Has Canada been a "friend" to Cuba?

While Ottawa’s position towards Fidel Castro’s Cuba was far more progressive than our southern neighbour’s, the story is more complicated than liberals are likely to suggest in their commentary over Castro’s passing.

Canada did not play a central role in U.S. efforts to squash the social reforms and independence of the island nation. Rather than participate in hundreds of CIA assassination attempts on Castro's life, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau declared "Viva Castro" during an official trip to Cuba in 1976. But there's a little-known unsavory side to Canadian relations with Cuba.

When people die of disease, they are said to have died from natural causes. When they recover, the doctor gets the credit of curing them.
-- George Bernard Shaw.

This may be an apocryphal tale, but a city in ancient China is purported to have had a public health-care system that was the reverse of ours. Physicians were paid a monthly fee for each of their patients as long as the patients remained in good health. When a patient became ill, the fee was suspended.

In that genuine health-care system, the doctor's main incentive was to keep patients well. So the emphasis was on scheduling frequent visits and tests; monitoring nutrition, exercise and other essential factors; and promoting the healthiest possible lifestyle.