Sore Losers

Having stayed up late last night watching the election returns, I really hadn't intended to post anything today, but comments by a Conservative MP altered my intent, so a few short observations follow.

Now I am no fan of Doug Ford; I see him as a largely incompetent man but a very successful politician, and it is that success which is engendering envy and anger at the federal level - to the point he is being blamed for PP's loss last night.

“He couldn’t stay out of our business, always getting his criticisms and all his opinions out, distracting our campaign, trying to make it about him, trying to position himself as some kind of political genius that we needed to be taking cues from,” a furious Tory MP Jamil Jivani (Bowmanville-Oshawa North) told CBC’s David Common in a candid interview.

“I see Doug Ford as a problem for Ontario and for Canada,” said Jivani, who once worked as an aide in the premier’s office at Queen’s Park.

“He’s not doing a great job in running this province, and now he’s trying to exercise his influence over other levels of government and it’s not like this guy is doing anything particularly well,” he said after telling supporters in Durham that Ford “sabotaged” the federal party.

Apparently, part of Ford's perfidy was making nice with Liberals.

“He has taken the provincial Conservative party and turned it into something hollow, unprincipled, something that doesn’t solve problems. He’s gladhanding with (Transport Minister) Chrystia Freeland, having coffees and lattes with Mark Carney.”

Obviously a clone of his take-no-prisoners boss, who rarely has met a bipartisan gesture he doesn't like, grace notes are not part of Jivani's makeup.

His apoplexy was probably worsened by Ford's post election congratulations.

“I want to congratulate Prime Minister Mark Carney on his election victory. I also want to thank Pierre Poilievre, Jagmeet Singh and every candidate who put their name on a ballot for their service to our democracy,” the premier said.

“This election comes at a crucial time for Ontario and for Canada. Workers, families and businesses are navigating the economic uncertainty caused by President Trump’s tariffs and they are counting on all levels of government to work together to protect Canada,” he said.

“As premier of Ontario, I look forward to working with Prime Minister Carney to protect the workers, businesses and communities of Ontario and Canada.”

Unlike those who adhere to PP's philosophy, poisonous partisanship is not part of Ford's makeup.

In an interview published Sunday with Politico, he was asked why Poilievre hadn’t made an effort to call him earlier.

... I think it’s common sense when you’re in an election, you reach across to as many people as you can,” said the premier, pointing out the federal Tory leader also has no relationship with Nova Scotia PC Premier Tim Houston.

“Not at all. Or local mayors. Or anyone. I don’t understand it,” said Ford, adding Poilievre had to be forced to phone him on the eve of the federal election call.

PP's party is down but hardly out. Even though the leader himself lost his seat, that will no doubt be remedied by a Conservative giving up their own win. However, he and his party need to ask themselves whether it was simply an unfortunate confluence of Trump tariffs and annexation threats that explain the results of an election that was theirs to lose. And part of that soul-searching must begin with the man at the top.

 

Addressing The Horrors

The horrors in Gaza - none of us can claim to be unaware of them.  Even harder, despite the efforts of Israel's apologists, is to adhere, with any conviction, to the official line that the carnage and destruction inflicted by the Jewish state is justified in its 'war' on Hamas. As I have said before on this blog, there is only one word to describe the atrocities: genocide.

In an article that will no doubt elicit outrage from those who justify Israel's depredations, Beisan Zubi places the carnage in the context of the Canadian election. 

As a Palestinian Canadian, Gaza feels like the best test I can use to gauge a politician’s actual commitment to human rights. The core principle behind human rights is that they are universal (apply to everyone) and inalienable (cannot be taken away). Over the past 18 months, I have watched Israel violate just about every human right that I learned about in school, while so many Canadian politicians stayed silent. 

 I would argue a politician’s stance on Gaza says volumes about their commitment to a range of domestic issues, and not just Canada’s responsibility to uphold international law.

Zubi draws a compelling test to measure our politicians, asserting if they are for certain things. they have to be for them universally. 

