Canadian Fans Boo U.S. National Anthem At Sporting Events

Canadian fans booed the singing of the U.S. national anthem at NHL and NBA games following President Donald Trump’s threat of putting tariffs on their goods.

In a video from Sunday night’s hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, between the Detroit Red Wings and the Canucks, Agasha Mutesasira started singing the words “The land of the free” and some fans at the game began to boo, the Associated Press reported. However, by the end of the song, the crowd cheers for the singer’s performance.

It happened after Trump announced increased tariffs on goods from Canada, China, and Mexico over the lack of sufficient action against human and drug trafficking that has poured into the U.S., as previously reported.

“I mean, it’s too bad, right? It is what it is,” Red Wings’ Patrick Kane said after Detroit’s win. “I guess you can maybe understand it from this side but, seems like it’s a thing that’s going around the league right now.”

Over the weekend, Canadian fans attending an NBA game between the Toronto Raptors  and the Los Angeles Clippers at Scotiabank Arena had a similar reaction when a 15-year-old female singer started singing “The Star Spangled Banner.”

In one clip, fans in the crowd can be heard booing from the second the young singer starts to sing the words, “Oh say can you see…” By the end of the performance, most of the loud booing subsided and the crowd applauded the young singer, as this video showed.

Raptors’ Chris Boucher, a Canadian citizen, was asked about the booing after beating the Clippers and whether he’d ever experienced something like it, the New York Post noted.

“No, no, no,” Boucher replied. “But have you ever seen us getting taxed like that?”

A Toronto resident, who was at the game, said that while he doesn’t agree with the tariffs, he also thought the booing was the wrong approach, the AP noted.

“I have a bunch of American family, friends that live in the states that are Americans, we travel to America all the time, but I thought chanting, ‘Canada,’ would be a more appropriate stance,” Joseph Chua explained. “Usually I will stand. I’ve always stood during both anthems. I’ve taken my hat off to show respect to the American national anthem, but today we’re feeling a little bitter about things.”

“We were already talking about what businesses are Canadian, specifically, what are American, specifically, what to avoid,” he added. “When I go grocery shopping, I will definitely be trying to avoid American products and groceries.”