‘America the Bully’ Is Media’s New Tune

The column stripped across the second page of the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest-circulation daily newspaper, was headlined “Yanks, go to hell--and I mean (nearly) all of you.”

“You Americans think you can bully us over Cuba. You can all go to hell,” wrote author Joey Slinger. In case the message wasn’t clear, Slinger filled his entire column with the names of dozens of American celebrities, from Billy Graham to Madonna to Tom Lasorda, ending each paragraph with the admonition, “Go to hell.”

Though it was billed as tongue-in-cheek, the July 20 column tapped into the furor here over U.S. legislation intended to punish Canadian and other foreign companies that do business in Cuba using property that the Castro regime seized from Americans. A number of Americans wrote to the paper taking offense at the column. Some Canadians mailed in congratulations.

The new law, typically referred to as the Helms-Burton law after its authors, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), has revived widely held but often suppressed feelings here that when the American government isn’t taking Canadians for granted, it’s trying to push them around.

Trade Minister Art Eggleton, in an interview with American and Canadian reporters, repeatedly called the measure “a gun to our head.” Editorials and columnists have accused the United States of hypocrisy, harassment and incompetence. On Wednesday, a coalition of Canadian church groups, student organizations and anti-poverty activists called on vacationers here to boycott Florida, a favorite winter destination.

There has been particular offense taken at speeches by Helms, widely reported in Canada, that likened the Canadian government’s stance toward Cuba to the appeasement policies that Britain’s pre-World War II prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, practiced toward Hitler.

That comparison prompted Prime Minister Jean Chretien to remind the senator that Canada entered the war against Hitler in 1939, two years before the United States. Others suggested that Helms, who defended racial segregation early in his career, is in no position to lecture anyone about public morality.

Some American diplomats stationed in normally placid Canada, duty-bound to defend the law (often despite privately held reservations), are taking on a siege mentality.

“I think there is a latent anti-Americanism in certain elements of Canadian society and Helms-Burton really crystallizes it,” fumed one.

That official counts the Canadian media as a stronghold of anti-Americanism and regards coverage of the law here as one-sided.

“There is a predisposition that Canada is automatically right and the U.S. is wrong and that Canada is the purer country,” the U.S. diplomat said.

As evidence, the official noted that the media here have paid scant attention to a central contradiction in Canada’s position. Canada’s biggest complaint about the Helms-Burton law is that it seeks to apply United States law outside the country’s borders. However, only last year, Canada was accused of the same behavior when it sought to impose its fishing quotas on European boats in international waters of the North Atlantic.

Last week, two members of Parliament tried to inject some humor into the debate with the mischievous suggestion that Canada pass a law similar to Helms-Burton aimed at recovering property seized from British loyalists during the American Revolution. An estimated 3 million Canadians, including the authors of the bill, John Godfrey and Peter Milliken, are descended from refugees who fled north after America’s declaration of independence.