Juno News - Liberals FLIP AGAIN on possible military role in Iran

00:00:00.000 In yet another reversal, Canada could help efforts to keep the Strait of Hormuz open

00:00:10.480 to oil tanker traffic.

00:00:12.920 After appearing to reject requests for help in doing so from President Trump, Canada's

00:00:18.080 defense minister now says he's open to the idea.

00:00:21.760 Just to be clear, you're leaving the door, your government is leaving the door open to

00:00:26.240 helping secure the Strait of Hormuz?

00:00:29.720 We're leaving the door open to be, I think, of assistance to any neighboring states that might require such assistance.

00:00:36.720 But we will not be engaging offensively in this war.

00:00:40.280 I want to be very clear. We are not going to be engaging offensively in this war.

00:00:44.080 And the question of the Strait of Hormuz is one that is evolving. It's changing.

00:00:49.360 It's hard to get hard information, to be honest with you, in terms of what's going on in the width of that particular strait.

00:00:55.460 We're not quite sure what the overture was or is not, so we're going to talk amongst our NATO allies, and we will govern ourselves accordingly.

00:01:04.660 Canada's military facility in Kuwait was bombed by Iran early in the conflict, an incident kept secret from the Canadian public for almost two weeks.

00:01:14.680 Well, an angry great-grandmother confronted Liberal MP Mark Gerritsen.

00:01:19.340 She had a long list of complaints about the Carney government, including men allowed in women's change rooms. Let's listen. 1.00

00:01:49.340 $400 million, green swash fund, when are we going to get those documents?

00:01:54.360 This is a private thing.

00:01:55.400 I don't care.

00:01:56.220 I do appreciate you taking this up.

00:01:56.740 I don't care.

00:01:57.340 You're a public servant.

00:01:58.560 You're a public servant.

00:01:59.500 But that doesn't mean I'm available at that.

00:02:00.640 Well, I don't care.

00:02:01.520 Why can you not talk to us?

00:02:02.500 I always talk to the general public.

00:02:03.500 No, you never.

00:02:04.480 I always do, but when you come and you interrupt a conversation, a personal conversation.

00:02:08.540 Well, it's our lives.

00:02:09.560 I really appreciate you taking the time to share this with me today.

00:02:12.040 We're passionate patrons.

00:02:13.260 Have a lovely day, okay?

00:02:15.400 As usual, always shutting us down.

00:02:18.080 Infiltration.

00:02:19.080 Infiltration.

00:02:20.080 Corruption.

00:02:21.080 Scandals.

00:02:22.080 Canadians want answers.

00:02:24.080 So you really let them have it.

00:02:26.080 Bill C9, by the way, is aimed at combating hate speech, but many fear that it criminalizes

00:02:31.740 religious texts and undermines free speech.

00:02:35.080 Well, Cuba's communist regime is on the brink of collapse and U.S. President Trump says

00:02:40.080 he's ready to take the island nation and do whatever he wants with it.

00:02:44.080 You know, all my life I've been hearing about the United States and Cuba.

00:02:47.860 When will the United States do it?

00:02:50.440 I do believe I'll be the honor of having the honor of taking Cuba.

00:02:57.800 That's a big honor.

00:02:58.980 Taking Cuba. 0.96

00:02:59.940 Taking Cuba, in some form, yeah. 0.63

00:03:01.800 Taking Cuba. 0.96

00:03:02.580 I mean, whether I free it, take it.

00:03:06.320 I think I can do anything I want with it.

00:03:07.880 You want to know the truth?

00:03:08.860 They're a very weakened nation right now.

00:03:12.600 They were for a long time.

00:03:14.080 Very violent, very violent leaders.

00:03:17.760 Trump says he'll deal with Cuba after the war in Iran is completed.

00:03:22.500 Cuba's national power grid collapsed this week,

00:03:25.380 leaving 10 million people without electricity

00:03:27.720 after the U.S. cut off supply of Venezuelan oil.

00:03:32.360 Last month, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand

00:03:34.800 pledged an aid package for that country.

00:03:37.680 There are already signs that the Cuban regime is giving up on communism,

00:03:42.000 though after 67 years. The Miami Herald reported Cuba is bringing economic reforms in to allow

00:03:49.920 Cuban expats to invest and own private property on the island. Our guest today is Cesar Guillarte,

00:03:57.360 who joins us. He's a Venezuelan expat, now proud Canadian. Welcome to the show, Cesar.

