So far, Prime Minister Jean Chretien's response has been one in the great Canadian tradition of ``order a review,'' wait and see.

Castro's latest violations of human rights are the kind that Canada prides itself on preventing. And if in response the Canadian government were to ban tours to Cuba, it could be a serious financial loss to Castro's bankrupt regime.

Cuba's four leading political dissidents -- Felix Bonne, Vladimir Roca (son of the late Blas Roca a co-founder of the Cuban Revolution), Marta Beatriz Roque and Rene Gomez Manzano -- were sentenced on March 15 to serve between 3 1/2 to five years in prison.

Their trial and convictions have special resonance in Canada. Both Chretien and Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy believed that they had won Castro's assurance of clemency for Havana's ``Group of Four'' during much-ballyhooed visits to Cuba in 1997 and 1998.

During Axworthy's 1997 visit to Havana, Castro appeared to be especially conciliatory when he released 11 other jailed ``political dissidents'' -- a dismal euphemism for critics of his regime -- who then immigrated to Canada. Several of them and their families now live in Toronto, assisted in their new lives by the city's growing Hispanic community.

Chretien's first response to the sentencing of the ``Group of Four'' sounds like a mix of personal dismay and frustration: ``Cuba sends an unfortunate signal to her friends in the international community when people are jailed for peaceful protest.''

Clearly the traditional Canadian approach -- the use of trade and diplomacy to save the dissidents and bring democracy to Cuba -- didn't work this time.

``In the light of the sentencings and other related events, we have informed the Cuban government that we would be reviewing the range of our bilateral activities,'' Chretien added.

Soft on Castro

Canada is also ``rethinking its push to have Cuba included in the Organization of American States,'' Axworthy said. The OAS's 30th annual meeting is scheduled to be held in Ottawa in 2000. (Cuba was expelled from the OAS in 1962.)

Political opponents of both Axworthy and his former boss Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau have long accused both men of being soft on Castro. Trudeau retired in 1984 but still flies to Havana to schmooze privately with Castro.

Axworthy, carried away from his visit with the outwardly affable Castro, is reported to have blurted out as he left Cuba that he had accomplished more in a six-hour session with Castro than Americans had in 30 years.

The statements by Chretien and Axworthy following the trials appear to be bland. But given Canada's many roles in Cuba since the 1959 revolution -- from hard-nosed investment to assistance by humanitarian groups, teacher exchanges, and regular shipments of medical supplies, clothing, books and home computers -- it's difficult to decide what appropriate punitive action to take.

The National Post, Toronto's new conservative daily, quoted Axworthy before a cabinet meeting: ``If you're going to be a member of the hemispheric community, then you have to play by the rules. . . . The willingness to accept some form of political dissent . . . is one of those rules.''

Yet Canada's successful 40-year resistance against strong U.S. pressures to break relations with Castro has become a measure of Canada's national identity. Officially, Chretien comes close to admitting this when he says: ``We believe in a policy of engagement. We have some flexibility . . . [and] relations with Cuba give Canada more influence.''

The US$300 billion bilateral trade with the United States fuels Canada's economy and generates disputes.

However, it is over the destiny of tiny Cuba that Canada learned how to stand up to Americans -- and win.