All this because some manufacturers in the US can't be bothered to include instructions in French, or a sticker in French to cover the English buttons on a microwave oven. Our laws state that French must be available for products that are sold. That's all they have to comply with.

If Chinese and other international companies can comply and get away with it by providing badly machine translated crap, in the age of AI slop, American companies can also make that "effort" if they want to be able to sell us their stuff. They can fuck off and keep their shit if they don't even want to bother trying.

I may speak English but my family doesn't; they need their badly translated instructions. It's absolutely worth a commercial war over this. They have no idea of who we are. We did not resist assimilation for centuries to end up being told to speak white by US companies.

Y peuvent bien manger d'la marde.

There are plenty of alternatives to products from US companies supporting the MAGA fucknuts. Thankfully, the War of 1812 ended in complete failure for the USA.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced that trade negotiations with Canada collapsed after Ottawa "declined to finalize" an agreement. Greer stated that Washington had offered preferential treatment and tariff reductions on steel, aluminum, and autos, but blamed Canada for introducing late-stage new demands and walkbacks.

Listening to their trade guy spin the whole thing as "USA tried to make a go of it with those treacherous canucks, and give them a really great deal as best friends, but they were dicks and so we hate them" is equal parts infuriating and absurd. The absolute lie that Canada somehow porked up the deal in the last minute is both false and uncharacteristic, but given every accusation from this administration is an admission, I guess it should be expected.

keep in mind that quebec is having its general election this year, in october at the latest. the party leading in the polls is the main pro-independence one and they have said before that an independent quebec would have stronger relations with the usa (altho they have also recently said there would be no referendum on independence as long as trump is in power, and most of the quebec population is against independence right now)

there is no way that the usa is not trying do some meddling with those threats

"loss of sovereignty? Stop! I can only get so hard!”

I keep trying t understand what's wrong with conservatives. I think their ideology is basically quicksand. Like the whole design is to dress up poverty and disenfranchisement as freedom.

But sometimes I wonder if maybe they're all using a product that in the future we'll find out causes brain damage. You know like leaded gas.

He rapes children he does not give a fuck -- seems like Canada finally realized they're dealing with an actual child raping psychopath. You actually cannot make any deal with him, he will just break it again in a couple months at best (midterms.)

World needs to take Canada's lead and refuse all negotiations with trump. Kick us out of nato and the UN (suspension until trump leaves office?)

Either we get on with it now or we get on with it later when trump has further entrenched himself in the white house. There is absolutely no good deal, hell no deal at all, that anyone can make with this madman who hates humanity. His word is worth less than the shitcoins he sells.

Russia tried to do it with Ukrainian language and culture. 8 years ago, vast majority of Ukrainians in the north and east of the country used russian for every day communication (me among them). Now you'd be hard pressed to find even a few outside of the occupied territories. I believe the professional term for this is "backfired spectacularly".

I mean if you need a government to enforce your culture, it's already dead. Let it go.

Why can't they do a little Letter Kenny one off on this? I would really love to get that type of riff on this bullshit. Like the first ones that were just online.

Canada should start shipping all their remaining products to the US in Spanish.

Jaque mate pendejos.

Hmmmm nazis trying to erase their French neighbors..... where have I heard this before?....

so the next step canada goes is full french?

Together with hundreds of other dumb things Trump has said, this is the dumbest.

La Riposte.

A movement to inspire all Anglophone Canadians to commit to learning a bit of French everyday in response to US economic and cultural aggression.

Symbolic, valuable, but extremely accessible. CBC has an app (Mauril) that our tax dollars already pay for, and of course there are dozens of language learning apps, many free.

Something almost anyone can do, at no cost. It's good for you. It's good for Canada (bilingual workforce opens many international doors). It'll piss Trump off.

Canada needed something to get behind, all together. If it gains enough traction, CBC and companies like Duolingo will pick up the bump in traffic and the story gets legs.

Am I high? Would you commit to learning more French and then actually do it, for this reason?

Edit: I did buy a couple of domains already. I might actually throw together a one pager tomorrow and just try to get it out there.

Edit 2: la-riposte dot ca. Pretty sure my links are being removed

How big a trade barrier can it be to label stuff in two languages?

We have so many products with three national languages over here that it just sounds normal to me.

Wait did he actually say that??? I'm surprised Trump even knows French is an official language in Canada

The audacity!

Yes, that is what MAGA is about everywhere it goes.

Is there a list of Canadian alternatives to U.S. products we can buy in Europe by any chance?

Europe should blackmail the US this way, if they don't pay our tarifs they can no longer make hamburgers and French fries. /s

Take off

I mean get a spine Quebec no export fees on electricity unless the trade war escalates. How much more escalation do they need the us military foot on your neck.