IAFF: Oh — Canada . . .
Non-endorsement fallout continues
The International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) a 300,000+ international union, has thousands of members in Canada, a country which Donald Trump has consistently derided, defamed and insulted.
Though Canada has much the smaller proportion of the membership they have always had better and stronger labor protections.
The organizational coexistence of the two countries has usually been amicable because it is centered on firefighting and labor rights.
As former President Obama would say about the U.S., “there is more that unites us than divides us.”
Until now.
Donald Trump has threatened the sovereignty of Canada, an extraordinary act not unlike Vladimir Putin’s language and actions in Ukraine, Georgia and elsewhere.
He has moved ahead with aggressive tariffs designed to show Canadians who is calling the tune.
Canadians, predictably furious, are striking back and the fault line does not lie at the border, but south of it.
No doubt thousands of U.S. IAFF members fully support the actions of the Canadian government in defending their sovereignty and we also support our Canadian brothers and sisters as they stand with their country — against ours.
This should present a quandary for IAFF leadership including president Ed Kelly.
If Kelly truly cares for Canadian members he should vigorously condemn Trump’s outrageous comments and actions — but that requires moxie which is in desperately short supply at the IAFF.
The IAFF took no position in the 2024 presidential election surely suggesting that the choice (and the consequences) were of no interest to them.
Canadian members, rightfully angry at recent events, should ask their district vice-presidents if they spoke in favor of a U.S. presidential endorsement or simply sat on their hands.
They should also ask those same vice-presidents if they have asked Kelly to speak out.
The lack of endorsement and the membership schism over the treatment of Canada simply reinforces the idea of the IAFF as a flaccid, flabby and rudderless raft adrift on a choppy sea.
Kevin O’Connor, IAFF federal lobbyist, recently said, “elections have consequences.”
Especially if you are too cowardly to take a position.
Long live Canada!
