alt Hacker News> in the US, which also has many examples of large scale human right abuses.
Excuse me? Citation is needed here for present day human rights abuses in the US.
> Canada should just do what's best for its citizen, which is get good trade deals, and ensure that our values don't morph into something unrecognizable. What other countries do in their own borders is largely irrelevant.
It’s extremely relevant, if you believe in personal liberties and democracy you should to do business with societies that uphold personal liberties and democracy it’s that simple.
Sure, just a few examples off the top of my head:
- Abortion bans in the US constitute abuses of female reproductive rights and affect millions: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/08/usa-abortion-...
- The Iraq War, in my opinion: https://www.ecchr.eu/en/publication/the-iraq-invasion-is-a-c...
- Guantánamo Bay: https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/08/29/us-migrants-face-abuse-i... & https://www.amnesty.org.uk/guantanamo-bay-human-rights
- Yemen, broadly: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/10/yemen-us-air-...
- Depending on who you ask, you could also point to large-scale violations of the rights of migrants and asylum seekers, as well as the over-policing of minority populations.
The US also does not consistently uphold the same values that you say liberal democracies should. It does business with Israel, Saudi Arabia, and others.
As for your second point:
“It’s extremely relevant. If you believe in personal liberties and democracy, you should only do business with societies that uphold personal liberties and democracy. It’s that simple.”
I would ask, why? I believe in personal liberties and democracy for my people, my community, and my country. If another country’s population does not hold those beliefs as a majority, why is that my concern? If we truly restricted trade only to countries that share our beliefs, our list of trading partners would be very small. What would the benefit be?
Additionally, given your request for citations, I suspect we would disagree significantly on which countries actually reflect our values. I am not sure we could arrive at a consistent list of partners that share our values. For example, I do not believe the USA has a strong democracy. It has a rather weak one. Should it be excluded as well?