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The magnitude is surprising for this to be attributed to the trade dispute - I wonder if this is primarily due to immigration concerns? I know a lot of folks on

by tqi 2y ago

The magnitude is surprising for this to be attributed to the trade dispute - I wonder if this is primarily due to immigration concerns? I know a lot of folks on H-1B visas from Canada, and I imagine for those folks any non-essential international travel would seem overly risky.

cmrdporcupine 2y ago
Are Americans not aware that their head of state is threatening to annex us? Oh, and judging from social media comments, his supporters think this is a really nifty, clever idea. Why do you think this is about a trade dispute?
- kridsdale1 2y ago
  Exactly. It’s being felt the same way Georgia and Ukraine have come to feel about Russia. The US can no longer be trusted. They’ve squandered a century of friendship. For nothing.
  - ks2048 2y ago
    > For nothing. "Nothing" for most people, but for those building a fascist state, it's for lots of power and money. Being a bully, making people pick sides (even for ridiculous things), making people fear your personal police/border force, etc - all part of the dictator playbook.
    - llm_nerd 2y ago
      Given the history of the United States, and the stark political division, it's for less than nothing: The coarse they have set is one that is absolutely guaranteed to lead to civil war and dissolution. Any American that actually thought you had a pretty decent country in decades past needs to seriously consider acquiring firearms, and this isn't an exaggeration. And really, the not-into-a-corrupt-idiocracy states -- one where lawless will-enslave-people-for-$ garbage like El Salvador and Russia are your besties -- should be openly talking about secession. The right likes to pretend it's unthinkable when the so-called "blue states" broach it, yapping some "indivisible!" line, but Texas has spent every Democrat government with in the open secession planning. Abbott was busy setting up Texas "consulates" of sorts, preparing to be their own little country. All because equal rights and healthcare offend them so. Now there's a grotesquely incompetent group of criminal grifters and clowns talking about abolishing federal courts, completely annihilating the constitution, and openly joking about invading literal allies. Mix in some advertising of their shitcoin crypto and getting rid of the gold stockpile for Bitcoin. It's your time, blue states. What the hell are you waiting for?
      - cmrdporcupine 2y ago
        There are very few US states that are so homogenously blue that you could even talk about this without imagining civil war within blue states -- right across the border from Canada in western New York there's walls of MAGA-voting counties. Even in northern Vermont. The American idea and patriotism is so profoundly deep in the psyche of almost every American, I can't imagine any kind of post-USA state have any existence without profound catastrophe and violence. Maybe your country did a disservice to future generations by not just letting the southern states just... leave... because the cultural gap between north and south seems to be a source of serious long term and structural problem. And from watching American discourse from a distance up here, I actually think the US is far less divided than American liberals would like to think. A large polity in the US has swung over to MAGA, more than in 2016. The trend is heading in the wrong direction. For now. Trump 2016 looked like an accident and a huge but blundering catastrophe. Now it looks far more sinister.
        llm_nerd 2y ago
        Oh for sure there is no homogeneous state and you are completely right. It is a gross simplification to talk about blue and red states, and like the Pacific NW is about as blue as it gets, but you can also find extremely red areas. But I mean Texas is as "blue" as New York is "red". Yet Texas is unabashedly, overtly a Republican state. 1/3 of extremely red Arkansas voted Democrat. If it came to shooting, it wouldn't be state vs state, it would be zipcode vs zipcode. >I actually think the US is far less divided than American liberals would like to think The US is approaching a 50/50 divide between extremely different political opinions, where each then changes everything to force their view on the other. It is extraordinarily divided. And that was before "MAGA" in the US decided that allies are actually enemies, Russia is a friend, and sending people charged with no crime and with no due process to a random corrupt banana republic -- El Salvador -- that will enslave them for $, and it's just grossly untenable: These are positions that are completely orthogonal to those that America has set for itself during all of modern history. It can't go on. There is no way that the alternate positions are compatible.
        seanmcdirmid 2y ago
        > I actually think the US is far less divided than American liberals would like to think. Trump still can't break 50% on a vote, I don't think we are messed up so much that MAGA has anywhere near a majority.
- echelon 2y ago
  The thing I don't get is that if Canada became part of the US, Republicans would never hold power again. Don't they know that? That makes me think this is all asinine rhetoric to (1) squeeze Canada, Europe, and other allies of the trade deficit goodwill for a quick buck. That stuff America used to maintain global soft power and hegemony - cashing it in for a quick buck. (2) run quick and chaotic pump and dumps where donors get to make enormous alpha on the market volatility (this could seriously just be market manipulation games?), and/or (3) satisfy the geopolitical powers that may or may not be underwriting Trump, Musk, Gabbard, et al. Saudis, Russians, and Chinese. Several of this gang are politically exposed persons, possibly with exposure or debts to all three groups.
