Yes, Rick, it's a combination of factors...

Submitted by J.S. (Canada), Sep 14, 2006 at 14:34

I think many things contribute to the sentiments which are expressed in our local "Letters to the Editor" pages. I think the CBC IS just another version of the BBC (only the CBC is slightly milder -- sometimes not quite as harsh as the BBC), and there has been a huge influx of immigrants from the Middle East into Canada (some areas of our cities do look like downtown Cairo).

But this only partially explains, I think, what's going on. I think it has something to do with Canada's lack of national identity -- too many Canadians seem to think that by beating up on the States, they'll demonstrate a "strength." But they do the opposite. (Not all Canadians are anti-American, though). The visceral anti-Americanism really hit me about a week after 9 / 11 (it was during a CBC program called "A town forum.") I think the program had been stacked with pro-Islamic people (they were in the audience and would stand up and give pronouncements). They spent the entire show beating up on the U.S. and this just after (days after) 9/11. I could not believe it. It was a shocking eye-opener...it was really coming face to face with an extreme hatred. It still makes me sick when I think about it. (I also began to ask myself, "What am I doing here? Why am I living in Canada?" and thinking that for all these years, prior to 9/11, I had been deluded into thinking Canada was a "friend" of the U.S.)

But, I hope, that the extreme expressions of anti-Americanism (which still occur -- particularly by the CBC -- I happened to catch yet another "report" by a Neil Macdonald the other day -- too grotesque to even repeat) *are* just the expressions of a few, and not representative of the majority of Canadians.

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