In order to buy a 30-day reprieve from Trump tariffs on Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a few concessions: Canada would name a drug-fighting “czar” and put extra border watchers in place. Nothing surprising, though disappointing and humiliating.
Giving way to U.S. bullying will only bring more, as everyone understands. “The whining dog gets kicked,” as the proverb has it.
But there was another concession/agreement that does not belong in the category of compromise or reasonable concessions. Trudeau agreed with Trump to label Mexican drug cartels “terrorists,” a designation which Mexico vehemently rejects.
Why does Mexico object? Because the U.S. doctrine on terrorism asserts that the United States has extraterritorial rights and can capture and/or destroy any entity they deem terrorist. The threat of military intervention in Mexico to solve border and drug problems is an American constant.
Trudeau has no business fueling that fire. So why does he say it? And why are his compatriots (left, right and center) silent on the matter?
Answer: Canada remains a strong and proud member of the imperial band, united in the “Five Eyes” of the Anglosphere (with the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand—in short, the WASPs).
The proper answer to Trump should have been: Ask Mexico, it is a sovereign country. But instead, Trudeau/Canada agreed to gang up with Trump, giving Trump an extra weapon to wield against Mexico, a country which has been the victim of U.S. aggression many times in the past.
Canada chose to join the U.S. attack on a sovereign country targeted by the same discriminatory tariff policy that is also potential ally of Canada in its own defense against the imperial actions of the new resident of the White House.
So, we learn that at the end of the day, Canada will fall in line with Washington to remain a trusted stooge, as when it agreed to arrest a Chinese businesswoman when Trump asked it to. Note that Ontario Premier Doug Ford recently did the same by saying that Trump should focus on the “real trade war with China.”
Mexico no doubt sees what is going on and will make appropriate preparations.
If Canada and Quebec ever have a hope of true sovereignty and independence, they should stop obeying the Anglo-American imperial order. The starting point is to respect Mexican sovereignty.
And Quebec must do the same. Nobody in Quebec forgets the 1995 referendum and the speed with which Ottawa rushed to Washington to implore the Clinton administration to come out strongly against Quebec sovereignty and also threaten to exclude Quebec from NAFTA.
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About the Author
Robin Philpot is a graduate of the university of Toronto and founder of Baraka Books in Montreal.
He is author of A People’s History of Quebec, with Jacques Lacoursière (Baraka Books, 2009); and Rwanda and the New Scramble For Africa: From Tragedy to Useful Imperial Fiction (Baraka Books, 2013), among other works.
Robin can be reached at philpotrobin@gmail.com.
Phil Taylor is the host of The Taylor Report, CIUT 89.5 Toronto and on line. He is a superannuated radio kid who grew up listening to William Mandel and Kenneth Rexroth on KPFA Berkeley. Ex-Marine; an investigator at Roach & Schwartz, several years at UN Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. Phil can be reached at p.s.taylor68@gmail.com
Trudeau has also been very weak in supporting Quebec’s English speaking community against the authoritarian language laws imposed by the Quebec government.
https://montreal.citynews.ca/2024/01/23/montreal-bill-96-protest-trudeau-language-law/