The Rabble Wants Blood - Expat Blood.

We're All Still Slaves On The Plantation.

And subject to the whims of the plantation owner (POTUS) unless you have your emancipation (your CLN).

Don't Tread On Me.

Petros' Article "Citizenship Taxation Is a Human Rights Abuse" in IBS Should Be A Must Read For All Brockers.

Citizenship-based taxation is a human rights abuse, and the United States is a serial human rights abuser

Read it and learn.

"Advice For Americans in Canada" from Terry McBride, CFP, MTI, CLU at Raymond James Ltd.

Advice For Americans in Canada from Terry McBride CFP, MTI, CLU

Highly qualified, I'm sure.

Steer clear of Canadian mutual funds, ETFs and REITs, which are PFICs. The instructions for reporting PFICs are insanely complex.: His words.

MFs, banks lobby for extension of 31 August FATCA deadline

Looks like India's financial institutions are in a panic to sell-out their dual-citizens.

MFs, banks lobby for extension of 31 August FATCA deadline

The extension sought is backed by the rationale that massive investments face the risk of being temporarily locked-out until account-holders adhere with the FATCA rules.

Evidently the financial institutions are now in a panic and they're wanting the US to hold off their August 31, 2016 FATCA Deadline.

An Token Effort By The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (But Silence Ever Since).

Letter To Dept. of Finance PDF Document

The CCLA's token effort in 2012.

Even though Blaze and Outraged Canadian have pestered the living shit out of the CCLA, the CCLA's response has been nothing but tepid. Does not bode well at all in this situation.

Attn: Mr. Richard Brunt: YOU do NOT Speak For Me!

With the Obama-led signing into legislation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, targeting American expatriates and accidental citizens abroad, the Obama administration has unleashed hell on earth for millions of American expats around the world. Renunciations of United States Citizenship are increasing every quarter. And all because of one simple reason: He expects those who have to pay for those who don't due to slacking off.

Evidently Mr. Richard Brunt of Victoria thinks that "Obama is the best person in the entire world. Why not have him be our Prime Minister?" I presume he's completely out of his mind.

Having those who have money pay for those who aren't willing to work will result in the haves feeling put-upon by the masses. Hell even those dual-citizen expatriates who are making $20,000 an year before taxes are being asked to provide for those who don't want to work and sit around on welfare in the United States. "Pay my way for me, Pay for my kids, pay for my health-care!" Why do you think American expatriates are angry and renouncing their citizenships in droves. Nobody wants to pay for a slacker.










It's people like this that gives expatriates a bad impression. When they're making $20K-$65K working their butts off and then having to pay taxes in the home country that they're living in, they don't want to hear this kind of shit. Why should we have to pay for someone who is too damned lazy to get their asses off welfare and get a job? Even a McJob would help her situation more than sitting on her ass demanding that... "Someone's gotta pay for me and my 15 kids." No...nobody has to do a damned thing for you. Angel Adams.


(Photo by David Shankbone - CCby3.0)-for commentary only


The Tyee - Photograph

Obama and the Democrats have painted expatriates as unpatriotic 1% tax cheaters feeding off the frenzy of the Occupy Wall Street Movements that spawned similar Occupy movements all over the world - headed by professional slackers who don't have a job and have developed a portfolio of professional protesting while maligning hard-working individuals who are just trying to make ends meet.

If one wants to meet a cross-section of the expatriate community that these professional slacking scumbags want to malign as rich one-percenter tax cheats; take a look at the following: Dual Canadian-American Citizens: We Are Not Tax Cheats. These hard-working expatriates aren't tax cheats, but you professional Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Vancouver slackers...ARE.
We Are Not A Myth in answer to Robert Stack stating: Some claim that Americans living abroad will give up their U.S. citizenship because of liabilities and burdens created by FATCA.

His answer: "FATCA provisions impose no new obligations on U.S. citizens living abroad. Instead, FATCA’s withholding obligations fall on institutions making payments to FFIs, and the due diligence and reporting requirements fall on the FFIs themselves."

U.S. taxpayers, including U.S. citizens living abroad, are required to comply with U.S. tax laws​. Individuals that have used offshore accounts to evade tax obligations may rightly fear that FATCA will identify their illicit activities. Yet a decision to renounce U.S. citizenship would not relieve these individuals of prior U.S. tax obligations, and might well create additional U.S. tax obligations for certain citizens and long-term residents who give up citizenship or residency.

Yet the IRS penalizes taxpayers with draconian penalties upwards of $100,000 for failure to file a form. Some have been assessed in excess of $450,000 on personal savings for retirement from working for 45 years at a job paying at best $16/hr. Do they really think that a regular working joe is using their off-shore accounts for illicit activities? Let's be honest here. This is nothing but a money-grab.

