# This is not right

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2017-01-29

albert-wenger, america, canada, diversity, donald-trump, executive-orders, fred-wilson, john-tory, justin-trudeau, muslim-ban, new-york, pearson-airport, president-trump, richard-florida, san-francisco, toronto, trump, twitter, uncategorized, united-states

---

I have largely avoided commenting on politics and Trump on this blog, but at this stage it is almost impossible to do that.

[Donations](http://avc.com/2017/01/a-20000-match-offer-on-aclu-donations-today/) are starting to pile up for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as the tech community, and many others, begin to respond to Friday’s executive orders. [Lyft announced a $1 million contribution](https://blog.lyft.com/posts/defending-our-values) to the non-profit group.

Today, venture capitalist Fred Wilson wrote: [Make America Hate Again](http://avc.com/2017/01/make-america-hate-again/). And yesterday, his business partner Albert Wenger wrote: [Misleading the World on Immigration](http://continuations.com/post/156502000535/misleading-the-world-on-immigration).  

At 6 AM this morning, Richard Florida started [a tweet storm](https://twitter.com/Richard_Florida/status/825703614341640192) where he argued that “Trump’s immigration insanity” will fundamentally threaten the core of America’s innovation hegemony. 

(He also argued that Canada, and more specifically Toronto, serve to “[gain substantially](https://twitter.com/Richard_Florida/status/825705135540166656)”, as there will no doubt be a doubling down on tolerance to attract the best talent from around the world.)

The Canadian tech community [penned an open letter](http://betakit.com/an-open-letter-from-the-canadian-tech-community-diversity-is-our-strength/) to reinforce the message that, here in Canada, diversity is our strength. This echoes similar messages from [Prime Minister Justin Trudeau](https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/825438460265762816) and [Mayor John Tory](https://twitter.com/JohnTory/status/825474726113984514).

[Mass protests have broken out at US airports](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/gallery/2017/jan/29/immigrants-are-america-protesters-mass-at-us-airports-in-pictures) (links to photos) spanning San Francisco to New York. 

And I am seeing folks from Toronto offer up their homes (publicly on Twitter) to anyone who might be stranded at Pearson International Airport as a result of the orders. Many have even tweeted out their phone numbers.

Everywhere I look this weekend I am seeing these sorts of messages. So while I could remain quiet, that doesn’t feel right. And that’s because what is happening is not right.

---

*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/this-is-not-right)*