Tourists riding in a vintage car pass in front of Canada's Embassy in Havana in 2019. Canada and the U.S. were working closely together in Cuba between 2016 and 2018 when diplomats began reporting an array of unexplained symptoms.ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI/Reuters
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says the unexplained health ailments experienced by Canadian diplomats stationed in Cuba almost a decade ago are a human-resources concern for her department, sidestepping calls for a parliamentary inquiry into whether they were harmed by alleged sonic attacks linked to Russia.
Ms. Anand told reporters Monday she has asked her top deputy to follow up on the case, but her office later confirmed the minister is not ordering the department to reopen a 2024 interdepartmental report that concluded the diplomats’ health concerns were not the result of “any malicious act of a foreign actor.”
“My message to a deputy minister is to support families and staff in the best way we can,” Ms. Anand said during a press conference in Toronto.
“At the ministerial level, that is an issue that falls to the deputy minister who’s responsible for human resources and staff-related issues in the department. I understand the concern, though, and that is why I’ve asked him for further follow-up.”
The Globe and Mail reported Saturday that Canada and the United States were working closely together in Cuba between 2016 and 2018 when Canadian and American diplomats began reporting symptoms including nosebleeds, dizziness, headaches, blurred vision and memory loss.
The Globe revealed that Ottawa triggered a rare national security provision last year to keep secret the details of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit brought by 10 Canadian diplomats who were stationed in Havana at the time.
Former Canadian spies and retired senior security officials have since called for an independent parliamentary examination on whether the diplomats were targeted by Russia for allegedly helping U.S. intelligence agencies, and how the diplomats were subsequently treated by Ottawa.
In an exchange with reporters Monday, Ms. Anand shifted responsibility to her deputy minister, Arun Thangaraj, and noted that Global Affairs Canada’s 2024 report concluded that “no definitive common cause could be identified for the health symptoms experienced in Havana.”
The RCMP also probed the issue and had no conclusive findings about what happened to the diplomats, Ms. Anand said.
Myah Tomasi, a spokesperson for Ms. Anand, said the minister has asked officials to provide her with a thorough briefing of the 2024 interdepartmental report.
“As the minister was not in this role at the time of the 2024 [GAC] report, she has asked officials to review the information contained in the report and to provide complete analysis,” Ms. Tomasi said in a statement.
Former high-ranking Canadian Security and Intelligence Service officers and Jody Thomas, former national-security and intelligence adviser to Justin Trudeau, have called for a wider examination. The experts said the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) should review the matter.
The call was supported by the Official Opposition.
“It’s obvious Minister Anand owes Canadians, and those affected, more than punting it to the bureaucracy,” said Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar, the party’s critic for Canada-U.S. relations. “The Kremlin is known for its clandestine operations, and its determination to maintain its hold over the Cuban people.”
Opinion: How much longer can the U.S. justify its campaign against Cuba?
Scientists have offered conflicting explanations for what could have caused the set of symptoms that became known as Havana Syndrome.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania examined 21 of the American diplomats and concluded that their injuries were similar to a concussion. Other theories were put forward about pre-existing medical issues, psychosomatic conditions and environmental factors.
Ben Rowswell, a former Canadian ambassador to Venezuela, said he believes NSICOP needs to look into whether Canadian diplomats around the world are vulnerable to a new kind of Russian weapon that could be deployed against them.
“Russia is an enemy so it doesn’t take very much for Russia to target Canadian diplomats,” he said. “We should take that threat very, very seriously, regardless of whether the staff are in Havana or Tokyo.”
Mr. Rowswell, now with Catalyze4, emphasized NSICOP and the government should look into appropriate protections for diplomats when it comes to weapons that are relatively easy to use and difficult trace – like cyber or sonic attacks.
NSICOP is composed of MPs and senators who have top secret security clearance to receive classified information. The committee reports directly to the Prime Minister.
A spokesperson for NSICOP chair Darren Fisher declined to comment on whether the committee would examine the Havana case.
NSICOP said in a statement Monday that “it speaks only to and through its reports, and posts statements if and when it initiates a review.”
The Department of Justice confirmed Friday it invoked Section 38 of the Canada Evidence Act in the diplomats’ lawsuit. The rarely used law restricts disclosure of matters that could harm national security, national defence or international relations.
The Globe and Mail reported Saturday that, according to a source, a Canadian diplomat was sharing intelligence with American spies in Havana. Canadians were also using satellite equipment brought into Cuba under diplomatic cover by the U.S.
The Globe is not identifying the sources, who could face charges under the Foreign Interference and Security of Information Act for disclosing government secrets.
Human rights activist Marcus Kolga said the diplomats deserve answers, given media reports about Russia’s sonic weapons.
“If Russia’s military intelligence was responsible, as some reporting has suggested, then the use of such a weapon against Canadian officials represents a serious ongoing threat to our diplomats abroad, and potentially to our national security,” he said. “In that context, a formal inquiry would serve the broader Canadian interest.”
The diplomats’ lawsuit was amended in the summer of 2024 after media reported that a special Russian military unit known as GRU Unit 29155 was behind the attacks on Canadian and U.S. diplomats in Cuba.
A joint investigation in April, 2024, by CBS’s 60 Minutes, Germany’s Der Spiegel and Russia-focused The Insider, linked the mysterious illness to a radio-frequency-based energy weapon employed by a Russian military-intelligence unit known as GRU Unit 29155.
Earlier this year, 60 Minutes also reported that the U.S. had obtained and tested a similar sonic weapon – from a Russian criminal network – that can inflict injuries associated with Havana Syndrome.
In January, President Donald Trump revealed that American forces used a “secret sonic” weapon during their capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
With a report by Janice Dickson
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Foreign Affairs Minister addressed reporters at a press conference in Ottawa. She was in Toronto.