How can I trust a politician will defend women’s rights in Canada if they haven’t said anything about the fact that there are an estimated 48,000 pregnant women in Gaza facing famine? Israel’s ongoing blockade of essential medical supplies means that unmedicated C-sections are no longer the plot of horror movies, miscarriage rates in Gaza are up an estimated 300 per cent...

How can I trust a politician will protect Canada’s health care system if they aren’t outraged that Israel has decimated a health care system serving over two million people, by conducting a reported 136 strikes on at least 27 hospitals, destroying the main IVF clinic in Gaza along with an estimated 4,000 embryos, and killing over a thousand Palestinian health care workers...

How can I trust a politician will fight for disability justice in Canada if they haven’t condemned the mass disabling event still underway in Gaza, where the disabled, elderly, and injured are bombed in tents, forced to flee hospitals under attack in wheelchairs or carried by siblings, the cruel killing of a young man with Down syndrome by an Israeli military dog, that 15,000 deaf Gazans can’t hear evacuation warnings before bombs drop around them, or even that Gaza now has the largest per capita population of child amputees in the world, many of whom are also orphaned.

How can I trust a politician will treat infrastructure and adequate housing as a human right when they haven’t said a thing about the UN reporting that 92 per cent of all homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, or that vital infrastructure like water desalination plants and waste management sites have been forced to shutter, leading to infectious diseases spreading and a looming environmental catastrophe?

Speaking of the environment, how can I believe a politician actually cares about this planet if they don’t speak out about ecocide in Gaza? A Yale School of the Environment report published in February warned us that more than two thirds of Gaza’s farmland has been destroyed, 80 per cent of the tree cover in Gaza is gone, up to 3.5 million cubic feet of raw sewage are leaking into groundwater and the Mediterranean Sea every day...

And of course, how can we believe a politician actually cares about Canada’s territorial integrity amidst threats from Donald Trump to annex our country if they haven’t spoken out about Israel’s ongoing dispossession and theft of Palestinian land in Gaza and the West Bank?

These are all questions that demand real answers. Unfortunately, given that any criticism of Israel is the third rail of politics, I expect none will be forthcoming.

Villainizing The Judiciary

One would have to be living a very blinkered existence to be unaware of what is going on in the United States. It is very quickly devolving into an authoritarian state, one in which the very checks and balances that their constitution was designed to prevent are quickly evaporating. The Trump regime is already essentially ignoring a Supreme Court ruling ordering the return to the U.S. of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison. But that appears only to be the opening act of defiance.

Consider this story from NBC:

You will notice in the above narrative, Trump essentially villainizes two judges, Hannah Dugan of Wisconsin, and Joel Cano of New Mexico, portraying them as obstructing his regime's efforts to make America safer. Aided and abetted by Kash Patel's FBI and ICE, the story is clearly designed to facilitate Trump's attacks on the judiciary, making it easier, as he works on public resistance, to erode and eventually end that particular constitutional check. 

However, if Dugan was indeed trying to facilitate the escape of Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, the man appearing before on charges of domestic abuse, consider this:

A DEA agent saw Flores-Ruiz and his attorney in the public hallway of the courthouse and he appeared to be making efforts to evade arrest, the complaint says. After he was encountered by FBI and DEA agents outside the building, Flores-Ruiz "turned around and sprinted down the street" before he was ultimately apprehended, according to the complaint.

Not much of an effort at concealment, eh? 

The public reaction to Dugan's arrest has been strong:

Judge Dugan's arrest angered Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who accused the federal agents of "showboating" and contended Dugan was not a flight risk. 

"They're just trying to have this show of force and in the process of a courthouse where people need to go for court proceedings, they're scaring away people from participating in the court process," the mayor told reporters.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, in a statement on Friday afternoon, criticized President Donald Trump and the White House for what he said were efforts "to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level."

In the case of Joel Cano accused of harboring Venezuelan gang members, there is another side to the story that is not being widely promulgated. 

