No diplomats recalled over odd symptoms
OTTAWA • The RCMP continues to investigate mysterious symptoms affecting Canadian diplomats in Cuba, but Canada’s foreign affairs department sees no reason to recall personnel or review its handling of eight cases of confirmed health problems, according to a senior government official.
The official, who spoke to reporters Wednesday under condition of anonymity, said Canada isn’t aware that a sonic weapon even exists that could cause the symptoms, as has been widely speculated in the U.S. So it’s not being ruled out that the weird health problems could be a manifestation of stress, or be caused by environmental factors. Unlike in the U.S., no high-level review of actions taken by the foreign department is being discussed, the official said.
In April 2017 the U.S. alerted Global Affairs Canada to symptoms experienced by its own diplomats in Havana, including dizziness, nausea, hearing problems and nosebleeds. Asked whether they had experienced anything strange, 10 families, half of the Canadian diplomatic households in Havana, presented themselves for testing based on symptoms noticed as early as March, the official said.
Documents National Post recently obtained under access-to-information indicate that some more-serious symptoms also presented themselves in a round of preliminary testing by a Health Canada doctor in Havana in June, such as memory loss and loss of consciousness.
A total of 27 individuals were subsequently screened last summer by military doctors and 19 of them immediately cleared, with eight requiring some form of medical follow-up, the official said. All were screened in Ottawa except one who saw doctors in Miami. None were hospitalized. Some of the individuals were children and all are back at work or school, though at least one has reported ongoing headaches, said the official.
Since the summer, two more complaints have been made by Canadians in diplomatic households, one in August and one in December. Both individuals reported feeling something that felt like waves of pressure, the official said, inside their houses. No symptoms were experienced at the Canadian embassy itself, the official said.
Three families have moved back to Canada from Havana in the past half-year or so, according to the official. At least two of the three families included an individual experiencing symptoms, and at least one of the three families was one that moved to Havana in summer 2017.
Because of the nature of complaints from U.S. diplomats, who the official said had experienced symptoms as early as December 2016, speculation emerged that some form of deliberate sonic or acoustic attack was responsible — and this was the first line of inquiry in the ongoing investigation.
Many Americans had reported hearing a highpitched noise, followed immediately by unusual health symptoms. But only one Canadian reported a similar sequence, said the official, although several Canadians said they heard a sound described as the noise made by shaking a piece of sheet metal. Several Canadians said they heard strange sounds in their garden but experienced no symptoms, others experienced symptoms but didn’t hear anything odd, the official said.
American officials told media that there were 24 confirmed cases of staff who required medical follow-up, in total, compared to eight Canadians. The Canadian official said that one of the items being investigated was whether Canadian families lived in close proximity to American ones. The official didn’t know whether it was possible that Canadians might be targeted because a perpetrator believed they were American. There were rumours of one or two diplomats from other countries being affected but nothing turned into a confirmed case, the official said.
The RCMP investigation includes other Canadian agencies. The official would not elaborate on which ones, only saying it was a government-wide effort.
The official said doctors confirmed auditory trauma could cause the type of symptoms being reported, but that there is no suggestion that any known entity has a weapon that could do this. With no evidence pointing to the cause of the symptoms, the official said it couldn’t be ruled out that the causes were unrelated, environment-related or even psychosomatic — but also said foul play can’t be ruled out.
While the U.S. expelled two Cuban diplomats amid its investigation of the health symptoms, Canada has taken no retaliatory measures. The official said the Cuban government seems as mystified as U.S. and Canadian officials about what might be causing the symptoms.
CANADA ISN’T AWARE THAT A SONIC WEAPON EVEN EXISTS.