Amazon is selling products calling Canada the 51st state, and many Canadians aren’t happy
The threats of the President of the United States Donald Trump to transform Canada into the 51st state have hit the virtual shelves of the Giant of the online retail Amazon-and the Canadians Stuffed ask that the company closes it.
A petition He is urging Amazon to disable the lists of shirts, hats, stickers and other products decorated with quotes that referred to Canada as the 51st state or in another way celebrates the idea that Canada is annexed by its southern neighbor.
“This is not a joke for us. It is a threat to our autonomy and identity as Canadians,” wrote the resident of the Honesty His Williams-Dunn, who started the petition in February, in his description.
The petition had more than 57,000 signatures from Tuesday afternoon.
A quick search for “51st State” on the Amazon website brings out a flood of objects, including T -shirts that say “make Canada again” in reference to Trump’s slogan, adhesives of the Canda’s map colored with the American flag and hats that declare Canada as “the 51st state of America”.
“This is offensive and dissenting and war. I will not immediately buy products from Amazon,” wrote a commentator under the petition.
The emergence of products that encourage the United States to conquer Canada is only the last front of the commercial war between the two countries, a bitterness back and forth of rates and false ceilings that has unleashed many Canadians to embrace a feeling “buys Canadian”.
Amazon declared in one and -mail to CBC News that the products in question did not violate their policies.
The company has directed CBC News to its “offensive products policies” pageWhich affirms that the company’s policies “prohibit the sale of products they promote, incite or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance or promote organizations with these points of view, as well as lists that graphically describe violence or victims of violence”.
According to the company’s website, a dedicated team monitors the complaints and evaluate potentially offensive products.
“We commit ourselves to maximizing the selection for all customers, even if we do not agree with the message or feeling of all products,” says Amazon’s website.
Williams-Dunn, a retired nurse, told CBC News that he was “shocked and upset” when he saw for the first time one of the products on the Amazon website.
“I felt a shock in my heart,” he wrote in one and -mail. “Amazon says he doesn’t do it [contravene] Their controversial product policy but I allow myself to differ! “
Blankback of the brand?
It is not a surprise for Daniel Tsai, a legal and business professor at the University of Toronto and the Toronto Metropolitan University, which Amazon would have sold this type of product.
“Amazon loves money,” he told CBC News.
“I am not surprised that there is abundance of the type of controversial and inflammatory goods because Amazon’s entire profit model is based on the attempt to transport as much as possible as possible, regardless of the policy of it.”
The national envelope went to San Giovanni this weekend, where the threats of the President of the United States Donald Trump are weighing heavily in these elections.
It is not all anti-Canadian: the giant of retail also hosts a series of products that reject the rhetoric “51st State” on its online market, such as hats that say “Canada is not on sale”.
“They are selling from both sides,” said David Amos, who teaches retail and marketing sales courses at the Capilano University School of Business, in BC
Amazon is not the only site in which these products are popping up: sites such as Redbubble and Etsy have similar lists, although the products in support of Canada seem more than those who celebrate the 51st state rhetoric on these sites.
The fact that Amazon is allowing the sale of products that ask for the annexation of Canada could damage the image of his brand among the Canadians, said Tsai, in particular in the light of the recent accusations that Amazon is working in a union by ordering the closure of seven warehouses in Quebecincluding the first unionized Amazon structure of Canada.
“This reveals the true colors of Amazon as a large American company that does not care about the Canadians,” he said.
But while this could unexpected some Canadians on the company, for customers who have long entrusted to Amazon, “it is difficult to find a substitute,” he told CBC News Amos.
“I don’t really see him doing so much affected.”
Impacts of public protests
Williams-Dunn said that his goal is that the petition reaches a million signatures: he hopes that he can push Amazon to action.
Although he is rare, Amazon has taken lists due to a public backlash previously. Numerous neonazian products and white supremacists have been removed From the site in 2018 and 2020 after criticism by defense groups and legislators.
The “Buy Canadian” movement is alive and well in the city. But they are not only the Canadians who refuse to buy American goods or visit the country. Movements in Europe have also sprung up.
But Tsai said it is the money that really speaks.
“It is not entirely impossible to force Amazon to remove the goods, but it is normally extremely difficult to do it,” he said.
“The only way in which this petition would be successful is if they actually saw that sales decrease and this hurts the bottom line. And unless Amazon see a financial success, they don’t have a lot of incentives to do something about it.”