00:04:04.480 Hi, Mark. Always a pleasure joining you. How are you?

00:04:07.040 I'm fantastic. Thank you. Well, I'll tell you, it's the Cuban people who are not doing 1.00

00:04:12.580 particularly well right now. They're off over there. And they really started going downhill

00:04:18.920 when Trump cut off the supply of Venezuelan oil, because then, of course, they suffered

00:04:23.980 a massive blackout right across the island. And that apparently has been alleviated, but

00:04:31.400 it's not good. I mean, economically speaking, they are in as rough shape as they have ever

00:04:36.900 been. What are you hearing about Cuba? Well, the collapse of the Cuban regime

00:04:42.660 is the natural consequence of the fall of Maduro. Let's keep in mind that Cuba has never been able

00:04:49.460 to stand on their own true feet ever since they became communists. They have always relied on a

00:04:55.780 sponsor. It was the Soviet Union back in the day, and then they went through that special period

00:05:01.620 when the Soviet Union collapsed itself.

00:05:04.620 And then it was Chavez with Venezuelan oil

00:05:07.360 propping off the dictatorship,

00:05:09.840 providing everything that they did,

00:05:11.640 essentially subsidizing their economy.

00:05:14.200 And yes, as of January 3rd, 2026,

00:05:16.860 when the U.S. took Maduro,

00:05:18.680 they basically took all of those goodies

00:05:21.360 from the Cuban government.

00:05:23.080 And they are now facing the consequences

00:05:25.680 of having to live in that new reality.

00:05:28.940 Yeah, I mean, Canada has pledged some help to that.

00:05:32.860 I mean, that's the double-edged sword that when you provide aid, it kind of props up the regime.

00:05:39.140 You know, you want to help the people, but it's the regime that ends up taking that, monetizing it in whatever way they can.

00:05:46.540 And so you end up, unfortunately, just perpetuating the communist regime.

00:05:51.520 Hasn't that been the case?

00:05:53.320 Yeah, no, it absolutely has.

00:05:54.740 I had a conversation with a friend, with a Canadian friend of mine over the weekend,

00:05:58.980 and I was telling him that we need to understand that similar to Venezuela,

00:06:03.060 when you're dealing with Cuba, you're not dealing with a government.

00:06:06.340 You're basically dealing with a cartel.

00:06:10.740 Less of a Narva cartel compared to Venezuela.

00:06:13.060 But long story short, there is a Cuban government conglomerate.

00:06:17.380 It's called GAES.

00:06:18.740 They are pretty much the owners of every single industry in Cuba.

00:06:23.160 So every dollar that you spend in Cuba, every ounce of aid that you send to Cuba, you're not sending it to the Cuban people. 0.58

00:06:30.060 You're sending it to the government conglomerate.

00:06:32.800 And that's true across all industries.

00:06:35.920 If you stay at a Cuban hotel, you are paying to Gaesa.

00:06:40.480 If you fly on the airline, you're paying to Gaesa.

00:06:44.020 You're paying to the government.

00:06:45.280 Every single import, every single export in and out of Cuba goes through the government entity.

00:06:52.580 Remington says that Cuban expats sent to the to the island, they all go through the government.

00:06:59.540 So when we say that the country is collapsing, we're referring to this conglomerate of companies

00:07:05.460 that are all owned by the by the Cuban government. And the issue is structural. It's not we're not

00:07:11.780 talking about a very specific set of circumstances like a natural disaster. What we're seeing here

00:07:17.780 is the result of years and decades of systematic mismanagement of the economy

00:07:25.100 that have only allowed them to stay in power because they've had a sponsor.

00:07:30.940 And Venezuela was sending oil, Venezuela was sending food.

00:07:34.580 At one point, they say Venezuela was oxidizing the production of electricity

00:07:38.420 in the island by sending engineers and equipment that they needed.

00:07:43.300 And unfortunately, they became dependent on that.

00:07:46.600 And Canada and other countries, not only Canada, I think Spain and probably Portugal are also sending aid.

00:07:53.380 They see this as an attempt to, you know, remunerate the hardship that the Cuban people are going through.

