{"id":17549,"date":"2025-03-31T16:39:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T23:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17549"},"modified":"2025-04-02T16:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T23:52:11","slug":"my-sna-visible-minorities-65-letter-from-canada-where-a-country-weirdly-threatened-by-its-southern-neighbor-including-racist-secessionist-merchandise-from-fbi-director-kash-patel-is-somehow-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17549","title":{"rendered":"My SNA Visible Minorities column 65: “Letter from Canada”, where a country weirdly threatened by its southern neighbor, including racist\/secessionist merchandise from FBI Director Kash Patel, is somehow taking it all in stride (April 1, 2025, and it’s not an April Fools’ article)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. \u00a0What follows is my latest column, written while I was in Canada witnessing how Trump’s threat of tariffs is affecting Canadian society. \u00a0Short answer: \u00a0Not well. \u00a0But better than I would have expected. \u00a0Canadians so far seem to be able to separate the US government’s wicked behavior from the treatment of people with American origins. That’s sapient, and hopefully not temporary. \u00a0I’m not sure the Americans would be as careful if the roles were reversed. \u00a0A report from the field, with lots of links to sources, and a particular scoop about how current FBI Director Kash Patel owns a company selling racist\/secessionist merchandise to Canadians. Screen captures below. \u00a0It’s a weird era indeed. \u00a0Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

\"T-shirt<\/a>
T-shirt with an American Flag in the shape of the Canadian Province of Alberta, being sold by a company owned by US FBI Director Kash Patel; courtesy of SNA.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LETTER FROM CANADA<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Subtitle: A country weirdly threatened by its southern neighbor, including racist\/secessionist merchandise from Kash Patel, is somehow taking it all in stride<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By Arudou Debito. \u00a0Shingetsu News Agency, Visible Minorities Column 65, April 1, 2025, courtesy https:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2025\/04\/01\/visible-minorities-letter-from-canada\/<\/a><\/h4>\n

I am currently writing you from Canada, up here taking care of some business.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the past I\u2019ve lived in Canada for about a year, and now am spending a week enjoying Alberta.\u00a0 One of Canada\u2019s richest provinces<\/a> due to its oil and natural gas reserves, it\u2019s actually on the front lines in the weird American MAGA push to invade Canada.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

ALBERTA IS A SPECIAL PLACE FOR CONSERVATIVES<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m told that Alberta considers itself the \u201cTexas of Canada.\u201d\u00a0 You quickly see why.\u00a0 People here wear cowboy boots and hats, proudly chow down on Alberta beef with Taber corn, have an annual \u201cStampede\u201d festival due to its cattle ranching history, and openly eschew the politics of its \u201cpot-head\u201d neighbors to the west (British Columbia) and the \u201cboring\u201d prairie provinces to the east (Saskatchewan and Manitoba).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But Albertans reserve their biggest grievances for Ontario and Quebec, arguing that jealous national politicians \u201cdown east\u201d drain them of tax monies and natural resource revenues while ignoring their interests.\u00a0 (Or, horrors, force them to learn French!)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Albertans generally vote for whatever party seems to come closest to a conservativism redolent of the US GOP.\u00a0 \u00a0Distaste for the ruling center-left\u00a0Liberal Party and former Prime Minister Trudeau (nicknamed \u201cTurd-o\u201d here) is normal and vocal, especially amongst the gun-toting Ford F-150 pickup-driving rural population.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alberta has a long history of resisting what it sees as the excessive power of Eastern Canada, dating back to the populist Social Credit Party of the 1930s. \u00a0Alberta\u2019s current Premier Danielle Smith (the equivalent of a US state governor) has continued that tradition by making it clear that she and Alberta \u201cdon\u2019t take marching orders from Ottawa<\/a>,\u201d the nation\u2019s capital and center of federal government.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Smith argues that national policies have done nothing but harm Alberta\u2019s oil and gas sector.\u00a0 The major population centers of Edmonton and Calgary cycle between boom-and-bust economies depending on constraints put on the fossil fuel market.\u00a0 Wind, solar, and hydroelectric be damned:\u00a0 To them, on-again off-again export fuel pipelines and provincial control over resource revenues make or break this part of Canada.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to passing the Alberta Sovereignty Act<\/a> in 2022 (to opt out of enforcing \u201cfederal rules deemed harmful to Alberta’s interests\u201d), Smith also has a history of promoting MAGA-esque culture war issues, such as opposition to Covid mask mandates. \u00a0<\/span>In January, Smith even made the pilgrimage to Mar-A-Lago<\/a> to meet Donald Trump and kiss the proverbial ring.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The debate shifted significantly in February and March, as Trump insultingly began calling Trudeau \u201cgovernor\u201d instead of prime minister, unilaterally declared he didn\u2019t recognize the Canada-US border treaty of 1908, and threatened tariffs unless Canada became America\u2019s 51st<\/sup> state.\u00a0 Media reports of Canadians caught up in ICE immigration dragnets have caused shockwaves.\u00a0 The MAGA crowd even put out a map annexing southern-tier Ontario<\/a> between Windsor and Kingston, which includes Toronto and comprises a good third of Canada\u2019s economy and population.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While signaling her opposition to the tariffs, Smith still took pains to note the need to \u201ccoordinate the securing of our border against illegal migrants and drugs moving in both directions<\/a>\u201d (despite the negligible numbers<\/a> in both cases)\u2014sops to Trump talking points.\u00a0 Smith also had to debase herself last week in a sit-down with far-right provocateur Ben Shapiro, who called Canada \u201ca silly country that makes maple syrup, hockey and annoying prime ministers<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