Cano denied the U.S. government’s characterization of the men as gang members, saying each of them were subjected to “thorough and rigorous” proceedings with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents when they entered the country. He said the first time he heard that they may have gang ties was the morning federal agents raided their home took the men into custody.

Cano said he and his wife, Nancy Cano allowed the men to stay in their spare studio apartment in April 2024. He said they told the couple that they requested asylum upon entering the U.S. in 2023, were processed by immigration officials and were then released with court dates for their requests. Cano said the men showed paperwork to back up their stories.

Where the ultimate truth lies is uncertain at this point. However, the larger question in my view is whether or not the two judges are not already being tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. If so, the Trump regime's strategy is winning out.  

 

An Interview With Harvard President

While he claims there is a big problem with anti-Semitism at Harvard (I wonder if any criticism of Israel's genocide in Gaza is construed as anti-Semitism), President Alan Gerber makes a stout defence of universities in this interview with Lester Holt.

The attacks described above are, of course, all of a piece. The war on intelligence, critical thinking and higher education seems almost inevitable as Trump's Amerika seeks to totally control the message.

The message: profound ignorance good; disagreement with authority very, very bad, and comes with severe consequences.

Dinner With The Devil

To be sure, both the title and the above picture might seem rather lurid for a staid blogger like me, but there is a reason for such sensationalism today. And it all begins with Bill Maher's recent dinner companion.

The late-night pundit Bill Maher had dinner with the president on 31 March, and many predicted it would have been a combative meeting. Both men have been frank about this dislike of each other, with Trump calling Maher a “lowlife” and his show “dead”.

But on the 11 April episode of his show, Real Time, Maher described the president as “gracious” and “much more self-aware than he lets on”.

“Everything I’ve ever not liked about him was – I swear to God – absent, at least on this night with this guy,” said Maher. “He mostly steered the conversation to, ‘What do you think about this?’ I know: your mind is blown. So is mine.”

He added: “A crazy person doesn’t live in the White House. A person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there, which I know is fucked up. It’s just not as fucked up as I thought it was.”

Normalizing the heinous Trump was all too much for Larry David, the creator of Seinfeld and late of Curb Your Enthusiasm. In order to show the dangerous lunacy of suggesting Trump is just play-acting the role of an unhinged megalomaniac, David wrote the following essay, a cutting satire of the dinner Maher extolled. I reproduce it in full, as I realize many do not have access to the New York Times.

Entitled My Dinner With Adolph, I think it speaks for itself. It goes like this:

Imagine my surprise when in the spring of 1939 a letter arrived at my house inviting me to dinner at the Old Chancellery with the world’s most reviled man, Adolf Hitler. I had been a vocal critic of his on the radio from the beginning, pretty much predicting everything he was going to do on the road to dictatorship. No one I knew encouraged me to go. “He’s Hitler. He’s a monster.” But eventually I concluded that hate gets us nowhere. I knew I couldn’t change his views, but we need to talk to the other side — even if it has invaded and annexed other countries and committed unspeakable crimes against humanity.

Two weeks later, I found myself on the front steps of the Old Chancellery and was led into an opulent living room, where a few of the Führer’s most vocal supporters had gathered: Himmler, Göring, Leni Riefenstahl and the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII. We talked about some of the beautiful art on the walls that had been taken from the homes of Jews. But our conversation ended abruptly when we heard loud footsteps coming down the hallway. Everyone stiffened as Hitler entered the room.

He was wearing a tan suit with a swastika armband and gave me an enthusiastic greeting that caught me off guard. Frankly, it was a warmer greeting than I normally get from my parents, and it was accompanied by a slap on my back. I found the whole thing quite disarming. I joked that I was surprised to see him in a tan suit because if he wore that out, it would be perceived as un-Führer-like. That amused him to no end, and I realized I’d never seen him laugh before. Suddenly he seemed so human. Here I was, prepared to meet Hitler, the one I’d seen and heard — the public Hitler. But this private Hitler was a completely different animal. And oddly enough, this one seemed more authentic, like this was the real Hitler. The whole thing had my head spinning.

