To Go, Or Not To Go

I have written elsewhere on this blog about the decision I and others have made to boycott travel to the U.S. as long as Donald Trump and his peculiar brand of madness hold sway. I am happy to report that Steve Paikin has come to the same decision:

[I]t’s been a Paikin family tradition for many years to travel to the U.S. for a baseball road trip with my dad and as many of my kids as can attend. We’ve done Boston, Cleveland, New York , Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and others.

We’re not going to do it this year.

....when President Donald Trump began slapping tariffs on Canadian goods for reasons of “national security,” it felt wrong. It was an intellectually dishonest move. How could the country that fought alongside the U.S. in World War II, in Korea, and in Afghanistan be a national-security threat? It makes no sense.

Even most Americans seem to recognize how misguided the tariffs are, given the negative impact they’re having on innumerable U.S.-based businesses. And when I saw the federal Liberal government and the incoming Progressive Conservative provincial government speak as one on the stupidity of this policy (with the support of all other major parties), I thought: Okay, that’s it.

America, you just don’t deserve our money.

Even though as individuals we may doubt we have much influence, money, as they say, talks:

We will not spend hundreds of dollars on your baseball tickets. We will not spend hundreds of dollars on your restaurants and hotels. We will not spend hundreds of dollars on your gas. We will not spend hundreds of dollars at museums or at the theatre. We will not spend hundreds of dollars on souvenirs and gifts.

I think it’s time I looked at product labels of all kinds much more carefully. California wines? Not anymore. I’ll try some local brands, from Niagara-on-the-Lake or Prince Edward County. And maybe I should make the extra effort to purchase groceries at local farmers’ markets rather than buy American brand-name stuff at the supermarket.

On a personal note, since Trump imposed those absurd and insulting tariffs on us, I have decided (reluctantly) to extend my boycott to bourbon, (there's no liquor like it) and will instead begin exploring some of our Canadian whiskies. As well, although it is impossible to avoid American goods, I am trying as much as possible to purchase Canadian.

In light of the deteriorating connection to our southern neigbours, we must ask ourselves a fundamental question:

Do we regard ourselves simply as citizens of a globalized world, or does being Canadian still mean something to us? Your answer will no doubt tell you whether taking a stand against what the U.S. now represents is a worthwhile endeavour.

Amen

H/t Toronto Star

More Reasons To Boycott U.S Travel

I have no regrets about my recent decision to boycott travel to the United States as long as the Trump regime, dominated as it is by paranoid exclusions and hate-mongering policies, continues in office. An item on last night's NBC News amply demonstrates that for some people, border crossings are becoming risks not worth taking.

Two American citizens encountered quite a bit of land turbulence upon returning from visits to Canada:

When Buffalo, New York couple Akram Shibly and Kelly McCormick returned to the U.S. from a trip to Toronto on Jan. 1, 2017, U.S. Customs & Border Protection officers held them for two hours, took their cellphones and demanded their passwords.

"It just felt like a gross violation of our rights," said Shibly, a 23-year-old filmmaker born and raised in New York. But he and McCormick complied, and their phones were searched.

But the story doesn't end there:

Three days later, they returned from another trip to Canada and were stopped again by CBP.

"One of the officers calls out to me and says, 'Hey, give me your phone,'" recalled Shibly. "And I said, 'No, because I already went through this.'"

The officer asked a second time..

Within seconds, he was surrounded: one man held his legs, another squeezed his throat from behind. A third reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone. McCormick watched her boyfriend's face turn red as the officer's chokehold tightened.

Then they asked McCormick for her phone.

"I was not about to get tackled," she said. She handed it over.

This kind of racial profiling and 'lawful' seizure of telephones should give all of us pause; any Canadians travelling to the U.S. are its potential victims, although clearly, if you are white and have a non-Arabic name, your chances of passing through unmolested are greater. But I come back to a fundamental question that prompted me to start my personal travel boycott: Do we really want to patronize a country that once welcomed foreigners but now stigmatizes, bullies and excludes them?

Finally, it is worth noting that Girl Guides of Canada has decided to cancel trips to the U.S.

"While the United States is a frequent destination for Guiding trips, the ability of all our members to equally enter this country is currently uncertain," international commissioner Sharron Callahan and director of provincial operations Holly Thompson wrote in a joint advisory issued Monday afternoon.

