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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 18, 2023

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The US exercises more control over Canadian and Mexican foreign policy than it does of any other nation (including its European and Asian allies). If an updated Monroe Doctrine covers relations with Central and South America (and the Caribbean), the situation for Canada and Mexico is even more strict. The US essentially imposes its will, a quasi-official form of suzerainty, on these two countries. An example - the US no-fly list is enforced across all of North America, if the US decides you can't leave the country, you can't travel to Canada or Mexico and fly from there to anywhere else, you're banned. And relations with Canada are even closer than with Mexico, there aren't AMLO-type figures who openly and strongly critique American liberals in mainstream Canadian politics. The US forced Canada to arrest Meng Wanzhou, even though it resulted in innocent Canadians being imprisoned in China. That's the level of influence, both by treaty partnership and unspoken control.

So a foreign assassination on Canadian soil is a big deal. The US and its immediate sphere is the one place where foreign assassinations are extremely rare, not because they're technically impossible (weapons are much easier to acquire, the southern border can be easily traversed stealthily, US domestic intelligence is not much more competent than that of the UK or France or Germany), but out of fear. The Russians, Turks, Iranians, Israelis, Saudis will assassinate political enemies in any other corner of the world except North America (the CIA claims to have foiled alleged IRGC 'plots' against some Americans, but it's very hard to believe these got far).