When I first moved to Canada, my first encounter with the Canadian medical freedom movement was when my husband & I took a walk & saw an anti-masker with a microphone on the Saskatoon riverfront. I marvelled that this shit was up here too. My Canadian colleague & friend laughed when I asked about it. He told me “we’re just like you Americans, just 5-10 years behind.”

I keep thinking of that comment because it comes true every day. The same disinformation machine that enabled MAGA to destroy 250 years of American democracy is churning here up north: the convoy, the anti-vaxxers, the ostrich abolitionists, the 51st staters/Alberta separatists, the PPC, HRH Queen Romana I, medical contrarians, and of course the various Nazis and white nationalists forming militias and stockpiling weapons. Including dudes with military training like what is described here.

For the past 4 months I have been targeted by thousands of abusive messages & death threats for speaking up about this. My university was hit with what was described as an “unprecedented” campaign of abusive, threatening demands that I be fired for speaking up on behalf of human & animal health, vaccines, & the rule of law. I’ve had to file police reports & learn new security procedures. It’s actually been quite difficult.

Instead of being supported, I was instructed to watch my tone when telling anti-vaxxers what I think of their efforts to get children infected with preventable diseases. I work for a vaccine research institute at a major Canadian provincial university, am an established technical & policy expert on emerging viruses, vaccines, countermeasures, and health security, & am co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Vaccine. I am also American & deeply heartbroken by the wave of death my country is unleashing on the world, including via vaccination & public health. I am more qualified & have more standing than most to defend vaccination with evidence. It is literally my job as an internationally recognized expert on virology & vaccines at a vaccine research institute to discuss, analyze, & provide expert opinions on viruses & vaccines—including in the context of policy & politics.

Better not speak up on behalf of vaccination, though. Wouldn’t want to offend anyone, especially not the surely large pool of prospective vaccine research funders in the anti-vax movement. Sure, vaccines work & save lives, but they are so divisive. It would be so much better for everyone if I just studied vaccines & didn’t talk about them.

I get lots of advice to shut up. My tone is inappropriate. I call fascists what they are & tell them to fuck off. That is an appropriate tone. Fuck fascism. I’m an American patriot. And I may be an immigrant, but I’m a Canadian patriot too.

I’m told that this just causes trouble. I should avoid conflict—the world is bad right now, so I should retreat to my research, ignoring the millions who die from diseases that can be prevented because of our research. I should keep my head down & not provoke far-right violent extremists.

But I refuse to be complicit with fascism in the country I now call home. I don’t respect anyone who chooses that path, whether out of self-interest, wishful thinking, or cowardice. It’s morally pathetic to shut up when I can actually fight back against an evil that I oppose to my core.

It is unethical to remain silent when you can contribute. I have specific expertise in the scientific topics being exploited to normalize fascism. And I know that this is an immediate threat to Canadian national security BECAUSE I SAW IT HAPPEN IN THE US!

For these extremists to be successful, they need Canadians to do one of two things:

1. minimize the danger, avoid conflict

2. get so caught up in deciding response process that they don’t respond

Unfortunately, as I’ve observed over 5 years here, Canadians are prone to doing both of those things. Now is not the time to be polite or to avoid ruffling feathers. Now is the time to stand up & defend your country against foreign-funded terrorists who want to destroy it.

I really need Canadians to understand that there is a direct line between domestic anti-government extremism & the end of your democratic government.