Steven Edwards. National
Post. April 10, 2001
NEW YORK - John Manley, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, said yesterday Cuba
has only itself to blame for its exclusion from the Summit of the Americas,
which will see Western Hemispheric leaders gather in Quebec City next week.
The Caribbean island state's resistance to embracing democracy is keeping it
on the sidelines, Mr. Manley told the Canadian Society in New York.
Canada has done more than most countries to try to convince Cuba to join the
hemisphere's list of nations that have at least "established the democratic
process," he said.
Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister, visited the island and Ottawa
launched a human rights dialogue, Mr. Manley said. "To be perfectly frank,
we haven't seen a lot of results from that."
On the heels of Mr. Chrétien's visit, Cuba imprisoned some
dissidents.
Mr. Manley added: "Without question, this will be the most open and
transparent such event held on this continent."
However, Erin George, Ontario chairperson for the Canadian Federation of
Students, said: "If 6,500 police armed with tear gas, pepper spray, white
gas and plastic bullets, with a [3.8-kilometre] protest-free fence, is his
definition of transparency, then we have a fundamental difference of what
democracy is in this country."
The heads of 34 elected governments will attend the summit, which is
expected to incite protests from activists opposed to its wide-ranging agenda.
Though Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. National Security Advisor, has said she
wants the conference to unfold with "no surprises," Mr. Manley said "trying
to avoid surprises on subjects as diverse as missile defence and the Kyoto
Protocol will be a challenge."
The United States has come under fire for proposing a missile defence system
that some say will spur a new arms race and for withdrawing from an
international protocol signed in Kyoto, Japan, on restricting emissions of gases
suspected of causing global warming. | 