My Warning to Canadians: Do Not Travel to Trumpland

A Chilling New Reality at the Border

A woman dragged away by border guards and chained in an unheated cell for days.

Professors, doctors, and students are forced to give over their phones to be examined for possible "subversive" comments about the government.

People arbitrarily seized and deported despite court rulings that demand fair process.

This is the stuff of a totalitarian nightmare. It's not something you would imagine in a democratic nation. But this is the reality of life in Trump's America.

And this is why I went to Canada's Parliament to issue a travel warning to Canadian citizens: avoid all unnecessary travel to the USA.

I admit that I have no official role in declaring a travel advisory. That job falls to government ministers and the Department of Global Affairs. But so far, Canadian officials are tiptoeing around the abuse of the rights of our citizens.

Compare this to the United Kingdom, which has explicitly warned its citizens about being arbitrarily detained and “held in chains" if they travel to the US.

I felt a sense of responsibility to step into the policy void in Canada and speak bluntly.

A democratic government does not arbitrarily kidnap the citizens of other nations. A country that abides by the rule of law respects due process and ensures those detained have access to consular support.

What we are witnessing is the slow creep of fascism, and we must push it back.

This is not language you are going to hear from Canadian politicians.

Perhaps, like the Democrats, they hope this is just a bad fever dream that will break. They would like to believe that the chaotic assault on the rule of law is unsustainable.

Common sense will prevail. Just wait it out.

What they fail to understand is that fascism isn't a switch that suddenly gets turned on. It is a process. Fascism creeps in gradually beginning when extremists seed the public conversation with the language of menace and the naming of their perceived enemies.

Once people become accustomed to the rhetoric, actions follow.

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How Far Will They Go?

ICE and DOGE are not engaged in hotheaded overreach. They are testing the limits to see how far they can go. If the abuses go unchecked, they will become normalized - and worse will follow.

Author Jason Stanley has studied the rise of fascism. On the eve of the November election, he told The Guardian:

"If Trump wins, America will be a one-party state from now on. There will be no more meaningful federal elections”

Perhaps the warnings from Stanley and those who served under Trump just seemed too crazy to believe. We told ourselves that Trump was part clown, part blowhard. We didn't want to believe he was serious.

Writing in The Atlantic about the rise of Hitler, Jennie Rothenberg Gritz noted:

"If you look back to the very beginning of Hitler's rhetoric about Jews, it was all there - the talk about extermination and vermin… When someone lobs those kinds of rhetorical bombs, it’s sort of a natural human tendency to say, "Oh, that's just a figure of speech. They don't really mean it. It's just a way to whip up supporters."

Perhaps our progressive imaginations have been limited by Godwin's Law, which suggests that in a debate, the first person to liken their opponent to a fascist loses credibility.

Meanwhile, the Bannon and MAGA crowd had no limitations on what they were thinking.

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Stand Up, Fight Back - Defending Our People, Defending Democracy

And so, here we are.

In Canada, our priority must be focused on defending our nation. And we have to be bold in protecting our people. The next time the Trump gang grabs a Canadian, we need to shake the foundations. Our elected officials must be pushed to become tough and fearless.

Taking back democracy in the United States will not be an easy task.

The damage caused by Trump regime is huge, but recognizing what is happening and being willing to call it out is the first step. The next time a student is seized at an American college, people need to raise hell.

When they come for one of your neighbours, you need to speak up.

I know it's easier said than done, but I read a statement recently that resonates deeply with me:

"It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end."

History has shown us the brutal consequences of looking the other way, and we cannot make that mistake again. We've got to keep kicking at the darkness until it bleeds daylight.

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