He said he was starving and led us into the dining room, where he gestured for me to sit next to him. Göring immediately grabbed a slice of pumpernickel, whereupon Hitler turned to me, gave me an eye roll, then whispered, “Watch. He’ll be done with his entire meal before you’ve taken two bites.” That one really got me. Göring, with his mouth full, asked what was so funny, and Hitler said, “I was just telling him about the time my dog had diarrhea in the Reichstag.” Göring remembered. How could he forget? He loved that story, especially the part where Hitler shot the dog before it got back into the car. Then a beaming Hitler said, “Hey, if I can kill Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals, I can certainly kill a dog!” That perhaps got the biggest laugh of the night — and believe me, there were plenty.

But it wasn’t just a one-way street, with the Führer dominating the conversation. He was quite inquisitive and asked me a lot of questions about myself. I told him I had just gone through a brutal breakup with my girlfriend because every time I went someplace without her, she was always insistent that I tell her everything I talked about. I can’t stand having to remember every detail of every conversation. Hitler said he could relate — he hated that, too. “What am I, a secretary?” He advised me it was best not to have any more contact with her or else I’d be right back where I started and eventually I’d have to go through the whole thing all over again. I said it must be easy for a dictator to go through a breakup. He said, “You’d be surprised. There are still feelings.” Hmm … there are still feelings. That really resonated with me. We’re not that different, after all. I thought that if only the world could see this side of him, people might have a completely different opinion.

Two hours later, the dinner was over, and the Führer escorted me to the door. “I am so glad to have met you. I hope I’m no longer the monster you thought I was.” “I must say, mein Führer, I’m so thankful I came. Although we disagree on many issues, it doesn’t mean that we have to hate each other.” And with that, I gave him a Nazi salute and walked out into the night.

Why I Cast My Vote The Way I Did

As I wrote the other day, my wife and I cast our vote at an advance poll, and as noted, the large turnout, reflected in many other stations as well, was very encouraging. Canadians clearly understand there is much at stake here.

Had the Trump threats and tariffs not emerged, and had Trudeau remained head of a tired party, I likely would have voted NDP. All political parties need a periodic time out in order to renew and rejuvenate. To me, that is all part of a healthy democracy. With the emergence of Mark Carney, however, the choice was clear, and I won't bother going into the reasons, already widely discussed in the media, about why he seems to be the man of the hour, and Pierre Poilievre is not.

A few letters to the editor seem to capture the tenure of the times.

Things to consider before you vote

We will have a federal election in less than two weeks. Forgetting the political party affiliations, let us look at what the two leading candidates for prime minister are offering.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is a professional politician. All his adult life, he has done nothing but be a politician. He has not seen the outside world besides the Parliament walls around him. His resume could read: I have been a hounding and berating opposition politician throughout my career. And I am pretty good at it.

Poilievre does not want to face the press, lest they ask questions not to his liking. He does not want to get his security clearance, leading Canadians to question what he is hiding.. He has no humility. 

Liberal Leader Mark Carney is new to politics. Carney is bound to make political mistakes. He is  well educated and has a wealth of experience both in Canada and abroad. He has seen the world and experienced the financial problems facing Canada and the world. He knows how to tackle the problems created by this stupid tariff war. 

Put your thinking hats on before choosing the prime minister.

Aziz Rehman, Brampton, ON

Have you noticed how Liberal Leader Mark Carney usually just talks to the press, without any notes? He just wings it, because he knows what he is talking about, and doesn’t need to read it. And he says it so succinctly. The other candidate, however, is always looking down at his notes. He needs to read it because he doesn’t know it, like Carney does. Which one would you rather vote for? The one who knows his stuff, or the one who doesn’t? Just a telling observation, of body language.