ALBERTA HAS A SOFT SPOT FOR \u201cUS-EH\u201d<\/h3>\n

According to the CBC<\/a>, support for Canada becoming part of the US is highest in Alberta, at 15 percent surveyed, as opposed to nine percent nationwide.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why MAGAts target Alberta for annexation.\u00a0 They\u2019ve worked with Canadian separatists for quite some time, with regular networking and megaphoning on social media.\u00a0 But they\u2019ve also been involved in secession rehearsals.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2022, a monthlong Canadian \u201cFreedom Convoy<\/a>\u201d of truckers protesting Covid mandates set up blockades across Canada and obnoxiously occupied the center of Ottawa. The Convoy turned out to be more than half funded by American donors<\/a>.\u00a0 The Canadian government also seized an arsenal near the<\/span> an Alberta-Montana border crossing that was set up by an Albertan militia \u201csupportive of a war with police<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But now it\u2019s gone beyond funding into actively fomenting.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shortly after I arrived in Canada, I found in my Twitter feed advertisements for an online store called \u201cBased Apparel\u201d (in Canada, https:\/\/thebasedco.com<\/a>) offering T-shirts and other xenophobic merch.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This includes an American flag in the shape of Alberta\u00a0entitled \u201cAlberta, USA<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0MCGA\/MAGA caps<\/a> with the Canadian maple leaf overlaid with the American flag.\u00a0 A US flag with a maple leaf in the blue field next to a slogan of \u201cUS-EH<\/a>\u201d (a pun on \u201cUSA\u201d with the stereotypical Canadian \u201ceh\u201d sentence ending). \u00a0Coffee cups saying \u201cSingh Horton\u2019s<\/a>\u201d instead of \u201cTim Horton\u2019s,\u201d implying they\u2019re no longer a Canadian institution because Sikhs run franchises. <\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Click on the images for a closer look.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Or if that\u2019s not racist enough, you can get shirts with parody Community Chest \u201cGo Directly to Jail\u201d Monopoly game cards showing a cop dragging a Sikh saying, \u201cDo not pass go, do not collect pension<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 A meme from the \u201cOregon Trail\u201d video game shows a covered wagon with the caption, \u201cYou have died of diversity<\/a>\u201d (as opposed to \u201cdysentery\u201d).\u00a0 Or you can just settle for a less subtle T-shirt depicting an American eagle f***ing a Canada goose<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Who owns Based Apparel<\/a>?\u00a0 Kash Patel<\/a>, the current Director of the FBI and a full-bore Trump sycophant.\u00a0 In 2022<\/a> he released a children\u2019s book<\/a> portraying Trump as a king winning an election against an evil queen (named Hillary) who accuses him of cheating.\u00a0 (Naturally, a wizard named \u201cKash\u201d saves the day.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Silliness aside, this merch matters.\u00a0 An official at the highest levels of American government, in charge of federal police investigations, is directly profiting from sowing secession in another country.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

