need to do to fight it.

Even now, the continued calls by freedom-loving Cuban Canadians to support those leading the peaceful struggle for human rights and democracy in Cuba have thus far been ignored by our government, whose policy toward Cuba has been based on silence and, even more worrisome, inaction.

Given the new reality that the world is living with, it is more important than ever that Canada supports unity among defenders of democracy at a global level in the face of accelerated expansion of authoritarian regimes around the world.

The world is entering a new era that requires new strategic thinking to redefine international relations between democracies and autocracies. Canada should take a significant step in that direction by denouncing the illegitimacy of the Cuban regime, whose system and representatives have never been freely elected by the people.

Instead of supporting and legitimizing the same Cuban regime that justifies the invasion of Ukraine with Kremlin propaganda, Canada should recognize the pro-democratic opposition in Cuba as a valid interlocutor in our relationship with the island.

Long live democracy. Thank you.