TORONTO - It turns out for the Cubans that losing billions of future tourism pesos was not worth keeping a Canadian kid on a phony car-crash rap, after all.
Turns out Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government can be pretty persuasive with foreign governments when it finally decides to engage in these bizarre out-of-country detainment stories.
Turns out the media still has the clout to get politicians moving.
As broken Wednesday night by Toronto Sun reporter Chris Doucette, if all goes well, Cody LeCompte will be back on Canadian soil Tuesday after an agreement for his family to pay $2,000 Cuban pesos (about $2,200) bail was struck Wednesday.
This comes after a series of stories from the veteran cop reporter, stories by QMI Agency reporter Barbara Simpson and continuous national radio coverage by the legendary Roy Green on the Corus Radio network.
"This occurred because of the commitment of Canadians from coast to coast as well as the dedication of Toronto Sun reporter Chris Doucette," said Green, who has championed the cause. "The federal government also took responsibility. Welcome home Cody. Welcome home."
The truth is this only came about because the heat was on for both governments. Too bad it takes that for common sense to prevail. But it is what it is.
The threat from the Canadian government to Cuba was not even stealthy.
"Canadians have long appreciated Cuba as a tourist destination," said Peter Kent, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas). "The delay faced by Canadians awaiting resolution of such cases could affect fellow Canadians' choice of Cuba as a tourist destination in the future."
This was an ultimatum -- coming from a country that has been very tolerant of Castro's Cuba and unlike the United States, does not partake in an economic embargo.
The message was loud and clear and they heard it in Havana: Simcoe teenager Cody LeCompte is to be promptly released from his tropical detainment or the Canada/Cuba travel relationship that sees more than 600,000 Canadians visit the communist island each year will be put in jeopardy.
Canadians are its biggest tourism base. And Cuba needs that cash.
The island suffers from food shortages and struggles keeping on supply enough oil and resources to keep an island of 11 million running. Cuba recently agreed to free more than 50 political prisoners so it just made sense to not dig in any further on this one.
So why did this happen in the first place? Some saw it as a shakedown or kidnapping.
It may have been some of that but it has more to do with this is how it works in Cuba. You don't have the same freedoms or due process we take for granted. It's a communist dictatorship.
It's just how they do things. If you go there, you ought to know that. It's their pile of sand and they do things how they do things. Communist bureaucracy moves slow. I know Cubans who have waited 20 years for a phone.
But I knew once Kent spoke Wednesday they would respond quickly because at the core of it, Cuban bureaucracy is not normally mean-spirited toward tourists. It's just snail like.
Kent made the point that "while aware that Cuban law allows for a period of lengthy investigation, Canadian officials expressed their concern that the investigation into this matter is taking so long."
It has to be said, though, Canadian officials took a long time to get involved, too.
But it turns out not only can a dictatorship be cajoled to loosen its rigid rules but Ottawa's foreign affairs can get off their butts and make things happen quickly if you put enough pressure on them.
joe.warmington@sunmedia.ca
