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Comment by AlimJaffer | Hacker News Reader

As a Canadian I humbly request Americans stay out of our politics, particularly when it comes to influencing them via monetary donations. Get your own house in order, don't encourage wannabe insurrectionists who had a manifesto to take over the government in blatantly undemocratic ways.

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That is ironic coming from a Canadian. Just recently, a lot of money poured in from Canada to support the farmer protest in India. Here is one example: https://www.gofundme.com/f/donatetofarmers

PS: Not that I support the current Canadian protests.

Edit: Some other examples: 1. https://globalnews.ca/news/7680005/farmers-india-protest-bil... 2. https://thewire.in/rights/justin-trudeau-farmers-protest-ind... 3. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/farmers-prot...

As a matter of principle I agree with you, however there is also a large Indian diaspora in Canada and it's quite possible most of that money was donated by Indians; it doesn't make a lot of sense for a Canadian living in the US to donate the money from a US account though.

I agree on the Indians in Canada donating part. But Canadian PM should have stayed away from making comments supporting the protest.

https://thewire.in/rights/justin-trudeau-farmers-protest-ind...

Especially since some of these protestors are rumored to have backing of Khalistani separatists who have blown up an Air India flight in the past killing 329 people.

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/khalistan-terror-group...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_182

Similar applies for Canada and the US

As an Indian, this double standard was the most amusing thing for me in all these. When farmers in India protested, Canadian PM himself supported them (probably because he wanted the Sikh community votes?).

Indian government only used police officers with batons and were sometimes chased away by the protesters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1qFKUtfvMc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7so5TwIMyM

Then yesterday I saw videos of heavily armed RCMP officers deployed to remove some of the blockades!

While I have not donated anything to this cause, as an American I fundamentally reject your humble request.

The reality is that while in this moment you are against it, the second a protest is in your favor, I'm willing to bet you will turn a blind eye. Nearly all international charities are a form of foreign influence whether you agree with them or not, and your politicians are the ones happy to allow these charities to operate within your nation.

If I support a cause within Canada and truly wish it the best, then I will donate to it, just like everyone else in the world already is. I do not support hypocrisy.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-trump-clinton-u-s-el...

Looking through your recent comments, there are multiple examples of you commenting on American politics and monetary policy...

Sure. Did they give money to US politicians?

The U.S.A., and previously Great Britain, has always had an enormous political and economic influence on Canada, for better or for worse. Today we are being noticed in the U.S.A. because we're struggling. Having worked and traveled internationally for many years it is my opinion that at most times we, as a sovereign nation, rarely even occur to American minds. Such is life, and I'm okay with it.

> particularly when it comes to influencing them via monetary donations

Were any of the GiveSendGo funds marked towards supporting political candidates?

The majority of the donors were Canadian, so presumably you're in favor of the multiple millions of dollars flowing to the group from Canadians?

You can look at the data - there were around twice as many foreign donations than Canadian ones.

I did look at the data. $4,311,287 listed their country as Canada, and $4,110,520 were from other countries. [1]

You're just wrong. Number of individual donors is irrelevant, the majority of cash is from Canada.

[1] https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiODI3Y2UzMWQtMjE4MS00N...

Neither of us are wrong. I looked at the number of donations, but yes you are correct the majority of the cash is from Canada.

As an American I'd love if we all stayed out of each other's politics, but that's not how the world works, sorry.

That being said, a lot of Americans want freedom everywhere, especially for their neighbors in the north, what's so hard to understand about that?

Btw, your insurrection claim is played out and laughable, there is no violence, use words properly.

I look forward to seeing your comments about our 2022 midterm elections or our 2024 presidential election.

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