00:08:00.540 But you end up, what you're doing is effectively, you continue to prop the government.

00:08:05.780 You are pretty much extending this period of hardship that they are going through right now.

00:08:10.760 Because the issues that they have in the island are not going to be solved with an aid package.

00:08:15.280 Not by Canada, not by the U.S., not by Russia, not by Venezuela.

00:08:18.640 What we're seeing here is decades of its management.

00:08:21.980 They had essentially no infrastructure.

00:08:23.980 They have no way to generate the power they need.

00:08:26.580 They don't have ways to produce the food that they need.

00:08:29.900 So it's long overdue.

00:08:32.200 I think it's extremely long overdue.

00:08:35.440 I think the Cuban government should have collapsed 20 years ago.

00:08:39.540 But then Chavez came into the picture and Chavez has kept them.

00:08:42.800 And it's very sad for the Cuban people because they have experienced more oppression and more hardship than what they should have.

00:08:51.420 Yeah, I mean, even Canadian tourism has helped the regime, sadly.

00:08:57.000 I mean, I know that's not the intention of Canadians who go down to Cuba for some sun and fun and relaxation.

00:09:04.200 But unfortunately, the money that is gleaned from that particular hospitality industry

00:09:12.200 up in the pockets of people in the regime, the regular folks don't get a whole lot

00:09:17.200 except maybe a dollar here or a dollar there in the way of tips.

00:09:22.540 Maybe they have to report that too.

00:09:24.280 I don't know.

00:09:25.680 But now, really, it'd be an opportunity to see wholesale changes in Cuba,

00:09:30.640 the kind that maybe people like yourself has been waiting decades to see.

00:09:35.980 Miami Herald is reporting that Cuba is bringing economic reforms already.

00:09:41.500 Now, I know you probably have some doubts about how many of those are going to be,

00:09:46.920 but supposedly they're going to allow Cuban expats to invest and own businesses on the island.

00:09:54.280 So it's interesting.

00:09:55.400 They want they're so desperate for currency that they're reaching out to Cubans who left that island years and maybe decades ago. 0.94

00:10:04.660 And they're saying, you can come on back. We'll let you buy land and we'll let you run businesses.

00:10:09.800 What do you think of that? Yeah. Well, I think for lack of a better expression, those those reforms are putting lipstick on a pig. 0.88

00:10:17.340 The announcements that you mentioned in there called the government program or I think it was the Diaz-Canel plan, something like that.

00:10:24.220 They're basically inviting people in Miami

00:10:26.520 to go to Cuba and to invest money.

00:10:29.560 They are announcing that they are going to allow

00:10:31.340 more municipal and private ownership of businesses.

00:10:36.460 But none of these reforms are actually touching Giza,

00:10:40.620 which is the government conglomerate

00:10:41.800 that I was talking about.

00:10:44.020 So this new public-private decree,

00:10:46.220 it's keeping the government conglomerate

00:10:48.620 as the senior partner of every investment

00:10:50.380 that's made in Cuba.

00:10:52.200 It's only designed to attract 0.81

00:10:54.220 uh money to attract cash to the island it's the and i have no doubt that its intention it's to

00:11:00.780 maintain the government it's to buy time for the government to stay there maybe a few more months

00:11:06.140 maybe a few more years i don't really know um i think it's key to highlight that the cuban

00:11:12.060 government doesn't just own everything in cuba it owns the parts that matter the most they have

00:11:19.900 they have engineered this system where every transaction that happens in the island even if

00:11:25.740 it's in the black market um it doesn't matter how small or how private it is it eventually ends up

00:11:31.980 depositing money in the pockets of the government um i i have i have a personal anecdote i have a

00:11:37.660 good friend who went there um and they spent uh he's canadian he goes there very very frequently

00:11:43.660 he used to go there after the conversation that he and i had i don't think he's going anymore

00:11:48.140 And he was telling me that they became friends with a taxi driver that was taking them to the

00:11:53.980 actions. And at the end of their journey, at the end of the trip, they gave him a $100 tip.

