Canada isn’t as great as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle think here’s why – Page Six

Meghan Markle has fled the United Kingdom for the safety of her former home, Canada, with her husband Harry and baby Archie in tow. Hoping to find respite in the Land of Nice, Markle has suggested she expects to be treated better by the press, neighbors and general public than she ever was in England.

And in some ways, that is true. Billionaires and celebrities alike are rushing to loan the Duke and Duchess of Sussex homes and help them get settled.

But is Canada specifically, British Columbia, where the couple has set up camp the utopia Markle thinks it is? Here are five ways it is most definitely not.

The Highway of Tears

Just down the road from the Sussexes safe house is Highway 16 a k a, the Highway of Tears where dozens of women have been murdered or vanished.

According to the New York Times, A special unit formed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police officially linked 18 such cases from 1969 to 2006 to this part of the highway and two connecting arteries. More women have vanished since then, and community activists and relatives of the missing say they believe the total is closer to 50. Almost all the cases remain unsolved.

The Pig Farmer

Also nearby is the site of a notorious pig farm owned by Robert Pickton, described as the Worst Serial Killer in History.

Pickton was found guilty of murdering 49 women just shy of his goal of 50 and feeding their bodies to his pigs.

Racial issues

Canada may be the land of nice if youre white.

The country has a long history of treating its indigenous people, especially females, harshly. The government only closed its final residential school, where aboriginal Canadian were taken from their family and assimilated, in 1997. Since then, things havent gotten a lot better.

The majority of women missing along the Highway of Tears, as well as Picktons victims, were indigenous. And ignored. Across the nation, more than 4,000 women have gone missing in what a formal report calls a genocide.

The report, by theNational Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, determined that state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies were the cause and that cases were ignored by the police due to racial factors.

And its not just indigenous people who have had issues. On The Province newspapers site, theres an interactive timeline that goes into depth on British Columbias racist past.

The Press

Meghan and Harry may have thought moving to Canada would solve their sticky issues with the press, but while the British publications may have been harsh with some of their headlines they also followed strict stringent British laws.

According to FreedomHouse.org, Canadas 1982 constitution guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of the press Both print and broadcast media, including the public broadcaster CBC, are free to express diverse views.

Perhaps the couple is relying on goodwill. But threatening to sue the Canadian press for publishing a picture of Markle and Archie frolicking in a public place is not the way to engender it.

The Public

While some Canadians (mostly those with an income of over $1 billion) seem happy to have Harry and Megs as their neighbors, others are cheesed off after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country would foot their security bills.

Op-eds have already been written about this (Prince Harry and Meghan: Welcome to Canada, but pay your own bills), 73 percent of the country is against paying for the duo, and a petition is circulating to get the former royals to cough up their own dough for security.

On Thursday, the couple announced they will reimburse taxpayers for the cost of security for their private business engagements that are not connected to royal events, sources told the Telegraph.

However they will only do so when (and if) their new, non-royal business plans take off and how much they end up paying will largely depend on how much they make.

Telling people well pay if we make money doesnt usually go down well.

Earthquakes

On Friday a 4.5 magnitude earthquake struck just off Vancouver Island and was felt in the mainland reminding us all that Markles nirvana lies directly over the Cascadia Subduction Zone, one of the most potentially dangerous fault lines in the world which scientists say has the capability of a 9.0 or 10 magnitude earthquake.

So, good luck, Meghan and Harry!

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Canada isn't as great as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle think here's why - Page Six