I didn't think I'd ever need to make a post like this, but here we are.
Canada has a bit of an ICE problem.
ICE or Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the USA, has been showing how far they're willing to push an extremist agenda against their own people, including deporting American born citizens, kidnapping children, and shooting people in the streets.
DHS (USA Department of Homeland Security) has reached 1940s level tactics and they're working on building concentration camps. Not to detain Japanese or communists, but to arrest anyone who has a dissenting view on the current administration under Trump.
DHS has already started pushing for data scraping of people who condemn ICE for their blatant anti-democratic actions, murder, attempted murder, kidnapping children (including Canadians, and not just Liam Ramos), and refusing people due process or even legal council who have been detained, who are legally allowed to stay in the USA or anyone who was born there, including deporting natural born citizens. This is the current running statistics of how many people are being detained, and have been deported so far.
The people they've been targeting are children, people of color, disabled and LGBTQIA2S+ people, and the current administration is also working towards removing the rights of millions of voters before the midterm and primary elections.
Trump has also threatened Canada's sovereignty multiple times. I doubt he's given up on that prospect yet.
Don't believe me? All the links are highlighted to news sources both in the USA, Canada, and international if you want to read for yourself.
Do we really want that kind of behaviour and threats here?
So, What can you do about it?
To start, you can call, or email the Premier's office in your province, to either mandate that Danielle Smith and Doug Ford step down, for their actions against people in the province by privatizing healthcare, removing support for education, trying to destroy the environment, selling off land that should be protected, closing services and education spaces, and other scandals including fraud.
All those email addresses and phone numbers are made public, as they are our representatives in government. (links added above on Danielle Smith and Doug Ford's names respectively)
Danielle Smith (Premier of Alberta) especially, for stoking separatist views to align with the USA, and political interference.
For anyone in Alberta, I hope you're paying attention cause if you all vote for separation, and especially if you are LGBTQIA2S+, indigenous, a person of color, or a married woman, you may loose your rights to vote, rights to healthcare, education, and other rights that we have that the Trump administration is trying to outright dismantle, if the US government decides to take Alberta as its own state.
Secondly, you can sign the petition e-7146, in the House of Commons, to call on Parliament to have ICE removed.
Lastly, if you can donate funds to groups that help the community with either the environment, animal advocacy, protection of LGBTQIA2S+ rights or harm reduction, food assistance programs, education assistance programs and grants, Doctors without Borders, or international aid, please do.
(the links are just a few groups, all within Canada, some are international)
If you can't donate money, see if you have the means to donate time and skills, like doing park community cleanups, repair cafes, environmental advocacy volunteering, that sort of thing.
If you are a business, stop relying on AI to recruit or do customer service for you, and hire people that will help you to keep your business running smoothly. Hire artists to do the work, and if you worry about them using AI, get them to sign a contract. Especially as DHS and ICE are using AI to pick and choose their targets, , going after anyone who's got a dissenting view of ICE.
Large language models should not be trusted to do the thinking for us. Using your brain is better for you in the long run. The brain is like a muscle. If you don't use it, you loose it.
If you are an individual, stop using AI wherever possible. AI is causing a huge tech shortage right now, let alone environmental impacts.
If you want art but can't draw, learn how. Learning the basics of drawing is a learned skill, as is most crafts, especially involving textiles.
There's tonnes of tutorials out there on the internet for free that you can learn from if you don't have money. I'm not just talking about my own channel or Ko-fi page here either.
Anyhow...my disdain of AI aside...
For Canadians, do what you can, to call out bad actors in Parliament. Call in or email in and call for accountability for stripping our services, healthcare and education. Push for Universal Basic Income. There's been multiple studies on it, and its proven to work.
At the very least, go onto the House of Commons' website, and
sign petitions to call attention to matters to help people, and vote
for people that will do the least amount of harm to friends, family, and
community, and that don't align with Trump's very harmful and narrow
world view.
For the Americans, Do everything in your power to get out there and vote in the midterms and primaries
Even if you feel like the cause is hopeless, Trump wouldn't be trying so hard if your vote didn't matter.
It matters, and every little bit counts. Make it count.