"This includes both trips that are over or under 72 hours and any travel that includes a connecting flight through an American airport," the advisory says.

The statement does not directly mention — but appears to be a reaction to — the executive orders U. S. President Donald Trump has signed restricting travel to the United States.

This decision comes amidst many other groups and Canadian school boards contemplating trip cancellations for the same reason.

The American love of money is well-known. It seems only logical that they should now learn via commercial interdiction the price to be paid for choosing a racist, paranoid demagogue as their president. Many of them may love the Trump message, but worldwide, far more do not.

In Case You Hadn't Noticed

Meanwhile, Star letter writers offer their suggestions:

Re: Chaos, fear and anger, Jan. 29

Canadians outraged at Trump’s ban on Muslims and refugees can take concrete action by contacting the United States embassy in Ottawa and pledging not to travel to the U.S. until the ban is overturned. We can’t vote south of the border, but we can ban ourselves in solidarity with the victims of Trump’s racist policies.

John Gilmore, Montreal

While emphasizing Canada’s diversity and willingness to accept refugees are good things, they are not enough. President Trump and his cadre are putting in place the foundation for religious and racial discrimination that, liberals are convinced, will lead to undermining democracy and endangering the world by pitting Muslims against non-Muslims.

I recognize that our relationship with and trade dependence on the U.S. is important, but the U.S. government will operate in what it deems its own best interests regardless of what Canada says publicly. There is no more risk to speaking out than in staying relatively silent. The rest of the world, however, needs to hear our message and see our opposition to this intolerance.

The federal government, as one of the last liberal regimes in the world, must be a voice for the sort of fairness and equality that will alleviate the fears of others and undermine the messages of fear and hatred coming equally from Daesh and Trump.

Bruce Milner, Richmond Hill

The Power That Resides Within All Of Us

We live a world where far too many decisions are heavily influenced, if not determined, by economic considerations. The cost of everything, and the value of nothing, seems to be today's ruling ethos, to the point where we regularly seem to be little more than cogs in a giant mercantile wheel. That can be a source of despair, but it can also be an opportunity for all of us to rediscover both our true power and our essential values.

I recently wrote about my personal decision to boycott travel to the U.S. for at least the next four years. In this update, I provide links and brief summaries of those who have made the same choice; I will end with a letter in today's Star that echoes the same theme.

In a commentary, Mark Bulgutch, a former senior executive producer of CBC News, offers his thankfulness at being born a Canadian, and cherishes the life Canada has given him the opportunity to pursue.

But now the United States has decided to shut everyone out if they were unlucky enough to be born in one of seven countries, which happen to have mostly Muslim populations.

That is a policy we can’t ignore.

There are a lot of things we can’t control in our lives ... But no one tells us where to spend our vacation. And no one forces us to cross the border to buy a sweater or a TV set.

So let’s not do it. There’s no need to start a campaign. Just make a personal decision to avoid the United States whenever you can as long as the cruelty persists.

It’s not a terrible sacrifice. Wait four years. We can hope the Trump presidency will then be over. The Grand Canyon will still be there. The Golden Gate Bridge. Mount Rushmore. Disney World. They’ll all be there. And with any luck, the Statue of Liberty will still be there too.

Sheryl Nadler is another Canadian who has come to a similar conclusion. She talks about trips she and her girlfriends have regularly made to nearby Buffalo, a venue that offers them opportunities for shopping and nurturing their friendships:

...this weekend we made the call. Our next girls' weekend will be in Canada. And while I get that it's pointless to try to boycott the U.S. or to punish businesses of Americans who do not support Trump policies, that government's recent ban on immigrants and travellers from predominantly Muslim countries is abhorrent. The rolling back of women's reproductive rights, and the wall with Mexico are unthinkable. And the Trump administration's refusal to acknowledge the murder of six million Jews in its statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, essentially aligning itself with Holocaust deniers everywhere, is pretty much what I've been taught to fear my whole life.

Well-known Canadian author Linwood Barclay is making a similar choice, going so far as to cancel the U.S. part of his book tour, even though that may have negative consequences for sales.