John Dawson, Scarborough, ON

Decade of Liberal rule achieved a lot

I am tired of hearing “the lost Liberal decade” and “Canada is broken” tirades and would like to mention some of the Trudeau government’s achievements.

The Liberals negotiated with U.S. President Donald Trump and agreed to a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the CUSMA. The COVID-19 pandemic came, and we were kept safe and secure by the work of the Liberals: CERB, protective equipment and vaccines. Canada had fewer deaths than most other countries. After COVID, came inflation: Why? Supply chains were broken because of COVID shutdowns; Canadians had large savings, largely from CERB, so that demand was up and supply was down. This drives up inflation, as any economist knows. And we came out of inflation quicker and better than most countries. You cannot blame the Trudeau government for inflation but that is all Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre shouted about in the last two years.

Other achievements include the Canada Child Benefit, the national child-care plan, dental care and pharma care. And let’s not forget taking action on   Indigenous issues.  So let’s give credit where credit is due and know that Canada is not broken and we have not lost a decade with Liberal rule. Oh, and former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper was not able to build a single pipeline while Trudeau bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline and tripled its capacity. 

Alberto Sarthou, Toronto

And finally, this missive from The Globe and Mail.

As the election looms, I am reminded of the snake fable where a person is walking in the forest and is met by a snake who convinces the individual to pick it up. The person was hesitant, but then weakened, having been convinced by the snake that he won’t hurt them.

Trustingly, the person picks the snake up and the snake soon bites them. Shocked, the person cries out at being misled, double-crossed and hurt, to which the snake replies: “You knew what I was when you picked me up.”

I will remember that fable at the voting booth. I hope others do, too, because one’s track record is an excellent indicator of future deliverables.

June Donaldson Calgary

A Good Day

    

                          

Yesterday was a good day. We went to the advance poll to cast our vote, and the turnout was robust; in fact, the entire process took over an hour. Despite the long wait, almost everyone, young and old, able and disabled, remained, stoically standing as the lines snaked toward the ballot box.

Ours was not an isolated experience, as people are keenly aware of the importance of this election.

Canadians packed polling stations and stood in long lineups in cities across the country on Friday as advance voting in the upcoming federal election officially got underway.

A queue snaked outside the voting centre on Smythe Street in Fredericton, as people waited, some with their dogs, others with young children in strollers or holding their parents' hands.

Some were in line for more than 45 minutes to cast their vote on a sunny and cool spring afternoon.

“It feels more important to vote and make sure we keep having the country that we want,” said Nicole Bent, who is going to Nova Scotia for a few weeks and decided to vote early so she didn’t miss the chance to cast her ballot.

Bent said the election feels different this time because of recent actions and statements from United States President Donald Trump.

She voted Liberal.

“It’s voting for the man, not the party. Which man we want in there,” said Bent, referring to party leader Mark Carney.

Mark Kunkle, who also voted in Fredericton, said he runs his own business and the first day of voting seemed like a quiet and good day to go to the polls.

“Well, all elections are important, but in this particular case, it's pretty, pretty important because the future (of the country) is going to be decided,” said Kunkle, who came to the poll with his dog.

One quick note: if the long lineups deter you, be aware that you can go to any Elections Canada office to cast your advance vote. A friend of mine chose that option yesterday as his wife is temporarily disabled and could not vote at their advance poll because of a 45-minute wait. You will find all of the information for this option on your voter registration card or by clicking here.

A Good Friday Bonus

 Theo Moudakis never disappoints.

Closing, Closing, Closed

Sometimes, the creep toward authoritarian rule is slow, almost imperceptible, until it is a fait accompli. Other times, the coup is complete in little more than the blink of an eye. The latter, of course, is what has happened in the United States, but Canadians should not feel especially complacent about it. After all, like the cancer it is, fascism can spread tentacles that reach even remote parts of the body politic. More about that in a moment.

