On Sept. 9, University of Ottawa political science professor Daniel Stockemer argued in University Affairs that, as Canadians, we should not spend taxpayers' money to attend American conferences. This, he argued, was a way to push back against the trade dispute. As a Canadian from immigrant and working-class roots, I know a bit about how people's livelihoods are at stake as a result of tariffs. But stopping trips to the U.S. won't make a dent in that issue.
What is more taxing is grappling with President Donald Trump's anti-Muslim, anti-trans, anti-immigrant, racist policies that make going to the U.S. terrifying for so many. So yes, the call to boycott resonates deeply with me as a Black Canadian woman because I have tried to live by the motto that one should not spend one's money in places where one is not wanted. And yet, there are compelling reasons to go to the United States precisely because we are not wanted there.
Showing up as a feminist first
I believe in turning up in person to do good trouble. As any feminist scholar knows, we don't ignore the work that is so obvious and needs doing we say things that the patriarchy doesn't want us to say aloud. Since 2022 the New York Times has been reporting that some University of Florida professors have been under attack in their fight for academic freedom as a core value at the university a fight that goes against the Stop WOKE Act (also known as the Individual Freedom Act) by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
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