00:11:59.260 And the taxi driver told them, I cannot take this because if I show up with a $100 bill to store,

00:12:07.260 they are going to call the national intelligence and they're going to throw me in jail and they're

00:12:10.460 going to torture me because they want to know where the bill came from. If you want to help me,

00:12:15.340 I'd rather you go to the store as a tourist, you buy $100 in food, in personal care items,

00:12:20.780 and you give them to me. Those I can use. I cannot use $100 in Cuba. There's no way I can

00:12:26.460 buy anything with this because everything is controlled by the government. And he was actually

00:12:31.020 surprised. He told me the story and I told him, yeah, that's exactly how it is. Everything is

00:12:37.260 controlled by the government and every single dollar that you spend there just went to patent

00:12:41.740 the pockets of the dictatorship and um he was extremely surprised and extremely disappointing

00:12:47.340 because it's not something that you that you hear every day and i think i don't think they're going

00:12:51.260 to be going to cuba anytime soon at least for the next couple of years because now they know what

00:12:55.180 the reality is for the people who did that yeah i imagine that controlling every dollar we spend

00:13:02.060 is something that our own liberal government would be salivating over the prospect of doing

00:13:06.220 well that's the intention behind the central bank digital currency yeah how sweet would that be yeah

00:13:14.860 but we've got that trump talking about taking the island i guess taking the island over taking over

00:13:24.100 the island and they were saying you're doing whatever you want i'm sure you saw that clip

00:13:28.220 of him saying that what do you suppose he means by that and what do you think is going on in cuba

00:13:35.580 as they hear that trump is planning on basically taking taking over cuba yeah i think this has to

00:13:43.580 do with uh with the large uh nationalization that the cuban government did in in the 50s and the

00:13:49.580 60s they pretty much took over every privately owned business on the island and the largest

00:13:55.420 portion of those businesses were american we're talking about hotels we're talking about airlines

00:14:00.700 even the phone company and the investments that all those companies had made. When Batista was

00:14:06.860 the president of the country, they were U.S. made and the communists took over them and they never

00:14:14.540 paid for them, which is what initially triggered the embargo. The legal framework in the U.S. that

00:14:21.420 sets what we know as the embargo of us of today was a retaliatory measure by the U.S. government

00:14:27.820 to essentially punish the Cuban government from renationalizing without pay all of those assets.

00:14:34.140 So I think there is this belief, I think there is this perception that whatever is left in Cuba

00:14:41.740 actually belongs to the U.S. because it was built by the U.S. and it was never it was never properly

00:14:48.140 bought from them. So I think that when Trump says he's going to take the island, I think Trump is

00:14:53.260 thinking about it. We're going to go in and we're going to recover those investments because they

00:14:56.620 They were out to begin.

00:14:59.000 I think that's what he's talking about.

00:15:00.920 There is a lot of, I mean, Cuba and the U.S., even after the embargo, even after how cold the relationship between the two countries are, share a lot of history.

00:15:13.340 The Cuban diaspora in Miami, it's enormous.

00:15:15.960 So there are a lot of families that are actually looking forward to being able to travel to Cuba freely, spend their winters there, spend their vacations there, take their families, go to their own sexual homelands.

00:15:26.620 And I think Trump is thinking about we're going to bring Cuba.

00:15:30.220 I have no idea what the legal path forward would look like, but I'm thinking maybe something like Puerto Rico, maybe something like a free associate state where there is a lot of exchange between Cuba and the U.S.

00:15:42.780 and gives the American companies the opportunity to recover some of the investments that were lost on time ago, but also gives the Cuban people the opportunity of having access to the world's largest market.

00:15:54.280 If it's through tourism, if it's through, I don't know, oil, if it's through groceries, if it's through products.

00:16:01.120 Let's keep in mind that Cuba is one of the countries that is the closest to the U.S.

00:16:06.000 They are 90 nautical miles from the coast of Florida.

00:16:08.480 So I think other than Canada and Mexico, Cuba definitely is in a very, very favorable position to take advantage of the U.S. and their economy.

00:16:16.340 So I think that's what he's talking about.

00:16:19.520 Obviously, you're not sure.

