Pedestrians walk past the Embassy of Canada in Havana, Cuba, in 2019. Prime Minister Mark Carney acknowledged the duty Canada owes its diplomats during a press conference in Vancouver on Tuesday.ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI/Reuters
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he will determine the government’s response to new details surrounding the unexplained health ailments experienced by Canadian diplomats stationed in Cuba almost a decade ago once he has been briefed on the matter.
The Globe and Mail reported last week 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 report cited a source who said that a Canadian diplomat was sharing intelligence with American spies in Havana. It also cited a second source who said that Canadians were also using satellite equipment brought into Cuba under diplomatic cover by the U.S.
Asked about this Tuesday, Mr. Carney said he is looking into it.
“I expect to be briefed on the situation. There’s some new information, as you say, that’s come to light, and I’ll take a determination after that’s happened,” he told reporters during a press conference in Vancouver, in his first public comments on the matter since the story was reported last week.
He acknowledged the duty Canada owes its diplomats.
“We owe a responsibility, and we discharge a responsibility, a duty of care for Canadian diplomats who serve on the front lines on behalf of Canadians,” the Prime Minister said.
“As I’ve said, I expect to be briefed. I haven’t been briefed in more detail about the latest revelations, and I commend you for raising them. And I expect to be briefed and take action from there.”
Security experts call for inquiry into Havana Syndrome cases at Canada’s embassy in Cuba
Former Canadian spies and retired senior security officials have called for an independent parliamentary examination on whether Russia targeted the diplomats for allegedly helping U.S. intelligence agencies, and how Ottawa subsequently treated the diplomats.
On Saturday, The Globe revealed that Ottawa triggered a rare national-security provision last year to keep secret new details of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit brought by 10 Canadian diplomats who were stationed in Havana when the symptoms were reported.
The Justice Department confirmed last 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.
On Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said the diplomats’ unexplained health ailments were a human-resources concern for her department. She sidestepped 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.”
Paul Miller, counsel for Canadian diplomats and their families, criticized Ms. Anand’s dismissal of the episode as a human-resources problem.
“We are extremely disappointed in the Minister’s response to the story in the Globe & Mail. The diplomats and their family members who have suffered all these years deserve better,” he said.
“We need to understand what caused these ailments. Not only will this help determine accountability, but understanding the cause may help doctors better treat those who continue to suffer.”
Scientists have offered conflicting explanations for what could have caused the set of symptoms that became known as Havana Syndrome.
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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.
CNN reported in January that the Pentagon has spent more than a year testing a device that some investigators think could be the cause of Havana Syndrome-type ailments. It said defence officials considered their findings serious enough that they briefed the House and Senate intelligence committees late last year.
Defence Minister David McGuinty, to whom the chief of the Communications Security Establishment reports, refused Tuesday to discuss satellite technology equipment sharing between Canada and the U.S. at embassies. The CSE is Canada’s electronic eavesdropping agency.
“There are some things I can’t talk about. Some things remain confidential. Some things remain secret,” he said during a tour of a defence exhibition in Ottawa.
Some security experts have recommended the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians review the matter. 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.
Mr. McGuinty said The Globe’s story about Canadian diplomats “is raising important questions” but added it’s not for him to call on NSICOP to initiate a review.
The NSICOP Secretariat said in an e-mailed statement to The Globe that the committee “has no comment on the matters you have raised.”
It said it would not discuss the Cuba matter.
“The Committee speaks only to and through its reports, and posts statements if and when it initiates a review. Once a review is completed and the Prime Minister tables the Committee’s report in both Houses of Parliament, the Committee also posts the revised version of the report on its website,” the secretariat said.