  - Sanzig 2y ago
    Canadians are under no illusions that we will ever be a US state. If we ever were to be annexed, we would almost certainly be a territory without voting rights like Puerto Rico.
    - bryanlarsen 2y ago
      US states are almost always added in pairs so that the number of Republican and Democratic states increase at the same rate. It's why Alaska & Hawaii came in the same year, why we have oddities such as the split between North & South Dakota, et cetera. So if Canada were to join as states, it would be something like a Republican Western Canada and a Democratic Eastern Canada. Or some sort of strange split that gives 2+2. Definitely not the existing boundaries, because that'd likely be an 8/2 Democratic/Republican split.
      - robin_reala 2y ago
        You’re saying this like it’d be a choice and not an invasion.
        bryanlarsen 2y ago
        Yes, any considerations like this would be part of a post-invasion peace treaty.
- seanmcdirmid 2y ago
  > Are Americans not aware that their head of state is threatening to annex us? Oh, and judging from social media comments, his supporters think this is a really nifty, clever idea. Why do you think this is about a trade dispute? I don't see why you guys can't dislike us for more than one reason. The annexation threat, and then the weird tariff demands that came out of left field, they both seem like good reasons, and you could even treat them as addition.
  - cmrdporcupine 2y ago
    There can be trade disputes between friends. Even if this one is just more than a bit unhinged. Where it crosses the line is incidents like this: https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/provincial-news/article794964.html https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/provincial-news/article...
    - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
      I still don’t see how the trade dispute can’t make things worse. If you are friends, a trade dispute will strain your relationship, even if it might not cross the line to ruin it. We are just way beyond that line with Canada.
      - cmrdporcupine 2y ago
        According to Trump the trade dispute and annexation threats are the same thing. e.g. yesterday's 25% auto-tariffs = potentially half a million unionized well-paid Canadians out of a job, in Canada's economic heartland, with no reasonable employment alternatives. Basically a declaration of economic war.
kridsdale1 2y ago
It’s originally based on simple disrespect. Canadians are LIVID that their best friend country just changed its personality to one of betrayal and derision. The second factor is multiple stories this month of non-criminals being treated like terrorists in cells and extrajudicial abuse. The US now looks like North Korea from the outside.
- briandear 2y ago
  Canada had tariffs before Trump. Now Canada is mad about the U.S. having tariffs? Canada can engage in protectionism but when others return the favor, it’s a problem?
  - pavlov 2y ago
    Have you noticed that Trump is threatening to invade Canada? That’s what “annex” means. It’s not a joke for him. He wants it to be his legacy.
  - wk_end 2y ago
    We negotiated a trade agreement with not just the US but the prior Trump administration specifically. The US is now in violation of that agreement based on justifications that are - charitably - idiotic misunderstandings (conflating a trade deficit with subsidization), blatant nonsense (the idea that "Canadian fentanyl" constitutes a national emergency), or constitute simple outright attacks on our sovereignty. Canada, through the (actually fairly limited!) existing free trade exceptions in NAFTA/USMCA - which, again, Trump agreed to in the past and, in his usually banal hyperlative word salad, described as "beautiful" and "wonderful" and "perfect" and "the best ever" - did not violate an established agreement. And, more importantly, Canada certainly hasn't gone on for months about how the US isn't a real country, shouldn't be entitled to self-governance, and how we're going to leverage our power to annex it. It's hardly "returning the favour".
  - ipaddr 2y ago
    Tariffs are one thing but threatening to annex Canada, calling them the worst and making up fake reasons for the tariffs. A sensible discussion can be made on tariffs and why smaller countries may need them to protect against economies of scale but the rest is nonsense that creates anger.
floxy 2y ago
Is there a good way to look up how many people are in the U.S. on H-1B visas from Canada?
- recursivecaveat 2y ago
  Apparently ~4000 new ones are issued to Canadians every year. Canadians have access to TN though which is way easier to get. I imagine everyone on a visa is strongly reconsidering any non-essential travel outside the US and giving the border guards an accompanying attempt to screw you.
  - cmrdporcupine 2y ago
    I shudder to think what happens to the software developer job market up here if all the TN holders came back suddenly, if NAFTA were to be officially terminated in 2026 (as seems possible.) Unless those people come back with venture capital funding in their pockets, salaries here will be even more screwed than they already are.
notahacker 2y ago
It'll be part boycott, part cancellation of business trips because it's too difficult to do business with the US, part concerns about US immigration doing crazy things, and part delaying booking trips to the last minute (the figures are forward booking data) because who knows what'll happen next
