Things to say to our American friends
Last week, the Vermont city of Burlington renamed one of its main retail streets “Canada Street” in an attempt to woo back Canadian tourists. In Maine this summer, business owners have posted bilingual welcome signs for their “Canadian friends” and replaced tattered old Canadian flags with bright new ones.
They
miss us, those American border towns. Their once-reliable cross-border car traffic from Canada was down 31 per cent in June compared to a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada – a huge reduction in the lucrative flow of Canadians looking for cheaper groceries, bootleg booze and “I love Vermont” coffee mugs.
But while the business owners’ friendly gestures are well intentioned, they are also tone-deaf. There is a far deeper unease creeping into the
U.S.-Canadian relationship than can be fixed with friendly signage and eager smiles. The tourism boards of border states cannot undo what
U.S. President
Donald Trump has done.
His steep
tariffs on Canadian metals and autos, and his insults about a 51st state, were what originally led to the decision by individual Canadians to boycott U.S. products and tourist destinations.
But at this point, Mr. Trump’s unprovoked economic bullying and attacks on Canadian sovereignty and culture are no longer the only problem. The issue has also become what he is doing to his own country.
This is something difficult for many Canadians to accept – that it is no longer self-evident that their neighbour to the south is a country of the rule of law and due process.
The U.S. Department of Justice has become an agency of personal retribution, purging itself of officials who dared to defy or prosecute Mr. Trump, and opening investigations into some of them.
Masked and heavily armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have conducted raids in major U.S. cities, detaining people in inhumane conditions and then deporting them with almost no judicial oversight. Some of those detained have been lawful residents or even citizens.
American citizens, legitimate visa holders and vacationing tourists have also been detained at border crossings; some have been arrested and imprisoned until media and lawyers became involved in their cases. One Canadian woman has been in prison in the U.S. for
almost four months while ICE investigates her immigration status.
U.S. border agents, as part of an “extreme vetting” policy originally brought in during the first Trump administration, are increasingly screening the social media feeds of citizens and non-citizens alike for sentiments deemed to be anti-American.
Non-citizens who refuse to comply with such warrantless searches risk denial of entry or detention. U.S. citizens can refuse to co-operate but may face lengthy delays or the seizure of their devices if they do so.
For many Canadians, crossing the border now feels like a threat to their rights and dignity. They also see people in the U.S. being prosecuted and jailed – or pardoned for their violent crimes – based on who they support politically, and wonder if they themselves would be safe there.
There is little a café owner in a U.S. border town can do to change this. “Other than, ’I’m sorry’, I don’t know what else to say,” said one Maine official
interviewed by The Globe. “We’re kind of paralyzed by what’s happening.”
Canada and the U.S. form one of the world’s closest partnerships, rooted in trade, security and shared values. Even with the current drop in border crossings, millions of Canadians are still entering and leaving the U.S. every month. And even with Mr. Trump’s transactional economic nationalism, Canada and the U.S. will necessarily remain trading partners and security allies. The two countries are doomed by history and geography to be in constant conversation. But the conversation needs to be the right one.
Canadians don’t need to be coddled, and they don’t want Americans to apologize for the outcome of an election that was decided democratically.
What Canadians are saying to Americans through their actions is, if you don’t like the consequences of Mr. Trump’s policies, take it up with him via the ballot box and other democratic means, and don’t ask us to solve your problems.
The only people who can alter America’s course are Americans themselves. In that, they have Canadians’ full support.
U.S. border towns are hurting because many Canadians don’t visit any more, but it’s not up to us to fix it
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