OTTAWA -- Ottawa’s Cuban community is raising concerns and calling out the Cuban government over unrest in that country and they are worried about family members living there.

Alain Pez Martinez is an Ottawa resident who has many family members in Cuba. His brother lives with and takes care of his 89-year-old mother in Havana.

Alain Pez Martinez mother in Cuba

“They are afraid, obviously. They don’t know what’s going to happen,” he tells CTV News Ottawa.

Adianés Garcia also has family in Cuba.

“One of my main concerns is for the safety of not only my family, but all of the Cuban people,” she says.

Adrianes Garcia grandmother Cuba

“A lot of the world knows by now, Cubans finally decided to take to the streets to protest and demand their freedom. That’s the number one thing that we want to make sure that the international community knows, that Cubans are demanding their freedom,” says Garcia.

The turmoil in Cuba has settled into a tense calm as security was stepped up, in the wake of a rare anti-government protests.

Police are patrolling large sections of Havana, after widespread unrest over the worsening economic crisis in the communist-run island nation. State-run media says one man died in clashes, while activists say more than 100 people have been arrested or are missing.

Protesters took to the streets of Ottawa Tuesday to denounce the Cuban government.

“We’re going to continue until that dictatorship is completely erased from the earth,” protest co-organizer Eugenio Landeiro Reyes tells CTV News Ottawa.

He says a larger protest, with Cuban Canadians joining from Montreal and Toronto, is planned for this Saturday.

For Pez Martinez, he hopes this is the start of a bigger change in Cuba.

“When you kick a dog one too many times, it’s going to bite back. We’re biting back right now.”