Canadian Businessman Convicted in U.S. for Trading with Cuba

Canadian businessman, James Sabzali, was convicted in Philadelphia on April 3 of violating the U.S. 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act for selling water purification supplies to Cuban hospitals and educational institutions in the mid 1990's. As was reported in the March 18 edition of Modern Communism, Sabzali's business dealings with Cuba were not only entirely legal under Canadian law, but the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act passed by Parliament in 1992 expressly forbids Canadian companies or subsidiaries of U.S. companies operating in Canada from complying with the U.S. blockade against Cuba. In fact, Canadian law requires companies operating in Canada to report to the government if they are instructed by anyone not to export to Cuba because of U.S. law or policy.

The Canadian government has been urged to launch a diplomatic protest against this conviction in order to affirm its sovereignty over its own foreign policy. Not to do so would be to acknowledge acceptance of U.S. jurisdiction, and could cause Canada further difficulties in other trade disputes. To date, the Ottawa office of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) has stated only that they are monitoring the situation.

Sabzali is the first Canadian ever to be convicted of trading with Cuba. The prosecution is calling for a jail sentence of 41 - 51 months.