Canada: Standing Up For It’s Rights

Feb 28, 2026 Letters

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Dear Editor,

The assumption of the Donald Trump’s administration to power in the United States following the elections of 2024, has been changing the world in fundamental ways. President Trump seems to believe that because the United States is the most powerful country in the world, it can do as it pleases. It can order countries around and demand their resources and get them at his will.

In the process, the US administration has inflicted great sufferings on peoples in many parts of the world. It is its enormous military and over generous economic and political support for Israel that has allowed the apartheid, fascist regime of Isreal to unleash a genocide on the Palestinian people that is continuing. Educated estimates put the death of the Palestinians at some three hundred thousand souls. Many bodies are still being found under the mountains of rubble.

Some we understand will never be found because bombs that generate heat greater than that of the sun were used on the poor, helpless people in the Gaza and many just evaporated.

The poor but brave people of Yemen have been bombed by the US and Israel because they showed tangible solidarity to the Palestinians.

Iran has been attacked and bombed by the same two brutal regimes. It appears that it would be attacked again, because Isreal does not want any country in their region that can stand up to their terrorism.

In the Caribbean, on the flimsy pretext of drug trafficking, the President of Venezuela and his wife were ‘kidnapped’. To give some credence to its false charge small fishing boats are being bombed and more than one hundred souls have died.

No effort was made to stop and search those boats; no evidence is being provided to the Caribbean people nor the wider international community to validate the claim of drug trafficking. President Trump seems to have come out from the wild west; shoot first and ask questions later.

Cuba, that island that has done so much for mankind, is now experiencing maximum pressure from the US. This is shameful. It is clear they are pushing for regime change.

It was expected that this lawlessness would create push backs. And it did. However, the most effective resistance did not come from where we traditionally expect, Russia and/or China but from a totally unexpected source, Canada.

Canadian patriotism has been ignited, by the US President and his inner circle due to measures and statements they are making about Canada. He described the country as the US’s 51st state and, derogatorily called the Prime Minister “Governor Trudeau or Governor Carney”. He imposed economic sanctions, including tariffs on his faithful neighbour.

During the elections campaign in Canada, last August, the Trump administration openly supported the opposition. Mr. Pierre Poilievre was favoured by President Trump, and he made no effort to hide his open interference into the internal politics of Canada, as he had earlier done with Argentina and Honduras.

This interference seems to have infuriated the Canadian voters and they voted for the Liberals again.

Mark Carney, the new Prime Minister of Canada seems to have embodied the sentiments of Canadians very early. During the elections campaign he spoke about standing up to bullies, and it was obvious he was referring to the Trump administration.

Many at that time thought that it was idle talk and did not expect Carney to really stand up to his more powerful southern neighbour. After all the Canadian and US economies are deeply integrated. Some 80% of Canada’s exports go to the United States. Canada, having the smaller economy is in greater danger of being hurt than the US, in an economic conflict.

Carney recognised this and started to take steps to protect Canada’s economy from external pressures. His speech at the Davos meeting on January 20, 2026, was classic. It indicated his intentions to free Canada from dependence and to assert its sovereignty very clearly and boldly, a speech I hope Caricom leaders would not only read, but take an example from.

He laid out the realities of today’s world plainly, when he said “… it seems that every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry, that the rules based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can and the weak must suffer what they must…”

He went on to add, “And faced with this logic, there is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along, to accommodate, to avoid trouble, to hope that compliance will buy safety. Well, it wouldn’t.”

That was a clear warning to the European nations, and others, that seem ready to lie down and to allow the US to walk all over them.

Judging from his own experience with US/Canada relations Carney, pointed out that “… great powers (here he could have said the US because it is only the US that is guilty, authors note) have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited…” He went on to add “… You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”

Carney then went on to urge his audience to “…develop greater strategic autonomy,” he urged nations to be principled – “principled in our commitment to fundamental values” and he emphasised sovereignty.

Since that speech we have seen that Prime Minister Carney is taking steps to defend his country. He has began to diversify Canada’s economic relations in a hurry. He has made agreements with China, India, Indonesia and with Brazil, and is aggressively continuing on this path.

Canada’s foreign policy is taking on a distinct independence. He has expressed his disgust at Netanyahu, despite American pressures and said Canada would arrest him if he dared to put a toe on Canadian soil. He has expressed sympathy with the people of Cuba who have had to endure an economic war imposed by the United States for almost seven decades.

Prime Minister Carney must know that the United States will not want to accept Canada’s newfound freedom. He probably knows that the US deep state will do everything to frustrate his efforts. For all we know the CIA must already be in Canada to stir up trouble. Already we are hearing talks that Alberta, an oil producing area of Canada, will join the USA. Vice-President J.D. Vance has been making provocative remarks in this direction.

Knowing something of the CIA, from publications such as “Inside the Company” by Philip Agee, one would not be hard pressed to believe that it is on the march to destabilise Canada, economically and politically.

Carney has shown real courage to stand up for his country; he is serious about independence and sovereignty. His actions are becoming examples to those leaders who feel that nothing can be done to stand up for their rights in the face of powerful opponents. Prime Minister Carney’s stance has earned him the admiration and respect of democratic forces the world over!

Former President Donald Ramotar

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• Canada, Donald Ramotar, Letters, rights

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