Sanzig 2y ago
I obviously can't speak for all of my countrymen, but I can say that people are really, really pissed about the annexation threats. We're upset about the tariffs, but we're absolutely incendiary about the threats to our sovereignty. US media seems to be sanewashing the annexation threats as a "joke", but we take it very seriously up here. Your president has said many times that it's not a joke. Believe him.
- senderista 2y ago
  AFAIK literally no contemporary US politician but Trump has ever entertained the idea of annexing another country, but I have zero confidence that anyone around him would do anything but roll over if he gave the order. He isn't just pretending to be crazy for galaxy-brained game-theoretic reasons, he literally is crazy and unpredictable and surrounded by shameless enablers. Even though the military would be legally obligated to refuse an unlawful order from him, I no longer have any confidence that they actually would.
  - ragazzina 2y ago
    >no contemporary US politician but Trump has ever entertained the idea of annexing another country, Does JD Vance on Greenland count?
  - cardamomo 2y ago
    No contemporary politician, perhaps, but we're a young country and don't have to look too far back to see how much of the US was annexed from French, Spanish, and Mexican territory. And let's not forget Caribbean and Pacific territories.
    - senderista 2y ago
      Absolutely, the US once was an unapologetically imperialist nation and Trump wants to turn the clock back to a global club of bullies each with their own sphere of influence.
  - graeme 2y ago
TwoNineA 2y ago
> The magnitude is surprising for this to be attributed to the trade dispute - I wonder if this is primarily due to immigration concerns? 3d option: Being pissed off at orange man threating to break an annex Canada.
- mindslight 2y ago
  Let's not trivialize Trump by calling him "orange man", please. Hitler was a whiny little shit nugget as well, but that didn't limit the amount of abject evil he was able to orchestrate. The problem with whiny little shit nuggets is they attract other whiny shit nuggets, and they bond (clump up) over their shared persecution complex. And now we've got a real problem on our hands. In the context of Canada, as an American all I can say is sorry and also thank you for doing everything in your power to resist "our" dictator since our own federal government is abjectly failing.
runako 2y ago
ICE is arresting/detaining people in chaotic and unpredictable ways right now. It is a very real risk for any non-citizen to cross a US border at this time. For Canada specifically, I would imagine the story of the Canadian woman[1] who was incarcerated without charges for two weeks(!!!) while holding a valid visa would deter a significant number of travelers. As an American, I would not travel to any country where stories like this one were emerging. 1 - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-det...
- bink 2y ago
  It's been a few days since I read that article but wasn't she unaware her visa had expired? Either way, the way she was treated was barbaric and if I had the good fortune to be Canadian I wouldn't risk it either.
  - runako 2y ago
    It appears that she was at the border crossing to have her work visa processed. The resolution was that due to prior visa issues, she needed to apply for her visa at a consulate. Then they imprisoned her. As the story goes, she did nothing wrong and did not present invalid/expired paperwork. I don't know how the US process works, but long ago when I worked in a foreign country, I was required to leave the country and get my work visa added to my passport upon reentry. Reading that article made me consider that she might have been in a similar situation, only she was incarcerated for two weeks in subhuman conditions due to (at most) a clerical error. It's really a risk for people who are not US citizens to cross our borders right now.
    - philistine 2y ago
      > The resolution was that due to prior visa issues, she needed to apply for her visa at a consulate. Then they imprisoned her. Since all your ICE holding facilites are privately run, the incentive is to get people into incarceration as soon as possible and to keep them there as long as possible. Before Trump came back, the gloves were on and the capitalists running those prisons only made bank on the darker shades of people, but with Trump back it's time to make money with all the skin colours!
drbojingle 2y ago
Canadians are pissed about the annexation threats and the trade dispute. The stories of detention are also bothersome.
footy 2y ago
it is the annexation threats
ripley12 2y ago
It's primarily the constant, repeated threats of annexation ("51st state"). Americans don't seem to understand how much these have tanked the relationship between the two countries.
- ygjb 2y ago
  Yep. As a former Canadian soldier, it was a pretty shit afternoon when I had to explain to my kids what annexation meant in practical terms, and the role that Canada has played in preventing and repelling similar actions in other countries. It's an easy word to say, and the implication that it would be peaceful or non-violent because of economic pressures ignores the fact that Canadians don't want it.
jyounker 2y ago
I'm baffled that you're surprised. Trump is threatening military action against Canada. Why would you travel to an country that's threatening to invade your own? What happens to you if you're in US and they invade Canada? You'll be an enemy national in the US. How's that going to go for you? Why take that chance?
Sammi 2y ago
[flagged]

