Canadian basketball fans booed the US national anthem at an NBA match after Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on imports from the North American country.
Toronto Raptors supporters had initially cheered the 15-year-old girl singing the Star Spangled Banner before the home match against the Los Angeles Clippers at the Scotiabank Arena.
However, shortly after they began expressing their displeasure for the song.
Once the performance was over the crowd in Toronto erupted into applause for the Canadian anthem “O Canada”.
They were continuing a trend last night after similar reactions broke out when the US national anthem was played at National Hockey League (NHL) games on Saturday.
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It comes after the US president sparked a trade war by imposing tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China – America’s three largest trading partners.
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Mr Trump has slapped taxes of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10% on imports from China.
Energy imported from Canada, including oil, natural gas and electricity, will be taxed at a 10% rate.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum both announced the counter-tariffs on Saturday night.
Mr Trudeau said Canada would impose 25% tariffs on 155bn Canadian dollars (£85.7bn) of US goods, while Ms Sheinbaum said she had ordered her economic minister to implement tariff and non-tariff measures to defend Mexico’s interests.
Following the match in Toronto last night, Raptors forward Chris Boucher, a Canadian citizen, was asked whether he had ever experienced something like the booing of the anthem.
“No, no, no,” he said. “But have you ever seen us getting taxed like that?”
Joseph Chua, a Toronto resident who was at the Raptors game, said he’s going to be feeling the tariffs “pretty directly” in his work as an importer.
Still, he said he does not think booing is “the right thing to do in this situation”.
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Trump threatens UK and EU
The cost of imported goods affected by the tariffs could go up in the US as a result of the tariffs, but Mr Trump has posted on social media any “pain” will be “worth the price that must be paid”.
Meanwhile, shares on Asian markets tumbled in early trade on Monday after the US tariffs sparked fears of a global trade war.
Speaking from Maryland after he announced the levies on goods from Mexico, Canada and China, Mr Trump threatened the UK and EU with tariffs.
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He said: “They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products, they take almost nothing and we take everything from them, millions of cars, food and farm products, so the UK is way out of line.
“We’ll about see the UK, but the European Union is really way out of line. The UK is out of line, but I think that one can be worked out, but the European Union is an atrocity what they’ve done.”
A UK government spokesperson said afterwards: “The US is an indispensable ally and one of our closest trading partners, and we have a fair and balanced trading relationship which benefits both sides of the Atlantic.
“We look forward to working closely with President Trump to continue to build on UK-US trading relations for our economy, businesses and the British people.”