The so-called intelligentsia is often a prime target. And we are seeing this in abundance in the U.S., where the Trump regime is insisting upon ideological purity from universities such as Cornell, Columbia and Harvard in exchange for federal grants. Happily, Yale, unlike the other two universities, is refusing to submit, at a preliminary cost to them of $2.3 billion.

In a letter to Harvard on Friday, the administration called for broad government and leadership reforms, a requirement that Harvard institute what it calls “merit-based” admissions and hiring policies as well as conduct an audit of the study body, faculty and leadership on their views about diversity.

The demands, which are an update from an earlier letter, also call for a ban on face masks, which appeared to target pro-Palestinian protesters; closure of its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which it says teach students and staff “to make snap judgments about each other based on crude race and identity stereotypes”; and pressure the university to stop recognizing or funding “any student group or club that endorses or promotes criminal activity, illegal violence, or illegal harassment”.

The administration also demanded that Harvard cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Yale's response was unequivocal.

Harvard’s president said in a letter that the university would not comply with the Trump administration’s demands to dismantle its diversity programming and to limit student protests in exchange for its federal funding.

“No government – regardless of which party is in power – should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Alan Garber, the university president, wrote, adding that Harvard had taken extensive reforms to address antisemitism.

Garber said the government’s demands were a political ploy.

“It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner,” he wrote. “Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”

The extreme right is never satisfied until it has complete control over the minds (and hearts, if they are really tenacious) of all, and what better way to do so than controlling what the population is taught? 

The American idea that universities are fair game for control has affected at least one Canadian  institution, but here, it is a self-imposed censorship of ideas. Consider this sad incident:

The first artist-in-residence at the University of Prince Edward Island’s veterinary college has quit after being told to take down a painting of lemmings that he says incited complaints from American faculty over the political nature of the work.

Christopher Griffin, whose new residency was heralded by Atlantic Veterinary College late last year, was asked to remove “The Crossing,” a painting of lemmings depicted on a boat in a clear nod to Emanuel Leutze’s 1851 work, ”Washington Crossing the Delaware.”

“I knew when I put the American flag in the painting that it would elicit some sort of reaction,” said the Charlottetown-based artist. “I never expected it would be censored.”

Griffin created the piece as part of a series he began in January in response to the Trump administration and its increasingly volatile relationship with its neighbour to the north.

“Washington Crossing the Delaware” is an iconic historical depiction of American victory. The massive painting shows a heroic George Washington crossing the river towards a surprise attack on the British during the American Revolutionary War.

Griffin, who has drawn from nature and wildlife for much of his 35-year career, chose lemmings because of the mythology around the creatures being prone to mass suicide. “I thought that was appropriate for the self-inflicted harm that the American government was doing to itself.

The shameful nature of this censorship has not escaped the notice of thoughtful Canadians, who recognize the dangerous path the university has tread.

I just read the article about Christopher Griffin’s painting “The Crossing” that was taken off the wall at the University of Prince Edward Island veterinary school. It was astonishing.

I have been an art teacher for 35 years and have taught literally thousands of children in Toronto. The single most important idea I instill in my students is to respect each other’s work, to listen to what the work is about and to ask the student artist to explain their work, if necessary. If children don’t like the work for whatever personal reason, so be it. That’s fine, as long as it’s not hurtful. These lessons should be considered at the University of PEI. The American faculty at that school who don’t feel comfortable with this work need to talk it out with the artist and come to a deeper understanding of it.

Ellen Manney, Toronto

Christopher Griffin is due an apology

More power to artist Christopher Griffin. In a world of vertebrates and invertebrates it is obvious who has the backbone in this unfortunate standoff. How sad that even university administrators and professors cannot recognize virtually everything in life is political and in the case of the current American administration it is self-evident that everything they do is political. The University of Prince Edward Island owes artist Griffin an apology for the removal of his painting “The Crossing.”