The chaos caused by Trump's Muslim ban was a turning point for Barclay:

At this moment, entering Trump’s America feels akin to patronizing a golf course that excludes blacks, a health club that refuses membership to Jews.

I struggled most of the weekend with what to do. I spent a lot of time talking it over with my wife as we watched the news. I have never cancelled an event before. I had made a commitment to people. I had made promises.

For the writer, the other deciding factor was the mosque murders in Montreal which may have been influenced by the exclusionary policies favoured by Trump. as well the firebombings and vandalism of American mosques.

So I pulled out of the Arizona book events and went on Twitter to say that at least while the travel ban is in effect, I will be foregoing U.S. events and invitations.

It is not just individuals who are making the same call.

More than 4,000 university professors, administrators and researchers have signed a petition to boycott international academic conferences in the U.S. to show solidarity with Muslim colleagues affected by U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban.

“The reality is these international conferences are large money generators. They are important economic drivers. We don’t want to give the economic support to the U.S. in this situation.”

And finally, there is this letter from David Wentzell, of Milton, responding to a recent column by Heather Mallick:

Re: You must decide if you are a Sally or a Sean, Feb.1

The more than 4,000 educators who have committed to boycott conferences in the U.S. have demonstrated that they are “Sallys” and not “Seans.” As Mallick exhorts, we must all, individually, make this decision. In what we hope is a “Sally” statement, my wife and I have committed to eliminate all discretionary travel to the U.S. during the Trump presidency.

I encourage your readers to take the next four years to discover the glories of Canada, instead of Florida, Arizona and California, or the other 47 states. As a modest encouragement, your paper could eliminate coverage and promotion of U.S. destinations from the Travel section. Mallick wonders if Canada can “obstruct America’s dark path without paying a price.” A U.S. travel boycott is a way for individual Canadians to do just that.

There are other ways to convey one's opposition to the repressive regime to the south. I will try to look at them soon.

UPDATED: My Pledge

There is so much that I feel tempted to write about this morning, but I hope this post reflects a little of what is going on in the world these days.

On Sunday, I posted what follows on my Facebook page. It was something I wasn't especially keen to do, as the post makes clear, but I felt it important to make it 'public' as a means of giving me additional commitment to take an action that entails a personal cost. I hope you like it, and after you read it you might want to read this article which, rather serendipitously, appeared online last night.

Here Is My Pledge

It is coming up to a year since my son took us to Southern California. It was a trip of a lifetime for me, given that I have had a lifelong obsession with the state but somehow never managed to visit before. With its philosophical and environmental orientations, California continues to exert a very strong pull on my heart and in my imagination and, to be honest, I had hoped to make another visit sometime this year.

But as the saying goes, “Man plans and God laughs.” I have come to the difficult conclusion that I cannot in good conscience lend any legitimacy to the current American president and his racist, divisive and hate-filled policies by visiting and spending tourist dollars in his country. The final catalyst for this painful decision was the executive order forbidding citizens and dual-citizenship holders from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from travelling to the United Sates, a thinly-disguised attack on 218 million predominately Muslim people. If such vast numbers are to be excluded, who am I to simply ignore this fact, pretend I have no moral responsibility here, and merily indulge my own wants and travel inclinations.

It is easy to sign petitions and to write tweets saying that one stands with Muslims, but I have concluded it is time to put, if you will forgive the colloquialism, my money where my mouth is.

Why am I posting this? Contrary to what some might think, it is not to hold myself up as some kind of exemplar of rectitude and principle; rather, in all candour, it is to keep me strong in this undertaking, because if I break this pledge, everyone will be quite justified in dismissing me as a hypocrite who cannot be taken seriously. Because I do not believe in miracles, I assume that things are only going to get worse under the crazed administration of Donald Trump, so I also assume that my self-imposed travel ban will be for at least the next four years.

UPDATE: I see that writer Linwood Barclay has made a difficult decision to cancel his U.S. book tour:

I have no illusions about what the impact of my withdrawal will be. I don’t imagine Steve Bannon will say, “Whoa, Barclay’s not coming, we better rethink this.” As one Twitter follower said to me, “Your call, but we’ll get along fine without you.” I’ve no doubt. But this really wasn’t about trying to send a message. I just have to be able to look myself in the mirror.

We each must take the measures we most deem fit in these extraordinary times.