Protesters offer less-than-Friendly Manitoba welcome to Trump’s ambassador to Canada By: Scott Billeck Posted: 1:34 PM CDT Tuesday, Jul. 29, 2025 Last Modified: 1:33 PM CDT Wednesday, Jul. 30, 2025 Updates

Dozens of protesters lined the streets outside the Winnipeg Art Gallery Tuesday afternoon, denouncing a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce luncheon featuring the United States’ ambassador to Canada.

Waving signs and chanting slogans, the crowd — which grew to nearly 100 — slammed American foreign policy, accusing Ambassador Pete Hoekstra of representing an administration that promotes division and undermines global co-operation.

Canada and the U.S. have been involved in contentious trade talks for months, and another of President Donald Trump’s deadlines for imposing punishing tariffs on Canadian imports is quickly approaching on Thursday.

Some demonstrators also took aim at the chamber itself for offering Hoekstra a platform during a politically fraught time, while others turned their criticism toward Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“Carney, Carney, you can’t hide, we know you are on Trump’s side!” some in the crowd shouted.

The rally began with about 50 people just before noon outside the WAG on Memorial Boulevard, then shifted around the corner to St. Mary Avenue. There, protesters greeted arriving luncheon guests with chants, boos and pointed signage, while a half-dozen city police officers looked on.

“We’re here saying we need an independent foreign policy, we can’t follow the U.S.,” said Sarah Borbridge with the Winnipeg Coalition for Peace and Sovereignty.

“We can’t follow them into the murderous, genocidal wars they’re dragging us into. We’re standing against the five per cent (of GDP spending on defence) budget, which is going to rip away from social needs, housing and health care — everything that people need here (in Canada). And we’re standing up against the U.S.’s decline into fascism.”

The group also questioned the chamber’s choice of speaker, arguing it should reflect on why it invited someone whose “avowed purposes include making Canada an appendage of the U.S. war machine and to make Canada the 51st state.”

“We need to focus on the fact that this is a visit of an ambassador for a country that’s threatened to invade us.”–Ann La Touche

Chamber president and CEO Loren Remillard said he respects the protesters and their right to demonstrate.

He said it’s not the first time a chamber event has been subject to disapproval, noting that there were protesters outside Canada Life Centre in 2019 when former U.S. president Barack Obama was speaking inside.

“I do want to say thank you,” Remillard said. “I appreciate that they did so, from what I’ve been told, respectfully — they didn’t obstruct our ability to host the event.

“You may not like the fact this event took place — and we support your right to be able to protest — but people have the right to attend here and participate in these types of events.”

Protesters also called out Premier Wab Kinew and Mayor Scott Gillingham, demanding answers for what they called “silence” and a lack of criticism over Hoekstra’s visit.

“You may not like the fact this event took place — and we support your right to be able to protest — but people have the right to attend here and participate in these types of events.”–Chamber of Commerce CEO Loren Remillard

“I am opposed to American imperialism anywhere, and the fascist trends going on there and the threat that poses to Canada and the rest of the world,” said Ann La Touche, who held a sign that said, “Tariff this, sphincter face,” and another that read, “Justifying mass murder is psychopathy.”

LeTouche also critiqued the rally’s focus, noting that some of the messaging veered off topic.

“We need to focus on the fact that this is a visit of an ambassador for a country that’s threatened to invade us,” she said.

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Others saw the rally as a chance to ensure their voices were heard.

Diane Zack, co-ordinator of the Manitoba-Cuba Solidarity Community in Winnipeg, held a sign telling the U.S. to keep its hands off Cuba.

Mohammed, who declined to share his last name, said “de-dollarization” — referring to countries reducing their reliance on the American dollar — is the solution.

— With files from Gabrielle Piché

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.