Canada: COVID-19 "second wave" is imminent - Canada needs Cuban medical personnel assistance asap

The Honourable Chrystia Freeland
Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario. K1A 0A6
July 7, 2020

Dear Minister Freeland:
On May 4, 2020 your Ottawa office received a petition backed by over 1,300 signatures asking you to review your decision of March 30, 2020 rejecting a Manitoba First Nation request for a Cuban Health Team to help buttress their indigenous communities in the coming battle against COVID-19. That petition also requested that by June 4, 2020 the Canadian government publicly share a letter to be directed to all UN members in support of the remarkable international work in the COVID-19 context that is being carried out by Cuban Health Teams on four continents. Unfortunately we have not heard back from your office.

Now with some 1770 signatures in support (see petition included with this letter), the feeling is that Canada will inevitably be facing a ‘second wave’ surge of COVID-19 cases for which Canada is not well prepared. With the projected ‘opening up’ of our economy the risk of a surge of the novel coronavirus is great, and the ‘first wave’ showed that we are lacking in infectious disease experts (IDE) to prevent, identify and report outbreaks (long term care centres, migrant workers et al.). With such skilled personnel being scarce in Canada it makes sense to turn for immediate assistance to a country that has trained thousands of IDEs since 2005, and that country is Cuba.

As the text of the included petition goes on to explain, your March 30 rejection of the Manitoba First Nation requests for trained Cuban health personnel has all the appearances of a politically motivated act. Your rejection is all the more questionable since the amassing of scientific evidence for how COVID-19 might affect indigenous populations did not start until well into April. Indigenous lives matter.

Now is the time that Ottawa can right an earlier wrong by inviting the assistance of highly experienced Cuban medical personnel who are trained as infectious disease experts. Faced with this unremitting and deadly pandemic it is clear that science should prevail over ideology. We call on Canada to immediately approach the Cuban government to arrange for vital medical support to come from the island nation.

Sincerely,

Rick Arnold (petition organizer)
784 Packer Road
Roseneath, ON
K0K 2X0
905-352-2430

[Petition text as backgrounder to above letter sent to Minister Freeland (with signatures)]

Minister Freeland: The many Canadians who have signed this petition asked that by June 4, 2020 Canada publicly acknowledge Cuba’s remarkable acts of international solidarity in sending multiple health professional teams to help combat Covid-19 in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and the Caribbean. We suggested that Canada's recognition for Cuba's major contribution to the global battle against the novel coronavirus could be as straightforward as a public letter of recognition delivered at a special U.N. session called for this purpose. A month has passed since that deadline with no contact from yourself or your office.

Canada is not likely to be spared a devastating "second wave" of the novel coronavirus and having barely flattened the curve in some areas of the country after the initial arrival of this virus, Canada is not well prepared to face the next 'wave'. The lives of those living in isolated indigenous communities remain at high risk for future infection should there be a resurgence of the pandemic. The debacle of infections and deaths at our long-term-care facilities and for migrant agricultural workers combined with the projected 'opening up' of industrial workplaces, schools, day care facilities and such, clearly point to the need for an 'army' of infectious disease experts (IDE) to prevent, identify and report outbreaks. Such skilled personnel are scarce in Canada and a home-grown IDE 'army' will take considerable time to train.

Cuba has been training their own IDE since 2005 and are in a position to be able to send a Cuban health team as had been requested by the Manitoba Chiefs back on March 27. Your rapid March 30 rejection of this Manitoba First Nations' (F.N.) request was a political act, given that there was no time to consult with provincial and F.N. authorities and that the scientific evidence for how COVID-19 might affect indigenous populations was not being collected until well into April. Indigenous lives matter.

Once again we call on the federal government to reconsider it hasty rejection and invite a team of Cuban medical personnel (IDE) who could be an invaluable asset for our country as Canada prepares for an imminent 'second wave' of COVID-19.