When the Canadian Embassy in Havana halted its consular services in May 2019 (due to what the US Government referred to as “Havana Syndrome”), impacting thousands of tourism, study, and PR applications in the process, as a Canadian living in Havana at the time, I decided to put my communications and PR skills to work.

 

I devised a campaign, 'Dear Government of Canada', that beseeched the Canadian Government to reconsider its decision. 

 

The campaign included a video (developed in under a week, so as not to miss the window of opportunity, and quickly amassing 4,000+ views) that documented accounts of those impacted and was featured in multiple media outlets including CBC and Yahoo. I also held a meeting with Canada’s Ambassador to Cuba and engaged with several Canadian politicians.

 

The outcome of this contribution was a relatively quick overturn of the decision and, by July 2019, the Embassy started to reinstate visa, passport, and biometric services.