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WENDY ELLIOTT: Charlie Angus pulls no punches during Resistance Tour

“There Are No Bystanders in the Age of Monsters: Where Canada Goes From Here” was the title of Charlie Angus’s talk last week at Acadia University.

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More than 300 people turned out to hear this nationally recognized beacon of democracy.

During his Resistance Tour, Angus has been crisscrossing the county talking to Canadians about what matters.

What he’s learned is that “Canadians are unified like never before; Canadians are impassioned about our country, and Canadians are willing to stand up.”

After 21 years in politics, Angus had announced that he would not be running for re-election in the 2025 federal election.

In September, he started a YouTube channel in partnership with the MeidasTouch Network under the name Meidas Canada.

MeidasTouch News is a popular U.S.-based news site that has been very critical of U.S. President Donald Trump.

In what world, he asked, could Canada be the No. 1 enemy of the United States, but “that’s Donald Trump’s world. So ordinary Canadians not buying, not travelling, and shifting their money elsewhere has a huge impact.”

Starting last winter, Angus suggested Canadians had to decide what kind of Canada they wanted. A majority, he said, projected a belief that the country “will get through this and the democratic rule of law and education will not be dumbed down.”

Angus’ tour continues coast-to-coast. His YouTube channel has more than 200,000 subscribers, and nearly 300 videos speaking about the dangers Canada is facing.

“I’ve been so blessed to travel this country,” Angus said.

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Looking at our uncomfortable, racially motivated history, he added, Canada has a choice, coming out of violence. We’ve made a lot of mistakes.

Now, Angus suggested we are observing American leaders, like Peter Hegseth, speak about “silly rules of engagement.” He called comments like that a sign of the age of monsters.

“The idea that the Democrats will get their act together for the mid-terms and we can all go back to sleep, or some politician is going to negotiate (with Canada) – there’s no negotiating with gangsters,” he said.

“In the age of gangster fascism, there’s no such thing as being a bystander. You’re an enabler or you resist,” Angus continued.

“Resistance seems overpowering at first, but part of what the tour is about is how do we build resistance? How do we build that sense of willingness to stand up? How do we build a democratic movement in the age of fear and intimidation?”

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Angus called out Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand for her comments on March 2 when she declined to say whether the United States and Israel were following the rule of law in bombing Iran.

“It’s very clear you have to choose or be complicit,” he said. “Either you stand up or you fall into a world of darkness.”

Describing how ordinary Ukrainians in 2022 stopped the Russian advance on Kyiv, Angus contrasted them with Putin who has made flagrant use of war crimes. He added that the rule of law has been breached in Gaza with starvation and bombing of the innocent.

At the end of Justin Trudeau’s time in power, Angus said that Parliament was dysfunctional, and Trump likely thought we were easy pickings. Then it was about the choices Canadians made.

Boycotts are powerful

He said we cannot underplay the power of the boycott. In less than a year, we destroyed the export industry of American wines. We’re shifting massive amounts of money out of the U.S. market and into Canada. We have to continue to use that people power.

“Nobody’s coming to save us. The only thing that’s going to save us is us standing up and fighting for democracy,” he said.

Supporting university education is part of that fight.

He told the story of Irishman Charles Boycott, whose negativity prompted behaviour that now bears his name. In the U.S., Angus said they’ve started to realize that the $5 billion Kentucky bourbon industry and the wine market have been destroyed.

“If we do our little bit, we might just get through this. We’re a tougher nation than we were a year ago.”

Angus said he’s traveling the country relentlessly to talk about fascism because, “I believe we are in the opening stages of a new global conflict of the oligarch gangsters against democracies, including Canada. The U.S. will not want to allow Canada to sit on the American border as a nation following the rule of law.”

The former NDP MP for Timmins-James Bay delivered the Sydney Taylor Lecture. After serving from 2004-2025, he was a fierce defender of ethics, freedom of information, and affordability, according to Cynthia Alexander. She added in her introduction that Angus served as a mentor to new MPs.

Before retiring from federal politics, Angus was the NDP critic for ethics, federal economic development agency for Northern Ontario, Indigenous youth, income inequality and affordability.

In addition, Angus is also a Juno-nominated songwriter, musician, and lead singer of the band, Grievous Angels.

The band has a new album out called Revolution, Angus noted.

It was playing in a band as a youth, he said, that mobilized him to care about the environment. He is the author of nine books.

Wendy Elliott is a former reporter for the Kentville Advertiser and Hants Journal. She lives in Wolfville.

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