American and Canadian flags and signs waved around Hart Plaza in Detroit in 90-degree heat as about 200 people rallied in support of a positive relationship between the two countries on Saturday, July 5.
The national “Elbows Up” movement included 18 locations around the country, from Alaska to Maine, rallying alongside people on the other side of the Canadian border country on July 5, the same week as the Fourth of July and Canada Day, We The People Dissent organizer Audrey Bourriaud said. This was the third “rally of love and support” held at Hart Plaza across the Detroit River from Windsor. About 200 people gathered on the U.S. side, with about 15 people in Windsor.
The two countries have gone back and forth announcing and rescinding tariffs since President Donald Trump announced his plans on Jan. 20, the first day of his term.
Canada said it would impose a Digital Services Tax, which it later rescinded. The United States and Canada have resumed negotiations and hope to finish them later this month.
The phrase the protest is named after, “elbows up,” comes from Gordie Howe, a Hall of Fame Detroit Red Wings player born in Canada.
We the People Dissent organizer Isahrai Azaria, of Detroit, said the United States maintaining a positive relationship with Canada is especially important to Detroit because Canada is just a drive across a bridge or tunnel.
“There is this beautiful symbiotic relationship,” Azaria said. “To know there is this friction now that is so unnecessary and is done out of greed of a small group of people, not done for the well-being of our country or Canada. It is so unnecessary, but also to know it is done as a distraction to so many other horrors and other greedy, racist, misogynistic movements that have been made. It’s just infuriating.
“Indivisible Alliance organizers around metro Detroit helped organize and participated in the rally.”
Paula Balwianski, 67, of Royal Oak, said she felt compelled to stick up for Canada because she loves the waterfront and the restaurants in Windsor.
“They’ve been a great neighbor. There is no reason to mess with them,” Balwianski said. “We love Canada and we love it just the way it is. We are very much against what Trump is doing right now and our friends who are Republicans say it’s a joke. It’s not funny … saying it’s the 51st state and calling the prime minister the governor.”
Speaking up
Speakers included state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who is running for U.S. Senate in 2026; attorney Riyaz Kanji; Ian Robinson, president of Huron Valley Area Labor Federation, and Katrina Manett, president of Indivisible Macomb Defenders Rising.
“It’s important to be out here because so many people are so angry and anxious and afraid,” McMorrow said. “It feels like there’s a disconnect, that elected officials are treating this like it’s just politics as usual, and it’s not. That’s why it’s important to come out and be with people and show I got their back.”
Finding community
Many attendees said protests have been a way to find a community, including Dana and Brian Hayden, 46 and 47, respectively, who drove four hours from Anderson, Indiana, to attend. They said they chose this rally because they’ve been coming together to visit friends in Ontario since they were teenagers.
“We loved it so much even back then,” Dana Hayden said. “The people, the community is so friendly and it’s just sad to see what the president is saying about the country, how he is acting about Canadians and trying to turn us on each other and it makes me so sad. It shouldn’t be that way. It’s always been friendly. We still love Canada. We still love the United States, we just don’t like what it’s turning into.”
The Haydens said Anderson and Madison County, where they live in Indiana, are very red and appreciate the community they feel when they come to protests in other states that are more blue.
“We felt right now we want our voices to be heard. We need to speak up for what’s going on,” Dana Hayden said.
Azaria lived in Mexico for 20 years before moving back to the United States in March. As a dual-citizen, she paid taxes, called her representatives and said she moved back to the United States because she wanted to be here to use her voice. Her first day back in the United States, she attended a rally for International Women’s Day.
“I felt like I was showing my daughter we could build community here in both protest but also in such a positive force,” she said.
Connected issues
On July 4, Trump signed the “Big Beautiful Bill.” Many attendees said they were upset about the bill’s passage, or as Canadian American dual-citizen Sharron Corbiny, of Grosse Pointe, put it, “the big ugly bill.”
“It’s horrible, the money the rich people are going to get, won’t even notice it,” Corbin said. “But for the people who don’t have any money, that would make a big difference for them. They’re taking food from children and canceling SNAP. Maybe they’ve never worked in the school system and seen the kids who don’t have breakfast, lunch, and when they leave, they might not have dinner. Schools are some of the only places where they get food. They’re either ignorant, cruel, or both.”
Moving forward
Dana Hayden said she hopes to see the Canada-U.S. relationship return to how it was before Jan. 20.
“I hope to see it not have any drama or conflict, to see how it was pre-Trump days, where we had a very friendly relationship,” Dana Hayden said. “Our trade was good, we had no economic problems with them. Now we can’t even go over there for the weekend without coming back and getting hassled by our own government. It’s scary now to not know if we will be the next people on the news detained for hours just because we say we don’t agree with our president when we get back in the country.“
Azaria said even if the country elects leaders with more Democratic ideology in future midterm and presidential elections, it will take decades to repair the relationship.
“They (politicians) have to know there is such an essential work of repair that is going to take decades,” she said. “It is going to take humility.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: ‘Elbows Up’: Protesters gather in Hart Plaza, Windsor to support U.S.-Canadian relations
Reporting by Natalie Davies and Ayah Imran, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
