There is a convergence manifesting in Minnesota. Hundreds of thousands of people are revolting against the federal government and the murders of Renee Good on January 7, 2026, and Alex Pretti on January 24, 2026. Good and Pretti represent two of the nine people killed by ICE this year: Keith Porter Jr., Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, Geraldo Lunas Campos, Víctor Manuel Díaz, Parady La, Luis Beltrán Yáñez-Cruz, and Heber Sánchez Domínguez being the other victims. Minnesotans are responding with incredible resolve against the repression from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, who are melting from the revolutionary fire emanating from the masses. Watching from Canada, many took to social media to demonstrate their fury at the abhorrence of the public murder of a man who appeared to die in the manner that he lived, aiding those who required assistance. Canadians have been taking to social media to show solidarity with Minnesotans. This display of solidarity is incredible, but there is more that Canadians can do to address how we are assisting the authoritarian regime.
Mark Carney’s value-based realism
Three days before Alex Pretti’s murder, the mainstream media gushed over Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. To the delight of many socialists, who have long spoken of the unilateral application of international law, Carney spoke to the falsity of the rules-based order, alluding to the rupture caused by Donald Trump. The fact that this speech was made in Davos, where Jared Kushner unveiled the plan for the “New Gaza,” should demonstrate that a system rooted in values-based realism—focusing on pragmatism, production, and respect for human rights—is not on the agenda.
While Carney was spending time referencing Havel, it was the mention of Thucydides that I found most revealing:
This aphorism of Thucydides is presented as inevitable—as the natural logic of international relations reasserting itself. 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.
Ever the opportunist, Carney’s narrative of Canada, and other middle powers, as a Neville Chamberlain, appeasing the looming threat because it would be beneficial to avoid war in the hopes of getting along, is utter fiction. The notion that Canada has only ever acquiesced to the power of the United States shirks the Canadian state’s own imperialistic ventures, while those exploits are a key selling point for the strength of the Canadian economy. For all his talk of Canada’s access to minerals, Carney would be well-suited to realize that many of those minerals come from South America, with Canada’s mining assets in the Americas valued at $158.3 Billion, as of 2023. This accounts for 50-70% of the mining activity in South America. Carney can reference values all he wants, but Canadian involvement in Latin America carries much negative value for those exploited workers.
The connection between Minnesota, Carney’s speech, and Canada’s role in South America might not be immediately clear; however, the nexus speaks to Canada’s government and its partnership with capital and how Canada’s active role in the existing world order remains shrouded. Canada’s ties to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provide a prescient example.
As news of Alligator Alcatraz became ubiquitous in the public discourse, the involvement of the Canadian security company GardaWorld, based in Quebec, in its operation garnered attention. Winning a contract valued at $8 million to staff the detention centre, the Canadian company was intimately involved in the operation of an institution that was, and is, drawing comparisons to concentration camps. Although Canada’s government was not directly involved in this deal, there was no admonishment either; rather, the opposite was true. Carney’s government has awarded GardaWorld with contracts valued at over $100 million. Most of these contracts, approximately $75 million worth, have been allocated toward border services. Even then, the relationship between ICE and Canada is closer than Carney will admit, as demonstrated by the five ICE offices in Canada.
Carney is not the only Canadian politician to support Trump’s campaign. Ontarians came to the unpleasant realization that Canadian workers are building the tools used by ICE. As videos surfaced of ICE’s repression, commentators were quick to point out that the vehicles being driven by the authorities were the Roshel Senator STANG emergency response armoured vehicles, manufactured in Brampton. In December 2025, Ontario’s government passed a $10 million deal with the United States for 20 such vehicles. When asked to comment, Doug Ford—Canada’s very own Donald Trump— feigned helplessness, stating that he cannot dictate to corporations how they should act. Even if this were true, ask his current Labour Minister, David Piccini, if his government is above doling out contracts, Ford would rather hide from the public than do something positive for Ontarians. This issue, of course, is not isolated to Ontario. Two companies based in Vancouver are looking to cooperate with ICE and the DHS. The Jim Pattison Group (a large real estate conglomerate) is looking to sell an office to the DHS, and Hootsuite is looking to complete the unenviable task of providing social media services to the DHS. Although it is worrying that ICE and the DHS are tied to our government and several Canadian companies, this shows that Canadians have a role in the fight against Trump and his lackeys, starting at home.
The path forward
Our role as socialists is to stoke the fire of revolution in Minnesota. As James Clark wrote for Spring, we must make our solidarity visible. This will continue to be vital as Minnesotans continue to fight; the gauntlet has been thrown down, with the calling for a national shutdown beckoning, Canadians can expand their role beyond displays of solidarity.
The fight against the Israeli genocide provides the model. Like these campaigns supporting Palestinians, our fight is with our own government and companies based in Canada supporting the regimes. These fights are parallel because as the boomerang flies over in Palestine, it will surely make its way back to us. This is not a call for a general strike; I am not so naïve as to think Canadians are ready and willing for something that drastic, especially when it appears to many that we’re not dealing with authoritarianism. They are right to think so. Yet, informing Canadians of how the Federal government continues to use loopholes to ship weapons to Israel, through the United States, helps to ensure that these weapons, military tech, and vehicles aren’t being shipped to harm anyone—whether they be Palestinian, Venezuelan, or American. Remind people of campaigns to close these loopholes, like Jenny Kwan’s private member’s bill and petition. These networks can expand to rally against GardaWorld, Roshel, the Jim Pattinson Group, Hootsuite, and any other company that would support ICE’s tyranny—as well as the direct ICE presence in Canada—because the fight for Palestinian self-determination does not have to be separate from the fight against ICE.
Importantly, we must not allow our leaders to hide behind the idea that our government is not actively participating, because this will harm us most of all. If we do not act, we might be seeing our future in Minnesota. The Canadian Armed Forces has a large minority of white nationalists within its ranks (approximately 25%). Currently, it is unclear whether some Canadians are currently working for ICE. It is easy to see a time when they work for a paramilitary force akin to ICE. As we speak, Carney’s government has tried to pass Bill C-9, an active attempt to make protest illegal under the guise of anti-hate speech law. Luckily, this is currently on hold. If Canadians take an approach stoked in Canadian exceptionalism, believing the events unfolding south of the border will never occur here, there may come a day when we learn that there is nothing exceptional about Canadian values-based realism. We might find ourselves like the Melians referenced by Thucydides—crushed.
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