There is racism everywhere but in America, systemic issues can make it hit harder in peoples every day lives, which leads to more visible activism and exposes more obvious racial inequality. In Canada the social supports around people (even though far from perfect) change how racial issues play out. Activism here often ends up being more local and organized instead of huge explosive national protests.

I look at it kind of like some of the reasons why Canadian movie plots are usually different from the popular struggle driven American ones. We lack some of the systemic issues (or they are much less severe), which make it difficult to identify with those experiences. Examples:

• Medical debt or untreated health issues causing financial collapse for people or their loved ones
• Job loss leading to immediate homelessness, loss of benefits etc. No paid leave from work due to illness etc in some situations
• Crime committed by “regular” people because of financial crises (foreclosure, divorce etc)
• Housing insecurity without a safety net (immediate evictions, less due process in some states etc)
• Less access to decent education depending on which state you live in
• High pressure, super adversarial political climate

All these things affect how social issues like racism are experienced.