THE VIEW FROM THE GROUND<\/h3>\n

Fortunately, most Canadians, even in Alberta, don\u2019t seem to be falling for the fringe.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A quick trip to any shopping center gives you your first clue.\u00a0 Choosing between imported and locally produced products has never clearer.\u00a0 Stores and supermarkets are very carefully putting maple leafs next to Canadian goods.\u00a0 Banners are up outside businesses proclaiming, \u201cProudly Canadian owned and operated.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Much media has focused on Canadian liquor stores summarily removing American bourbon, whisky, and brandy from their shelves.\u00a0 This is a coordinated effort, since Canada\u2019s retail liquor market is generally run by provincial governments.\u00a0 Alberta happens to be the only province with a fully privatized liquor market, but a representative of Real Canadian Superstore, which accounts for nearly a third of Canada\u2019s grocery retail market share, proudly told me they removed all American booze from their shelves at the first sign of Trump tariffs and put it in storage.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Private liquor stores I visited still had a clear \u201cAmerica\u201d section labeled as usual, but when asked about it, the owner said, \u201cIt\u2019s my stock, my choice.\u00a0 Where would I put it?\u00a0\u00a0 So I put it out.\u00a0 But once it sells out, I\u2019m not ordering more.\u201d\u00a0The Alberta Government supports this, instructing its Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis agen<\/a>cy to \u201cban\u201d all US alcohol imports and let the remaining retail stock sell out.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In terms of popular conservative sentiment, my Alberta businessman friend (a staunch libertarian and Liz Cheney fan) is adamant that Canadian MAGA fans are nowhere near power. \u00a0\u201cThey\u2019re out there.\u00a0 I see them on my Facebook but they get shouted down.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s a safe bet the vast majority of Canadian conservatives do not support Trump.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, he laments how Trump\u2019s threats have in fact backfired, draining support from the Conservative Party and delivering it to the Liberals.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In early January the Liberals were polling behind the Conservatives by double digits, and 338Canada<\/a> projected a landslide victory for the latter.\u00a0 Mere weeks later, the Liberals are back in the lead<\/a>, projected<\/a> to take every province and territory except Alberta and Saskatchewan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t usually happen in Canadian politics.\u00a0 The pattern is usually that Canadian voters award power to a party but soon get sick of them.\u00a0 Poll numbers inexorably go down.\u00a0 Then another party gets in until voters get sick of them too.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But thanks to Trump\u2019s bullying (and the fact that the Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre is basically echoing Trump\u2019s invective of \u201cwoke obsessions<\/a>\u201d and \u201cbroken immigration\u201d), Trudeau\u2019s successor, Mark Carney, looks likely to cruise to victory in the next national election on April 28.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The point is, Trump\u2019s bullying has united Canadians\u2014even Quebec separatists\u2014like never before. \u00a0\u201cElbows up!\u201d (a hockey term for standing your ground) has become the national buzzword as Canucks react viscerally to the Trump regime\u2019s obnoxious threats to their freedom and way of life. \u00a0The national mood is one of anger, and profound sadness that the US seems to have completely lost the plot.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFORTRESS AMERICA\u201d IS A RECURRING BAD IDEA<\/h3>\n

Last column I talked about the American propensity to take things to logical extremes.\u00a0 This is more evidence of that.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The US has a habit of periodically whipping itself into a frenzy over metaphorical foreign invasions (even though it hasn\u2019t experienced an actual invasion for nearly two centuries).\u00a0 When that happens, public policies reflect bunker mentalities and the border becomes a fortress wall.\u00a0 This is worse than unseemly; it puts enormous stress on the borderless global economy and the postwar Pax Americana World Order.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The weird thing is that America\u2019s trade war with its northern and southern neighbors, which account for about a third of US trade, pretty much came out of nowhere.\u00a0 In the case of Canada, it\u2019s just plain absurd.\u00a0 Canada and the US have had surprisingly porous borders and hand-in-glove relations for generations.\u00a0 Despite what Trump may claim, no country has been as supportive of both American trade terms and war efforts (participating in basically every postwar American overseas military campaign) as Canada has.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even in calmer times, \u201cFortress America\u201d is often the first thing one experiences when approaching the border.\u00a0 I personally have faced harassing American Customs officials waxing racist about the fact I\u2019m a white guy with a Japanese passport (something I\u2019ve never, incidentally, experienced at the Japanese border), and then they would send me to secondary for a few hours until I missed my connecting flight.\u00a0 (My worst experience was at Calgary Airport, where you actually face American police on Canadian soil before you board your plane.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This attitude doesn\u2019t seem to have rubbed off on Canada.\u00a0 Even in Alberta, the place I would expect it most, I have not experienced any animosity towards people from America, even from the random shopkeepers and clerks I\u2019ve struck up conversations with.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe I\u2019ve been lucky so far, but everyone I\u2019ve talked to basically just laments how the US government is destroying one of the most constructive and productive international relationships in history.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, Canadians will now buy anything but American if they can and take their vacations anywhere but the United States.\u00a0 Travel to the US from Canada has already plummeted by 70 percent<\/a> so far this year. \u00a0But so far, Canadians seem to be distinguishing the country (or at least the person on top) from the American people in general.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s pretty enlightened.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure many Americans, with their steady diet of chauvinistic propaganda in the right-wing media ecosystem justifying anything Trump does, would be as discrete.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

