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defection

Friday July 17, 2015

July 16, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Friday July 17, 2015Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 17, 2015

Pan Am Games: 4 members of Cuban rowing team defect to U.S., coach say

Four Cuban rowers have defected to the U.S. during the Pan Am Games, according to the team’s coach, a move one agent says is likely due to economic conditions inside Cuba.

Coach Juan Carlos Reyes says Leosmel Ramos, Wilber Turro, Manuel Suarez and Orlando Sotolongo have left the team and travelled to the United States. There are more than 150 Cuban athletes at the Pan Am Games, competing in a range of sports.

Thursday December 18, 2014The Games rowing venue in St. Catharines, Ont., is only a few kilometres from the U.S. border.

Reyes says Ramos and Turro dropped out before the regatta began on Saturday while Suarez and Sotolongo were in earlier races and then withdrew. Sotolongo won a silver medal at the Games and made a Facebook post about his love for Cuba shortly before leaving the team.

Pan Am Guide | by Graeme MacKayHe said they have been in touch with teammates through Facebook.

Two Cuban baseball players, Luis Yander La O and Yadiel Hernandez, previously defected during a tune-up competition in North Carolina the week before the Games.

Joe Kehoskie, a U.S.-based agent who has represented several Cuban baseball players, said the defections are likely driven by the economic conditions inside Cuba rather than the chance to pursue a sports career in the U.S.

While the U.S. is in the process of normalizing relations with Cuba, including a recent agreement to reopen embassies, Kehoskie said many Cubans are more concerned with leaving the island now than ever. That’s because, he said, the U.S. may end its “wet foot/dry foot” policy, which allows any Cuban who steps foot on U.S. soil to remain in the country.

U.S. President Barack Obama vowed to keep the policy earlier this year. The Cuban government opposes it, saying the policy promotes illegal immigration and human trafficking.(Source: CBC News)

Posted in: Canada, Cuba, International Tagged: asylum, Canada, Cuba, customs, defection, diplomacy, Immigration, Pan Am Games, rowing, Sports, St. Catharines, USA

Wednesday January 11, 2012

January 11, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday January 11, 2012

New Democrat MP defects to the Liberals

The federal Liberals have gained a new Quebec MP at the expense of the New Democrats, with the surprise defection of rookie MP Lise St-Denis.

But it remains to be seen whether this is a short-term morale boost for the Liberal party — on the eve of its big convention in Ottawa this week — or a long-term sign of shifting political fortunes away from the NDP.

Liberal interim leader Bob Rae warned against seeing any big trends in the MP’s decision to move to Liberal benches in the Commons.

“It’s certainly not a day where we’re going to make some exaggerated claim as to what trend does this represent. I have no idea,” Rae said Tuesday at a news conference with St-Denis.

St-Denis, though, said she saw far enough into the future to predict that she wasn’t going to feel comfortable sitting in the NDP benches, even after the party gets a new leader in late March. St-Denis was a supporter of the leadership bid of Quebec MP Tom Mulcair.

“I don’t know if anything’s going to change if I wait,” she said.

St-Denis admitted that she had never expected to be elected when she ran for the NDP in last spring’s federal election.

She was equally candid when said she wasn’t elected on her own strength, but on that of the late NDP leader Jack Layton.

“They voted for Jack Layton. Jack Layton died,” St-Denis said when asked how her constituents would feel about her changing parties. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: Bob Rae, bus, Canada, cliff, defection, floor crossing, Liberal, Lise St. Denis, NDP

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