Via The Daily Bell
Canada’s federal government has confirmed it is directing aid to Cuba, a move that raises serious questions about whether Ottawa is making principled humanitarian decisions or simply reflexively positioning itself against Washington to score points with a domestic audience gripped by Trump Derangement Syndrome.
As reported by Blacklocks Reporter, the feds confirmed the aid flows even as U.S. – Havanna tensions escalated after Cuba’s border guard troops opened fire on a Florida-registered speedboat off the island’s north coast on February 25th, killing four people and injuring six. Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez didn’t mince words:
“The dictatorship in Cuba has just attacked a boat from Florida and murdered those on board. This regime must be relegated to the dustbin of history.”
Whatever the full circumstances of the maritime incident turn out to be, the optics for Ottawa couldn’t be worse. Canadian taxpayer dollars are flowing toward a government that, nearly the same time the story broke, was killing US citizens in open water.
Let’s be clear about what Canada is propping up
Cuba is not a misunderstood developing nation caught in Cold War crossfire. It is, by every credible international measure, one of the most repressive regimes on the planet.
- The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2024 Democracy Index ranks Cuba 135th out of 167 countries, firmly in the “authoritarian regime” category.
- Freedom House gives Cuba a score of 10 out of 100 in its 2025 report, classifying it flatly as “Not Free,” citing a one-party stranglehold, zero political pluralism, crushed dissent, and civil liberties that exist largely on paper.
- The V-Dem indices rank Cuba as the second-least-democratic country in all of Latin America and the Caribbean, with a democracy score of a dismal 0.178 out of one. In the Americas, Cuba’s only peers in the bottom tier are Venezuela and Nicaragua — a rogue’s gallery few governments would be proud to sustain.
The Cuban system isn’t complicated: The Communist Party is the sole legal political party. All organizing outside it is prohibited.
Elections happen, sort of. Every candidate is vetted by the state, opposition is forbidden, and calling the results “free and fair” would be a generosity no serious international observer extends. It is pure authoritarianism.
So why is Ottawa writing cheques using taxpayer money? The charitable interpretation is humanitarian concern for ordinary Cubans caught between a brutal regime and punishing sanctions. That concern is legitimate. But the framing of Canada’s posture, which is one of leaning into every available point of friction with Washington since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, suggests something less noble is at work.
TDS has become a foreign policy doctrine in Ottawa. If Washington is for it, Canada is against it. If Washington applies pressure, Canada provides relief. The reflex has replaced all reasoning.
The result is a spectacle: Canadian dollars flowing toward Havana on the very day Cuban border troops are killing Americans on the water. Canadians deserve a government that conditions its generosity on democratic values, not one that funnels their money toward a regime that jails dissidents, bans opposition, and apparently shoots first and explains later.
A 10 out of 100 on the freedom scale shouldn’t be getting a passing grade from Canadian foreign aid. Not today. Not ever.