A punctured tyre of a Tesla car outside a showroom in Hamilton, Canada, on Thursday.
A punctured tyre of a Tesla car outside a showroom in Hamilton, Canada, on Thursday.
Toronto: Elon Musk has said that “Canada is not a real country,” just one of his social media jabs at the US neighbour.
But people in Canada have done real damage to the vehicles and dealerships belonging to his electric car company, Tesla, according to the police.
More than 80 Teslas had their tyres punctured and bodies scratched at a lot in Hamilton, Ontario, the police said on Thursday. Several acts of vandalism against Tesla property have also been committed in the US. Hamilton, west of Toronto, is the heart of Canada’s steel manufacturing industry and a battlefront in the country’s trade war with the US.
President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on steel and other Canadian products and Canada has responded by applying levies to $20.5 billion worth of exports from the US.
Trump has also claimed that Canada has long “ripped off” the US and wants to make it the 51st state.
Canadians have responded with a grass-roots protest, changing how they shop, travel and think about their relationship with the US, the country’s closest ally and trading partner. Even the cherished Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky is not immune from the fury for his silence on actions taken by Trump, who is a friend.
Canadian provincial leaders have introduced their own measures to retaliate against the tariffs, including removing American alcohol products from liquor stores and barring US companies from applying for procurement contracts.
In Montreal, two members of a climate advocacy group called Last Generation Canada doused the exterior of a Tesla dealership in pink spray paint on Wednesday, according to a statement issued by the group. The group said it had committed the act because it believed that Musk was “destroying democracies and spreading climate denial”.
New York Times News Service