by tqi 2y ago

cmrdporcupine 2y ago

Are Americans not aware that their head of state is threatening to annex us? Oh, and judging from social media comments, his supporters think this is a really nifty, clever idea. Why do you think this is about a trade dispute?

kridsdale1 2y ago
Exactly. It’s being felt the same way Georgia and Ukraine have come to feel about Russia. The US can no longer be trusted. They’ve squandered a century of friendship. For nothing.
- ks2048 2y ago
  > For nothing. "Nothing" for most people, but for those building a fascist state, it's for lots of power and money. Being a bully, making people pick sides (even for ridiculous things), making people fear your personal police/border force, etc - all part of the dictator playbook.
  - llm_nerd 2y ago
    Given the history of the United States, and the stark political division, it's for less than nothing: The coarse they have set is one that is absolutely guaranteed to lead to civil war and dissolution. Any American that actually thought you had a pretty decent country in decades past needs to seriously consider acquiring firearms, and this isn't an exaggeration. And really, the not-into-a-corrupt-idiocracy states -- one where lawless will-enslave-people-for-$ garbage like El Salvador and Russia are your besties -- should be openly talking about secession. The right likes to pretend it's unthinkable when the so-called "blue states" broach it, yapping some "indivisible!" line, but Texas has spent every Democrat government with in the open secession planning. Abbott was busy setting up Texas "consulates" of sorts, preparing to be their own little country. All because equal rights and healthcare offend them so. Now there's a grotesquely incompetent group of criminal grifters and clowns talking about abolishing federal courts, completely annihilating the constitution, and openly joking about invading literal allies. Mix in some advertising of their shitcoin crypto and getting rid of the gold stockpile for Bitcoin. It's your time, blue states. What the hell are you waiting for?
    - cmrdporcupine 2y ago
      There are very few US states that are so homogenously blue that you could even talk about this without imagining civil war within blue states -- right across the border from Canada in western New York there's walls of MAGA-voting counties. Even in northern Vermont. The American idea and patriotism is so profoundly deep in the psyche of almost every American, I can't imagine any kind of post-USA state have any existence without profound catastrophe and violence. Maybe your country did a disservice to future generations by not just letting the southern states just... leave... because the cultural gap between north and south seems to be a source of serious long term and structural problem. And from watching American discourse from a distance up here, I actually think the US is far less divided than American liberals would like to think. A large polity in the US has swung over to MAGA, more than in 2016. The trend is heading in the wrong direction. For now. Trump 2016 looked like an accident and a huge but blundering catastrophe. Now it looks far more sinister.
      - llm_nerd 2y ago
        Oh for sure there is no homogeneous state and you are completely right. It is a gross simplification to talk about blue and red states, and like the Pacific NW is about as blue as it gets, but you can also find extremely red areas. But I mean Texas is as "blue" as New York is "red". Yet Texas is unabashedly, overtly a Republican state. 1/3 of extremely red Arkansas voted Democrat. If it came to shooting, it wouldn't be state vs state, it would be zipcode vs zipcode. >I actually think the US is far less divided than American liberals would like to think The US is approaching a 50/50 divide between extremely different political opinions, where each then changes everything to force their view on the other. It is extraordinarily divided. And that was before "MAGA" in the US decided that allies are actually enemies, Russia is a friend, and sending people charged with no crime and with no due process to a random corrupt banana republic -- El Salvador -- that will enslave them for $, and it's just grossly untenable: These are positions that are completely orthogonal to those that America has set for itself during all of modern history. It can't go on. There is no way that the alternate positions are compatible.
      - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
        > I actually think the US is far less divided than American liberals would like to think. Trump still can't break 50% on a vote, I don't think we are messed up so much that MAGA has anywhere near a majority.
echelon 2y ago
The thing I don't get is that if Canada became part of the US, Republicans would never hold power again. Don't they know that? That makes me think this is all asinine rhetoric to (1) squeeze Canada, Europe, and other allies of the trade deficit goodwill for a quick buck. That stuff America used to maintain global soft power and hegemony - cashing it in for a quick buck. (2) run quick and chaotic pump and dumps where donors get to make enormous alpha on the market volatility (this could seriously just be market manipulation games?), and/or (3) satisfy the geopolitical powers that may or may not be underwriting Trump, Musk, Gabbard, et al. Saudis, Russians, and Chinese. Several of this gang are politically exposed persons, possibly with exposure or debts to all three groups.
- Sanzig 2y ago
  Canadians are under no illusions that we will ever be a US state. If we ever were to be annexed, we would almost certainly be a territory without voting rights like Puerto Rico.
  - bryanlarsen 2y ago
    US states are almost always added in pairs so that the number of Republican and Democratic states increase at the same rate. It's why Alaska & Hawaii came in the same year, why we have oddities such as the split between North & South Dakota, et cetera. So if Canada were to join as states, it would be something like a Republican Western Canada and a Democratic Eastern Canada. Or some sort of strange split that gives 2+2. Definitely not the existing boundaries, because that'd likely be an 8/2 Democratic/Republican split.
    - robin_reala 2y ago
      You’re saying this like it’d be a choice and not an invasion.
      - bryanlarsen 2y ago
        Yes, any considerations like this would be part of a post-invasion peace treaty.
seanmcdirmid 2y ago
> Are Americans not aware that their head of state is threatening to annex us? Oh, and judging from social media comments, his supporters think this is a really nifty, clever idea. Why do you think this is about a trade dispute? I don't see why you guys can't dislike us for more than one reason. The annexation threat, and then the weird tariff demands that came out of left field, they both seem like good reasons, and you could even treat them as addition.
- cmrdporcupine 2y ago
  There can be trade disputes between friends. Even if this one is just more than a bit unhinged. Where it crosses the line is incidents like this: https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/provincial-news/article794964.html https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/provincial-news/article...
  - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
    I still don’t see how the trade dispute can’t make things worse. If you are friends, a trade dispute will strain your relationship, even if it might not cross the line to ruin it. We are just way beyond that line with Canada.
    - cmrdporcupine 2y ago
      According to Trump the trade dispute and annexation threats are the same thing. e.g. yesterday's 25% auto-tariffs = potentially half a million unionized well-paid Canadians out of a job, in Canada's economic heartland, with no reasonable employment alternatives. Basically a declaration of economic war.