DUMB IS AS DUMB DOES<\/h3>\n

The Wall Street Journal has called this \u201cthe dumbest trade war in history.\u201d\u00a0 I will echo that and call it the dumbest territorial dispute in history. \u00a0Last Friday, PM Carney announced that, \u201cThe old relationship we had with the United States, based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over<\/a>,\u201d adding that Canada will have to \u201cdramatically reduce\u201d its reliance on the US.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So much quantifiable opportunity and trust between two prosperous societies has been squandered, for no good reason beyond the venality of one man. \u00a0As the world seemingly divides into China-Russia-US spheres of influence, this wanton destruction of sovereign goodwill only weakens the North American sphere.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, let\u2019s see if I have another bad experience crossing the US border this time.\u00a0 If I haven\u2019t been renditioned to an ICE facility in Louisiana, you\u2019ll hear again from me next month.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n

======================
\nDo you like what you read on Debito.org? \u00a0Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org’s activities? \u00a0Please consider donating a little something. \u00a0More details here<\/a>. Or if you prefer something less complicated, just click on an advertisement below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excerpt: According to the CBC, support for Canada becoming part of the US is highest in Alberta, at 15 percent surveyed, as opposed to nine percent nationwide. That\u2019s why MAGAts target Alberta for annexation.\u00a0 They\u2019ve worked with Canadian separatists for quite some time, with regular networking and megaphoning on social media.\u00a0 But they\u2019ve also been involved in secession rehearsals. In 2022, a monthlong Canadian \u201cFreedom Convoy\u201d of truckers protesting Covid mandates set up blockades across Canada and obnoxiously occupied the center of Ottawa. The Convoy turned out to be more than half funded by American donors.\u00a0 The Canadian government also seized an arsenal near the an Alberta-Montana border crossing that was set up by an Albertan militia \u201csupportive of a war with police.\u201d<\/p>\n

But now it\u2019s gone beyond funding into actively fomenting.<\/p>\n

Shortly after I arrived in Canada, I found in my Twitter feed advertisements for an online store called \u201cBased Apparel\u201d (in Canada, https:\/\/thebasedco.com) offering T-shirts and other xenophobic merch.<\/p>\n

This includes an American flag in the shape of Alberta\u00a0entitled \u201cAlberta, USA.\u201d \u00a0MCGA\/MAGA caps with the Canadian maple leaf overlaid with the American flag.\u00a0 A US flag with a maple leaf in the blue field next to a slogan of \u201cUS-EH\u201d (a pun on \u201cUSA\u201d with the stereotypical Canadian \u201ceh\u201d sentence ending). \u00a0Coffee cups saying \u201cSingh Horton\u2019s\u201d instead of \u201cTim Horton\u2019s,\u201d implying they\u2019re no longer a Canadian institution because Sikhs run franchises. Or if that\u2019s not racist enough, you can get shirts with parody Community Chest \u201cGo Directly to Jail\u201d Monopoly game cards showing a cop dragging a Sikh saying, \u201cDo not pass go, do not collect pension.\u201d\u00a0 A meme from the \u201cOregon Trail\u201d video game shows a covered wagon with the caption, \u201cYou have died of diversity\u201d (as opposed to \u201cdysentery\u201d).\u00a0 Or you can just settle for a less subtle T-shirt depicting an American eagle f**king a Canada goose. (Screen captures of all merchandise in the blog entry.)<\/p>\n

Who owns Based Apparel?\u00a0 Kash Patel, the current Director of the FBI.\u00a0 An official at the highest levels of American government, in charge of federal police investigations, is directly profiting from sowing secession in another country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,28,18,43,36,22,50,20,5,26,13,77,31,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-anti-discrimination-templates","category-academia","category-bad-business-practices","category-bad-social-science","category-cultural-issue","category-gaiatsu","category-history","category-human-rights","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-media","category-on-democracy","category-tangents","category-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17549"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17565,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17549\/revisions\/17565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}