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[–] 147 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (5 children)

75% of Canadians supported Carney backing out of the trade deal. This is despite the fact that it will cause massive economic hardship to Canada to accept these tariffs.

Canadians are pissed, and are willing to accept economic hardship in order to stand up to a bully.

For decades Canada has just accepted whatever the US has demanded. For example, Canada has aligned its copyright laws to match US laws, which Hollywood was demanding. It has accepted that Canadians installing a Canadian-made app on their phones have to pay a 30% cut to an American company.

This was because the US, in exchange, was giving Canada free access to the American market. Canadian potash, lumber, energy, etc. could all be sold to the US without tariffs. Now Trump has reneged on that deal.

Carney has promised counter-tariffs, but I want to see a real trade war. Fuck the US copyright laws. Fuck the DMCA. Fuck American printers that won't allow you to use your own ink. Fuck US tractors that can only be repaired by their US manufacturer. Canada should not only refuse to honour US intellectual property, I want Americans to travel to Canada to get their phones unlocked, to pay Canadians online for software to de-DRM their printers. What's the downside? The US will counter with tariffs? Done that. The US will try to cut Canada's access to Netflix off? We have bittorrent here.

Americans keep talking about this being a David vs Goliath fight, but for an ultra-religious country, they sure don't seem to remember how that bible story ended.

Edited to add: In the early days of the USA it was a pirate nation, in many ways. There were Americans acting as privateers, basically pirates who were protected / supported by the US. The US also was infamous for ignoring copyrights on authors from Europe.

I don't think it's very likely that Canada is going to be brave enough to repeal the copyright laws that the US forced Canada into adopting. But, maybe, a 21st century "privateer" is possible. What if Carney walked over to the head of the RCMP and off the record put the word out that the RCMP was to stop cooperating with the FBI on any actions against Canadians accused of violating US IP laws. What if the government decriminalized laws against circumventing copyright protection.

For a long while before marijuana was legalized, it was decriminalized. It was pretty common to see people smoking pot on the street, which was technically illegal, and a cop would just walk by and ignore it. But, that was all done in an above-board way. I think it's entirely possible something like that could be done through back channels with nothing written down.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    Economic hardship is coming either way, the deal wasn't fair and Trump would reneg either way. Good on Canadians for not trying appeasement.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago

    Offer a good deal to California and New York, where those states create an universal drugcare program, officially powered by Canadian supplies. On the condition that these states are very vocal about why they got Canadian Drugcare, and why the Red States are getting zip.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    allowing our pharmaceutical companies to make any us drug ignoring patents/licenses would be pretty brutal.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    And many Americans would love Canada if Canadians would sell them those drugs at costs far below what the American Pharma industry was charging.

    That would be a great move, piss off the US pharma companies while getting on the good side of individual Americans.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    if Canadians would sell them those drugs at costs far below what the American Pharma industry was charging.

    The mail order pharmacies were charging Americans less than they would pay at home - and It caused a few shortages of some medications for Canadian patients.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago (1 child)

    And many Americans would love Canada if Canadians would sell them those drugs at costs far below what the American Pharma industry was charging.

    Oh thats so fiendish.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago

    Easy to do too. Probably the easiest thing on this whole wishlist. Canadian "pharmacies" that sell products shipped by mail into the US already exist. I'm sure they'd happily sell even more stuff that was freely available in Canada patent and license free.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    In the early days of the USA it was a pirate nation, in many ways. There were Americans acting as privateers, basically pirates who were protected / supported by the US.

    Oh, the year was 1778
    How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now
    A letter of marque came from the king
    To the scummiest vessel I've ever seen

    God damn them all, I was told
    We'd cruise the seas for American gold
    We'd fire no guns, shed no tears
    Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier
    The last of Barrett's privateers

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWMSnro18b0

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago

    Yes!

    Barrett, the Antelope and other elements of the song are fictional, but "Barrett's Privateers" is full of authentic details of privateering during the American Revolution, which in Nova Scotia was dominated by privateer warfare.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrett%27s_Privateers

    At the outbreak of the American Revolution, many Nova Scotians were New England-born and were sympathetic to the American Patriots. This support slowly eroded over the first two years of the war as American privateers attacked Nova Scotian villages and shipping to try to interrupt Nova Scotian trade with the American Loyalists still in New England. During the war, American privateers captured 225 vessels either leaving or arriving at Nova Scotia ports.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Scotia_in_the_American_Revolution

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