THUNDER BAY — There was lots of patriotic noise on the corner of Memorial Avenue and Harbour Expressway on Saturday morning.
Joining fellow patriots nationwide, a group of protesters gathered for a peaceful rally at the busy intersection, carrying signs telling United States leadership to leave Canada alone.
“We're one of more than 1,000 (rallies) across this continent, saying that the United States has to have hands off Canada and Greenland and many other things that they're trying to attack right now,” said Paul Berger, lead organizer with Citizens United for a Sustainable Planet.
“It's clear that this is one of the biggest days of mobilization I think across the planet that we've seen."
Berger added lots of people are upset with U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to annex Canada and Greenland.
“We need them to keep their hands off Canada, to stop with these pathetic threats of making us the 51st state. Canadians don't want to be part of the United States, that's really clear.
“We don't want their crummy, privatized healthcare that 40 million people don't have. We don't want all the guns that they have and all the gun violence. We don't want their life expectancy that's less than in Canada.
“We need to stop the economic terrorism that's going on, the tariffs that are bringing down the economies of both countries."
Berger said in addition to Canada, Greenland, a protectorate of Denmark has been threatened, something rally-goers said is completely unacceptable.
“They're attacking trans rights and the rights of gender diverse people . . . Indigenous people in the states. Free speech is being attacked. This is not legal. It's not legal under the American Constitution. It's dangerous, it's not moral," Berger said.
“Because there is more than 1,000 of these rallies across the states today, we have some sort of confidence there is a backlash building and we can stop them by people power,” he said.
Thunder Bay's rally was called with very short notice, Berger said.
“It's great to see a good solid crowd with great signs. The honking by the cars, the support in the community really tells us too, that we're tapping into a feeling that a lot of people have, and it's hard to know what to do, how to resist . . . we've got an election campaign going on where one of the big things is what are we going to do to fight this terror threat.”
Berger said it's clear the United States is a polarized country right now.
“This kind of visibility will help the people who are not comfortable with what's happening to see that there are avenues to make that discomfort known.
“I think a lot of the people that voted for Donald Trump are pretty terrified by some of the things that Trump and (Elon) Musk are actually doing. Seeing people come together out on the streets in a visible way, I think can really help them to think through what they might do next time.”
“We're not powerless. We have to stand up. We have to be willing to come out on the streets sometimes or write letters or send emails and talk to our friends and say this is absolutely unprecedented,” he said.
Margaret Wanlin, a former at-large city council candidate and resident of Thunder Bay, said the rally was an important way to show unity.
“It's always better to be with people who can amplify voices. We amplify each other's voices and that makes us stronger and it feels good to be standing up for something that's important.
Wanlin said the authoritarian direction some countries are heading toward is concerning. She does not want to see that happen in her own country.
“Hands off democracy is something that's really important to me. We have democracy in Canada and they used to have it in the United States, and that's something that's very important, and I don't want to see it harmed,” she said.
