Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Open Letter to Western Union Canada


Western Union Financial Services (Canada), Inc
330 Bay Street, Suite 300
Toronto, Ontario
M5H 2S8
  

Dear Madam/Sir,

I’m writing to you on behalf of the Association of Cubans Resident in Toronto “Juan Gualberto Gómez”. We are very concerned that starting today, we can no longer send money to Cuba. This restriction negatively affects our ability to help our relatives in the island, and therefore affects our family ties.

In October 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department´s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) put into effect a new regulation that limits to no more than one thousand U.S. dollars per quarter the remittances that a U.S. citizen can send to relatives in Cuba. However, there are no prohibitions or restrictions in place in Canada to send money to Cuba, and even there are specific legislations, such as  the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act (FEMA) of 1985 and the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Order of 1992, which prohibit a Canadian corporation, including Canadian subsidiaries and branches of U.S. companies, as it is the case of Western Union Canada, to comply with a Cuba-related extraterritorial measure of the United States.

We believe that Western Union Canada recent decisions and practices concerning transfers of money to Cuba violate our rights as Canadian citizens, as well as Canadian law. We respectfully request to receive an explanation from your company on this matter.

Sincerely,


Julio Fonseca
Association of Cubans Resident in Toronto “Juan Gualberto Gómez”
asociacion.jgg@gmail.com

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