kridsdale1 2y ago

It’s originally based on simple disrespect. Canadians are LIVID that their best friend country just changed its personality to one of betrayal and derision. The second factor is multiple stories this month of non-criminals being treated like terrorists in cells and extrajudicial abuse. The US now looks like North Korea from the outside.

briandear 2y ago
Canada had tariffs before Trump. Now Canada is mad about the U.S. having tariffs? Canada can engage in protectionism but when others return the favor, it’s a problem?
- pavlov 2y ago
  Have you noticed that Trump is threatening to invade Canada? That’s what “annex” means. It’s not a joke for him. He wants it to be his legacy.
- wk_end 2y ago
  We negotiated a trade agreement with not just the US but the prior Trump administration specifically. The US is now in violation of that agreement based on justifications that are - charitably - idiotic misunderstandings (conflating a trade deficit with subsidization), blatant nonsense (the idea that "Canadian fentanyl" constitutes a national emergency), or constitute simple outright attacks on our sovereignty. Canada, through the (actually fairly limited!) existing free trade exceptions in NAFTA/USMCA - which, again, Trump agreed to in the past and, in his usually banal hyperlative word salad, described as "beautiful" and "wonderful" and "perfect" and "the best ever" - did not violate an established agreement. And, more importantly, Canada certainly hasn't gone on for months about how the US isn't a real country, shouldn't be entitled to self-governance, and how we're going to leverage our power to annex it. It's hardly "returning the favour".
- ipaddr 2y ago
  Tariffs are one thing but threatening to annex Canada, calling them the worst and making up fake reasons for the tariffs. A sensible discussion can be made on tariffs and why smaller countries may need them to protect against economies of scale but the rest is nonsense that creates anger.

floxy 2y ago

Is there a good way to look up how many people are in the U.S. on H-1B visas from Canada?

recursivecaveat 2y ago
Apparently ~4000 new ones are issued to Canadians every year. Canadians have access to TN though which is way easier to get. I imagine everyone on a visa is strongly reconsidering any non-essential travel outside the US and giving the border guards an accompanying attempt to screw you.
- cmrdporcupine 2y ago
  I shudder to think what happens to the software developer job market up here if all the TN holders came back suddenly, if NAFTA were to be officially terminated in 2026 (as seems possible.) Unless those people come back with venture capital funding in their pockets, salaries here will be even more screwed than they already are.

notahacker 2y ago

It'll be part boycott, part cancellation of business trips because it's too difficult to do business with the US, part concerns about US immigration doing crazy things, and part delaying booking trips to the last minute (the figures are forward booking data) because who knows what'll happen next

Sanzig 2y ago

I obviously can't speak for all of my countrymen, but I can say that people are really, really pissed about the annexation threats. We're upset about the tariffs, but we're absolutely incendiary about the threats to our sovereignty. US media seems to be sanewashing the annexation threats as a "joke", but we take it very seriously up here. Your president has said many times that it's not a joke. Believe him.

