Canada Threatens to Fire Federal Employees Using ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ in Correspondence

A memo leaked over the weekend informed federal employees of Canada that they would be fired “without recourse or labor union participation” if they used any form of the popular meme “Let’s Go Brandon” in correspondence, though the agency has since denied authoring the memo.

According to reports, Shared Services Canada, the agency responsible for providing the government with information technology services, wrote a memo to employees that stated: “This is a formal notification that all government correspondence must be professional in nature and approved by department heads. When applicable all correspondence must be vetted by the PMO for framing and message prior to public disclosure or internal distribution.”

“The uses of colloquialisms or sayings with intended double meaning or offense are strictly prohibited in all means of correspondence and/or communication,” the agency continued in the memo. “Specifically, the use of the wording ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ and any variation thereof under any circumstance is banned by the Canadian Public Service.”

However, Shared Services has denied that they issued the memo, images of which have now gone viral.

“We can confirm this message was not issued by Shared Services Canada and it does not reflect departmental policy,” said a Shared Services spokesperson to the National Post.

The “Let’s Go Brandon” phrase is viewed as a pejorative, one critical of United States President Joe Biden and his policies. It comes after boisterous chants of “F*** Biden” were recorded at several large sporting events. 

On October 3, the Daily Wire reported that an NBC reporter suggested during her interview with NASCAR driver Brandon Brown that crowd chants of “F*** Biden” in the background were actually yells of “Let’s go, Brandon.”

The interview went viral, and has since turned into a meme. 

Fox News reported that the phrase even made its way onto a billboard along with a picture of President Biden eating ice cream. 

Pushback against limiting free speech is taking many forms in America, including scrutiny by Congress of social media companies’ censorship of information about COVID-19 and election fraud, and a GOP push for a law that would require the White House to disclose the censorship requests it has made to Facebook and other social media companies.