Posted on 06/15/2024 7:27:28 AM PDT by jerod
It's not clear who knew about an embarrassing double-date for Canada's HMCS Margaret Brooke
Canadian navy patrol boat HMCS Margaret Brooke passes by Russian nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine Kazan and frigate Admiral Gorshkov as it enters Havana's bay in Cuba on June 14, 2024. (Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)
The Royal Canadian Navy now finds itself in the unusual position of both shadowing Russian warships as a threat in the Caribbean and sharing an anchorage with them as a guest in the port of Havana — because Canada accepted an invitation to send a patrol ship to Cuba while the Russian navy is in town.
And it's not clear just who in government or the military knew about the invitation from Cuba. The Caribbean nation has been a full-throated supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine and Cubans have been fighting alongside Russian soldiers in that country.
For several days, the frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec has been tasked with shadowing the Russian ships, which conducted missile exercises during their Atlantic crossing using Moscow's new Zircon hypersonic missiles. The Ville de Quebec is part of a three-ship group that tracked the Russians, along with the U.S. destroyer USS Truxton and U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGS Stone.
A Canadian CP-140 surveillance plane flying out of Jacksonville, Florida is also keeping a close eye on the Russians. The destroyer USS Donald Cook also appears to have joined the mission in the Caribbean, in addition to U.S. naval surveillance aircraft.
And yet, on Friday Canada's Harry DeWolf-class offshore patrol vessel HMCS Margaret Brooke sailed into Havana as a guest of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, just hours after the Russian flotilla docked in the same harbour.
Cuba invited the Canadians to Havana to celebrate "the long-standing bilateral relationship between Canada and Cuba," according to a tweet by Canadian Joint Operations Command.
No Canadian naval vessel had visited Cuba for more than 50 years until Justin Trudeau came to power at the end of 2015.
In November 2016, he visited Havana hoping to meet the dying Fidel Castro. That didn't happen but Trudeau did publicly embrace Raul Castro and the Castro brothers' chosen successor, Miguel Diaz-Canel, and called Cuba an "ally" of Canada during a talk at the University of Havana.
Three days later, the frigate HMCS Fredericton set sail for Havana for a visit then-defence minister Harjit Sajjan said would celebrate the "strong, positive and productive relationship" between Cuba and Canada.
"And yet, on Friday Canada's Harry DeWolf-class offshore patrol vessel HMCS Margaret Brooke sailed into Havana as a guest of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, just hours after the Russian flotilla docked in the same harbour.
Cuba invited the Canadians to Havana to celebrate "the long-standing bilateral relationship between Canada and Cuba," according to a tweet by Canadian Joint Operations Command.
No Canadian naval vessel had visited Cuba for more than 50 years until Justin Trudeau came to power at the end of 2015.
In November 2016, he visited Havana hoping to meet the dying Fidel Castro. That didn't happen but Trudeau did publicly embrace Raul Castro and the Castro brothers' chosen successor, Miguel Diaz-Canel, and called Cuba an "ally" of Canada during a talk at the University of Havana.
Three days later, the frigate HMCS Fredericton set sail for Havana for a visit then-defence minister Harjit Sajjan said would celebrate the "strong, positive and productive relationship" between Cuba and Canada."
A beaming Miguel Diaz-Canel looks on as Canada's Justin Trudeau shakes hands with Raul Castro in Havana on Nov. 16, 2016. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
The Trudeau government's relationship with the Cuban Communist Party regime has frequently drawn criticism from Canada's Cuban community. When Cubans took to the streets to demand the end of the 62-year dictatorship on July 11, 2021, Cuban-Canadians accused the Trudeau government of downplaying their political demands and attempting to misrepresent Cubans' demands for democracy as mere gripes about shortages of food and medicines.
The Margaret Brooke is the first Canadian warship to visit Cuba since the Fredericton. Many in the Cuban-Canadian community say it's less appropriate than ever for Canada to appear to bolster the Cuban regime in the wake of a harsh crackdown on dissidents that has seen the return of decades-long sentences for political prisoners.
They also cite Cuba's new and far-reaching alliance with Putin's Russia. Moscow's footprint in Cuba — which includes the re-opened Lourdes spy base — is now bigger than it has been since the end of the Cold War.
Mixed messages from Canada It is not clear who in the government of Canada authorized the Havana visit, or who knew that the Margaret Brooke had been invited at the same time as the Russians.
A spokesperson for the Department of National Defence (DND) told CBC News on Friday that the department was aware the Russians would be in Havana port on the same days as the Canadians.
But when asked about the visit on CBC's Power and Politics on Thursday evening, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told host David Cochrane she knew nothing about it.
"This is something I have to look more closely into," she said. "This is information that is news to me."
Four hours later, Global Affairs Canada spokesperson John Babcock suggested that the Cuba visit was part of a deliberate departmental strategy...
Justino Castreau
Youse guys beat me to it.
“Canadian navy patrol boat HMCS Margaret Brooke passes by”
Wow. The Canadians have mastered wakeless propulsion. Not so much as a ripple from the bow or the screws!
The US navy probably has a pretty good sound profile on every Russian vessel already. If not, this is a golden opportunity. A good sonar man can not only tell speed, direction and distance, but he can also name the ship. The sea is a vastly different battle space today than it was in WWII.
Does the word NATO mean squat?
Does Zelenskyy hate election season?
With friends like Canada, where does that leave Mexico?
His mother quietly telling him who his biologic father was, no doubt praising Castro as a great romantic and heroic revolutionary leader, would explain much about Trudeau’s personality and policies. The tendency to wear costumes and play pretend indicates a deeply weird, fractured psyche. But that’s less disturbing than his trying to turn Canada into a version of his papa’s police state.
Its being moved through the harbor by tugboats nully. There is a wake at the bow water line.
With the Russkies and Canadians in town, the hookers are working overtime. GDP in Cuba will prosper.
1800’s Gibralter. US Navy boats shared the same harbor with the Barbary pirates they were assigned to take out. The port was neutral. Read it in Kilmead’s book.
Perhaps the sailors could talk. Neither of them want to be there other than to try out the cigars. Cuban women? Canadians have more money.
Too bad he only got to meet his uncle and not his dying father.
And that's a pretty sorry looking rust bucket.
Your eyes must be better than mine.
Interesting…..
What a shame that the canadians are like the us navy and can’t afford paint for their ships.
His father….
One ship from a totalitarian prison of godless, secular humanism and 4 vessels from an anti-globalist defender of freedom.
I'm not a fan of Russia, but we failed to build a good partnership with them, help them recover and build a successful country after the Cold War. They should be a natural ally vis-a-vis the Islamic Cult and China—a lost opportunity.
I didn’t even know Canada had a war ship.🥸
Were navy ships that rusty 40 years ago?
I don’t see the national flag on either ship.
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