senderista 2y ago
AFAIK literally no contemporary US politician but Trump has ever entertained the idea of annexing another country, but I have zero confidence that anyone around him would do anything but roll over if he gave the order. He isn't just pretending to be crazy for galaxy-brained game-theoretic reasons, he literally is crazy and unpredictable and surrounded by shameless enablers. Even though the military would be legally obligated to refuse an unlawful order from him, I no longer have any confidence that they actually would.
- ragazzina 2y ago
  >no contemporary US politician but Trump has ever entertained the idea of annexing another country, Does JD Vance on Greenland count?
- cardamomo 2y ago
  No contemporary politician, perhaps, but we're a young country and don't have to look too far back to see how much of the US was annexed from French, Spanish, and Mexican territory. And let's not forget Caribbean and Pacific territories.
  - senderista 2y ago
    Absolutely, the US once was an unapologetically imperialist nation and Trump wants to turn the clock back to a global club of bullies each with their own sphere of influence.
- graeme 2y ago

TwoNineA 2y ago

> The magnitude is surprising for this to be attributed to the trade dispute - I wonder if this is primarily due to immigration concerns? 3d option: Being pissed off at orange man threating to break an annex Canada.

mindslight 2y ago
Let's not trivialize Trump by calling him "orange man", please. Hitler was a whiny little shit nugget as well, but that didn't limit the amount of abject evil he was able to orchestrate. The problem with whiny little shit nuggets is they attract other whiny shit nuggets, and they bond (clump up) over their shared persecution complex. And now we've got a real problem on our hands. In the context of Canada, as an American all I can say is sorry and also thank you for doing everything in your power to resist "our" dictator since our own federal government is abjectly failing.

runako 2y ago

ICE is arresting/detaining people in chaotic and unpredictable ways right now. It is a very real risk for any non-citizen to cross a US border at this time. For Canada specifically, I would imagine the story of the Canadian woman[1] who was incarcerated without charges for two weeks(!!!) while holding a valid visa would deter a significant number of travelers. As an American, I would not travel to any country where stories like this one were emerging. 1 - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-det...

bink 2y ago
It's been a few days since I read that article but wasn't she unaware her visa had expired? Either way, the way she was treated was barbaric and if I had the good fortune to be Canadian I wouldn't risk it either.
- runako 2y ago
  It appears that she was at the border crossing to have her work visa processed. The resolution was that due to prior visa issues, she needed to apply for her visa at a consulate. Then they imprisoned her. As the story goes, she did nothing wrong and did not present invalid/expired paperwork. I don't know how the US process works, but long ago when I worked in a foreign country, I was required to leave the country and get my work visa added to my passport upon reentry. Reading that article made me consider that she might have been in a similar situation, only she was incarcerated for two weeks in subhuman conditions due to (at most) a clerical error. It's really a risk for people who are not US citizens to cross our borders right now.
  - philistine 2y ago
    > The resolution was that due to prior visa issues, she needed to apply for her visa at a consulate. Then they imprisoned her. Since all your ICE holding facilites are privately run, the incentive is to get people into incarceration as soon as possible and to keep them there as long as possible. Before Trump came back, the gloves were on and the capitalists running those prisons only made bank on the darker shades of people, but with Trump back it's time to make money with all the skin colours!

drbojingle 2y ago

Canadians are pissed about the annexation threats and the trade dispute. The stories of detention are also bothersome.

footy 2y ago

it is the annexation threats

ripley12 2y ago

It's primarily the constant, repeated threats of annexation ("51st state"). Americans don't seem to understand how much these have tanked the relationship between the two countries.

ygjb 2y ago
Yep. As a former Canadian soldier, it was a pretty shit afternoon when I had to explain to my kids what annexation meant in practical terms, and the role that Canada has played in preventing and repelling similar actions in other countries. It's an easy word to say, and the implication that it would be peaceful or non-violent because of economic pressures ignores the fact that Canadians don't want it.

jyounker 2y ago

I'm baffled that you're surprised. Trump is threatening military action against Canada. Why would you travel to an country that's threatening to invade your own? What happens to you if you're in US and they invade Canada? You'll be an enemy national in the US. How's that going to go for you? Why take that chance?

Sammi 2y ago

[flagged]