• Cuba is the largest island in the Antilles.
  
• Population: 11,200,000.
  
• Cuba has 2 million visitors a year.
  
• Canada sends the most tourists to the island, followed by the U.K., Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Mexico.
  
• The two pillars of the Cuban economy are tourism and sugar.
  
• Other major industries are tobacco, coffee, rum, honey, cocoa, citrus fruit, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, as well as construction materials, fishing and mining.
  
• Cuba has the world’s largest nickel deposits (some 34 percent of global reserves). It also mines copper and magnesium.
  
• In March 2006 Cuba held its 9th consecutive Terry Fox Marathon of Hope. They say the Terry Fox runs there are the largest outside Canada, with about 2 million participants. Canada’s Ambassador to Cuba gives the funds raised to the Havana Institute of Oncology.
  
• In 2004 Canada exported $327 million of goods to Cuba and imported $590 million from Cuba.
  
• Major Canadian exports to Cuba include machinery, vegetables, sulphur, electrical machinery, newsprint.
  
• Major Canadian imports from Cuba include ores, fish and seafood, tobacco, copper and aluminum scrap, beverages (rum).
  

Tourism To and Fro

Canadians visiting Cuba: 452,438 (2003)

Cubans visiting Canada: 3,832 (2004)

Immigration from Cuba to Canada: 859 (2004)

Cubans resident in Canada: 6,200

Diplomatic Relations

Canada-Cuba relations can be traced back to the 18th century, when vessels from the Atlantic provinces of Canada traded codfish and beer for rum and sugar. Cuba was the first country in the Caribbean selected by Canada for a diplomatic mission. Official diplomatic relations were established in 1945, when Emile Vaillancourt, a noted writer and historian, was designated Canada’s representative in Cuba.

Key Issues

Tourism: Cuba is the fifth most popular destination for Canadians (after the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom and France). In 2005, approximately 600,000 Canadian tourists visited Cuba. There were approximately 125 flights from Canada to Cuba per week during high season ( information on visiting Cuba ).

Human Rights: Canada has consistently recognized Cuba’s strong commitment to economic and social rights, with its particularly important achievements in the areas of education and health. At the same time, Canada has urged Cuban authorities to achieve similar progress with respect to basic civil and political rights, such as freedom of speech, of association and of the press.

Canadian authorities have expressed deep concern and strongly protested to Cuban authorities the incarceration and harsh sentencing of 75 Cuban dissidents in March and April 2003. Senior government officials have directly raised concerns about the health and prison conditions of the “75” at meetings with senior Cuban officials. Given the peaceful nature of the dissidents’ activities, Canada’s position is that the severe restrictions on freedom of expression cannot be justified on the grounds of national security. The Canadian government has therefore requested the release of the imprisoned dissidents, with immediate consideration for those in poor health.

Canada co-sponsored a resolution on Cuba’s human-rights situation for the 14 th consecutive year at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in April 2005.

In May 2003 Canada, Uruguay and Chile jointly presented a statement on Cuba’s human rights situation to the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS). The statement was supported by 17 of 34 permanent members of the OAS.