Being a Canadian in America (Eric Migicovsky)

Summary

An Evening Out Colette Berends (I wrote a draft of post in early 2025. I picked it up and decided to publish it today, hence why it is more about ‘me’ than the current horrific news of the day) Why do I, a fairly liberal Canadian, continue to live in California instead of moving home, given America’s rightward lurch? The answer is that I’ve built a family and community here, which makes me reluctant to leave. Will that reluctance last forever? Obviously not, there’s always a red line. The shooting of a protester yesterday in Minneapolis feels very close crossing the red line for me. Will there be due process? Could additional information potentially come to light that would convince me that this is not a fascist execution of a civilian in the street? Both seem unlikely. The split screen hypocrisy of Trump claiming to support Iranian protesters, while simultaneously having his troops at home kill protesters who he calls ‘domestic terrorists’ is mindblowing. Could I help effect change? I can’t vote (not a US citizen) and at this point I don’t feel very comfortable joining demonstrations (like I did after George Floyd’s murder) not due to violence but it feels…incongruous to be an non-citizen protesting against policies that the majority of voting citizens in this country specifically voted for as recently as 1 year ago. I could theoretically donate money to candidates (as a green card holder) but that does not seem very effective given the immediate circumstance. The only tool I seem to have is voting with my feet and tax dollars. I’ve lived here (in the same neighbourhood) for 15 years now. This feels like home. My family and I are not in danger…yet. Do we wait until it’s in our state? Or city? Moving away also feels incredibly privileged. Others are still fighting to move to the US to avoid even worse situations in their home country. If you stand for nothing, what will you fall for? I want to be clear about what I believe in. Here’s a short list: people should be f...