00:16:20.540 trump thinks and tests one thing today and then tomorrow he'll say another thing depending on how

00:16:25.420 the opinions are swinging but i think that's what he's talking about yeah i think that makes a lot

00:16:30.620 of sense but i can't help but wonder about the effort to rebuild cuba assuming that the communist

00:16:38.220 regime collapses and you once again have freedom to express your thoughts outside out loud you know

00:16:47.740 without the fear of being arrested and ending up in prison and maybe some freedoms in terms of

00:16:54.860 the economy you know uh freedom to own property freedom to start companies and just i mean the

00:17:03.020 promise now there is huge i mean the possibilities are endless now for companies going back in there

00:17:09.340 you know setting up casinos stuff like the things that capitalist countries do

00:17:15.260 giving the people an opportunity to work and make real money yeah uh that's going to be quite the

00:17:21.580 effort after 67 years uh love the world yes communism now to change things around i mean

00:17:30.380 if it happens i mean 10 years from now you know we could be going to cuba and having a good time

00:17:35.420 or whatever rather than staying away from the island what do you think about that i mean uh

00:17:42.300 with the time we've got left you know maybe can canadian companies could certainly be playing a

00:17:47.260 role as well in investing in that i'm sure a lot of companies are salivating at the prospect of

00:17:53.340 returning to cuba and investing in that country what do you think oh absolutely i think very

00:17:58.140 similar to venezuela when we think about cuba we think about tourism and we think about venezuela

00:18:02.860 we think about oil and that is true to an extent i think there are numerous industries uh that would

00:18:08.700 be that would take advantage of the massive benefits that would bring investing in Cuba

00:18:15.260 or investing in Venezuela. We're talking about agriculture. We're talking about energy in general.

00:18:20.140 We're talking about infrastructure investments. But keep in mind that the infrastructure in Cuba

00:18:24.620 and in Venezuela, it's decades beyond repair. I think the last thing they did to the airport in

00:18:30.940 Havana was a fresh coat of paint when the Pope visited them, maybe 10 or 12 years ago. I don't

00:18:36.700 think they've done anything anything beyond that it's decades of mismanagement it's decades of

00:18:41.740 central planning so i think just opening the economy but really opening the economy not

00:18:47.660 not this invitation for for the miami diaspora to go to go there and invest and and and buy clothes

00:18:54.460 and buy rum i'm talking about truly opening the economies of both cuba and venezuela definitely

00:18:59.900 will bring enormous opportunities for the people to improve their life spot and i think the people

00:19:05.180 are ready i think the people in cuba the people in venezuela and i think everybody living on

00:19:09.020 educatorships across the globe they're definitely ready because living in free societies where you

00:19:15.020 can where you can take advantage of your entrepreneurial instincts that's that's the

00:19:19.660 way to go that's that's something that we have naturally within us so we just need to be given

00:19:23.740 the opportunity to exploit that that's something that both cuba and venezuela have been keeping

00:19:28.300 from their people it's not only about freedom of expression it's not only about freedom of

00:19:31.980 the press which obviously it's key and we need to address that as well i think it's the freedom to

00:19:37.020 to exploit our entrepreneurial instincts what's going to be the best um the best outcome for this

00:19:43.820 for this both for cuban for venison yeah i mean there will be billions of dollars funneled

00:19:48.860 funneled into that country many of it much of it from you know cubans who left the country and 0.97

00:19:55.180 you know made all sorts of money in the united states or elsewhere and then returning to that

00:20:00.460 island i mean and you know i'm happy for the people of that island once it happens to throw

00:20:06.300 off the shackles of communism all the while we have you know the communist mayor of new york city

00:20:11.980 import those same disastrous policies it's just yeah yeah i think you and i spoke about this

00:20:18.700 at a prior occasion but it's surprising how communism is so uh it's so popular amongst

00:20:25.420 those who have not lived it.

00:20:27.420 Yeah, exactly.

00:20:29.180 Cesar, thank you so much for coming on the show.

00:20:31.180 Great to speak.

00:20:31.660 Always a pleasure, Mark.

00:20:33.580 Great stuff.

00:20:34.460 Cesar Garrity.

00:20:36.220 If you enjoyed this show, consider supporting

00:20:37.980 independent journalism by becoming a premier member

00:20:41.100 of Juno News.

00:20:41.900 Go to junonews.com.

00:20:43.580 It helps us do what we do.

00:20:45.260 Thank you so much.

00:20:46.140 We'll see you next time.

Juno News - March 17, 2026

Liberals FLIP AGAIN on possible military role in Iran

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