2 weeks Ago By Michele Jarvie
I am saddened by the need to write my Canadian neighbours about the concerning changes we are seeing in the U.S. right now.
As you are all well aware, President Donald Trump’s government has thrown our country, hemisphere and world into turmoil, fixating on bullying Canada (among others). Do not be lulled into believing this is just a postelection frenzy; the next four years is going to be exhausting for all of us. I want to urge Canadians to take the Trump government as a serious, existential threat to Canadian sovereignty.
Absurd tweets and media gaffs may make the evening news and make great meme fodder, but when somebody tells you who they are and what they want; believe them. Trump has already shown Canada — as well as many other world allies — that he will wield tariffs and national security resources to back them into a corner. I also beg Canadians to note the increasing civil- and human-rights abuses we are seeing across the U.
S. As an immigrant advocate in Montana, I can tell you we are seeing rapid increases in race-based police profiling, discriminatory state legislation and the disappearance of immigrants by ICE and Customs and Border Patrol with virtually no oversight. Non-immigrant community members who work to support immigrants are also being targeted in a variety of ways.
There are many incidents of neighbours calling authorities to perform immigration checks based solely on racial profiling. Keeping these examples in mind, I ask Calgarians, Albertans and all Canadians to work with their elected officials to resist the new Trump government. Do not capitulate to threats of tariffs.
Work quickly and earnestly to develop economic alternatives to trade and commerce with the U.S., and especially northern U.
S. border states. Immediately drop American products in favour of Canadian alternatives.
Do not visit the U.S. (although I will personally miss seeing the friendly Canadian tourists that visit Montana each summer).
In Montana, for example, there is plenty of growing anti-Canadian sentiment, fuelled by Trump’s animus toward Canada, that I do not think it is unreasonable to worry about the safety of travellers who have Canadian plates on their vehicles. We’ve also seen in the news that Canadians are not immune to abuses by border agents. While some may find this letter an example of liberal hysteria, I hope that the daily chaos as portrayed elsewhere in the news is convincing enough to raise your concern.
The U.S. that Canadians have known for so long is being rapidly torn down by an aspiring dictator and his rabid supporters.
Johnny Ratka Skinner is a community activist and advocate for immigrants and people of colour in Flathead County, Mont..