Charles Campisi, Oakville

‘The Crossing’ shines light on the truth

I am taking a minute out of my day to thank artist Christopher Griffin for depicting the chaotic situation in the U.S. through his painting “The Crossing.” I am approaching my 81st year in a few weeks, and the thought of U.S. President Donald Trump’s right-wing supporters reminded me of lemmings. I felt then and now that those MAGA followers will follow Trump over a cliff . The University of Prince Edward Island got it wrong. Please find your backbone. We Canadians will not be intimidated by Trump . I am just one Canadian proud of what Griffin did to shine light on the truth.

Dorothy Higgins, Mississauga

A mind is a terrible thing to waste, as the old saying goes. A closed mind cannot grow. Removing any chance of that mind developing the critical thinking skills so necessary in this increasingly fraught world may in fact be the ultimate objective in Trump's Amerika. We must never let it be so here. The cost would be too high.

So Many Reasons

Those who read this blog with any regularity likely know that I have not entered the United States since 2016 and have no intention of ever going there again. My reasons are many, not the least of which is the American love of the gun, as well as the fact that all signs point to a rapidly devolving nation. Donald Trump, of course, serves as the perfect emblem for that devolution.

In his latest column, Bruce Arthur specifically addresses how Trump's Amerika is a nation that should be avoided at all costs, and notes that many are already boycotting travel there.

Travel from Canada the United States is not just falling: it is plummeting. According to the flight information site OAG, year-over-year bookings of flights from Canada to the United States are vanishing: down over 70 per cent in each of the months between April and September. Airlines are changing routes. Canadians are changing their habits. And not just Canadians: all foreign travel is falling in real time. 

News like the above, I must confess, absolutely delights me. But the economic pain we can inflict on Trump's Amerika is almost incidental.

Avoiding the United States is not just a matter of patriotic principle; it’s a matter of simple safety. Canadians were willing to risk American gun culture, and more. But this American government does not recognize fundamental rights, and you are no longer protected by the law if you set foot in that country. Canada should join other nations in issuing stern travel advisories. We have not, yet.

The frightening landscape that is emerging should serve as a bracing warning for all of us:

People are simply being disappeared off the streets for wrongthink. A Columbia University graduate student named Mahmoud Khalil, in America on a student visa whose wife is a U.S. citizen, was arrested for leading pro-Palestinian protests. A Georgetown University researcher named Badar Khar Suri who was born in India, in America on a student visa, was arrested outside his home in Arlington, Va. A Turkish national named Rumeysa Ozturk, a student at Tufts in Massachusetts, was arrested in daylight by four plain clothes officials for writing a pro-Palestinian op-ed in the student newspaper.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the move, saying, “if you come into the U.S. as a visitor and create a ruckus for us, we don’t want it.” A ruckus. She was transported to a prison in Louisiana, and says she has been borderline tortured.

Then there was the Russian dissident, Kseniia Petrova, a scientist working at Harvard Medical School, who may be deported back to Russia, which sounds like a death sentence. The French academic who was asked for the contents of his phone, to look for anti-Trump content. And, of course, there was the case of Canadian Jasmine Mooney, who was detained in terrible conditions for two weeks by ICE over questions about her visa. Canadians born in Iran and Afghanistan have been denied entry at the US border.

And don't expect the rule of law to protect you,

Judge’s orders are being ignored, so people can be shoved on planes and used as the backdrop for an Instagram-style, influencer-modeled fascist mode of cruelty porn. Or too-online AI-as-the-aesthetic-of-fascism taunting. Or a more cinematic version of the same. Friday, the U.S. government resisted implementing a unanimous Supreme Court order to return a wrongly deported man named Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador. It’s a truly dangerous moment.

Canadians intemperate enough to risk travel to the U.S. need to take precautions.

If you must go, you need to register if you will be there more than 30 days, or face criminal charges.

Bruce Arthur advises Canadians to travel to other countries or vacation here. Never has Canada looked more like a safe haven than it does now. We should cherish it, and do everything we can to cultivate our own country, while avoiding the perils and pitfalls endemic to our southern, increasingly hostile, neighbour.