Hello from Canada, your polite and quiet upstairs neighbor. And ever since President Trump floated us as your 51st state, we’re not as quiet and polite.
I’m Rupa Subramanya. I’m Indian by birth, but Canadian by choice. When I was 19 years old, I arrived in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, a small town in eastern Canada, to study at Acadia University.
Canada is where I learned to ask questions without fear, and to think critically—things I couldn’t do as a young person growing up in India and the Middle East, where questioning authority could bring consequences, and curiosity was frowned upon. I truly was living the Canadian Dream.
That unshakable faith started to wobble during the 2022 trucker protests, known as the Freedom Convoy, when thousands of Canadians from across the country descended on Ottawa, the capital city, to protest against pandemic mandates and restrictions, and what they saw as government overreach and an unnecessary encroachment on individual liberty.
Trudeau painted the protesters as “racists,” and a “fringe minority with unacceptable views” as he invoked rarely used emergency powers that handed the government sweeping authority to suspend civil liberties; freeze the bank accounts of protesters; and deploy police forces from across the country to Ottawa. But what I saw on the ground was nothing like the picture painted by our leaders. These were regular Canadians fed up with endless pandemic restrictions who felt completely abandoned by political elites.
For the first time, I felt something unsettling about the country I chose to call home. The illiberal environments of my childhood had followed me to Canada, more than 20 years later.
As it happens, the protest also happened to be the first story I wrote for The Free Press. And, in the years since, I have covered Canada’s creeping restrictions on free expression, from the proposed hate speech laws and the Online News Act and the Online Streaming Act.
All of my stories—from the alarming normalization of euthanasia to the rise of race-based sentencing in the justice system—share the same DNA: They speak to the steady growth of the state’s role in daily life, and the slow erosion of our individual liberties in the West.
Which is why we are launching an experiment over the next several weeks: a newsletter dedicated to Canada. It will be a combination of original, on-the-ground reporting from me as well as a tight curation of the most important stories from the most trustworthy, independent journalists in Canada. We find the current media options in Canada limited and shrinking. Those who question the prevailing narratives are even more scarce. And given that we have so many smart and engaged readers—or, as I think of you, my neighbors—we think you deserve something specific and special.
It couldn’t come at a more urgent time. We are just two weeks away from an election that seemed all but settled until President Trump found his way onto the ballot. (Indeed, just yesterday the White House press secretary doubled down, repeating that the president believes Canada would “benefit greatly” from becoming the 51st state.)
So, to ensure you don't miss any of our Canada coverage, visit our Canada section and sign up for the Canada topic alert. Meantime, I welcome your story ideas, suggestions for new coverage, and any other ways you think we can best serve you.
Okay. Let’s get to it. . .