And our Progressive Conservative government rolled over and decided to let US statutes take precedence over Canadian Law in Canada by instituting an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between Canada and the United States to let the IRS take precedence over the CRA.

And that is why most of us Canadians who have some indicia of US ties whether by accident of birth or by marriage to a US citizen are pissed off as hell at the United States, at Obama, and at Stephen Harper.

Canada Had The First Thanksgiving Ever; so SUCK IT, USA!

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada can be traced back to the 1578 voyage of Martin Frobisher from England in search of the Northwest Passage. His third voyage, to the Frobisher Bay area of Baffin Island in the present Canadian Territory of Nunavut, set out with the intention of starting a small settlement. His fleet of 15 ships was outfitted with men, materials, and provisions. However, the loss of one of his ships through contact with ice along with much of the building material was to prevent him from doing so. The expedition was plagued by ice and freak storms which at times had scattered the fleet and on meeting together again at their anchorage in Frobisher Bay, "... Mayster Wolfall, [ Robert Wolfall ] a learned man, appointed by her Majesties Councell to be their minister and preacher, made unto them a godly sermon, exhorting them especially to be thankefull to God for their strange and miraculous deliverance in those so dangerous places ...". They celebrated Communion and "The celebration of divine mystery was the first sign, scale, and confirmation of Christ's name, death and passion ever known in all these quarters." ~ "The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher: in search of a passage to Cathai and India by the northwest AD 1576-1578", Cambridge University Press

So this was 1578...a full 43 years before the Septic Yanks celebrated their first Thanksgiving. Even better, the Canadians celebrated their Thanksgiving without taking from the Indians - they provided their own food, rather than eating what the Indians brought to the table. This act by the Pilgrims in America cements Americans as moochers throughout history.

Now, in place of thanksgiving for relief from potential disaster like Martin Frobisher - we celebrate like the Americans: Turkey, stuffing and fill your gut up until you practically are comatose from over-eating then watch a game on TV. How far we've fallen to the reprobates south of the border.

Anyhow, my wife now celebrates the Canadian Thanksgiving as opposed to the feast of excess and buffoonery down south of the 49th Parallel. And proudly waves a maple-leaf which she will be exchanging her blue passport to a maple leaf one as soon as she gets her Canadian citizenship. Thank God for Canada.

Thank God for Canadian Thanksgiving. Thank goodness we had Martin Frobisher who knew what he was truly thankful for: his life and the life of his crew and the act of preservation of their lives was what he raised his hands in supplication for in relief that his men were saved. Unlike the Seppos who think that Thanksgiving is a time to feed their already obese cakeholes in thanks of the plentiful harvest - Thanksgiving is truly a celebration of gratitude up here in Canada for our lives in this harsh climate - Especially North of 60 degrees latitude.

Yeah! 'Murrica...FUCK YOU!

I used to be a big U.S. apologist. I had bought into their war on terror and the fact that George W. Bush was going after the "bad guys" and that Canada should help. Well, this viewpoint has changed considerably since my family came under attack from FATCA. I will forgive most anything, but I will not forgive an all-out attack on my family be it physical or financial. Therein lies the reasoning for my switch from being a US apologist to an outright US enemy.

When the United States instituted FATCA, they waged economic warfare on my family. My wife is the big earner in the family and unfortunately, unwittingly, she is the Trojan horse that allows the US to scrutinize our financial dealings. My photography only makes enough to get by if that. I have a bad back from falling down a set of stairs thanks to my mother not maintaining them. So, I do what I can under the physical limitations of my back. I do not collect welfare, I depend on my photography to carry me through.

Our children hold US indicia through her, whether they've opted to go American or not; which they haven't. We haven't even informed the US consulate of their birth and have no intention of doing so. And my oldest son has the intention of renouncing his US citizenship when he reaches the age of 18 which is in 7 years. Which means Uncle Sam has their claws in the majority of my family.

Peter W. Dunn of The Isaac Brock Society said it most succinctly and accurately that Canadians being taxed by Uncle Sam is a human rights crime. His quote: "Many Homelanders are a special breed of bigot who believe that you live abroad so that you can shirk your responsibility to pay for their Social Security, their Food Stamps, their welfare, and their wars across the globe" is exactly it. Homelanders keep hollering about "paying your fair share". What is fair share when you aren't represented in government? What is fair share when you cannot partake of the benefits (welfare, medicaid, unemployment insurance...etc) allowed to all Homelanders? What is fair share when we do not use their infrastructure? Should we have to pay the way of illegal aliens as well as career welfare recipients? Is it because the United States wishes to tax their expatriate indicia just for the simple fact that they carry a blue passport with an American Eagle on the face? Because a tax rate of 29% and fines of over 300% for not filing a stupid piece of paper is quite a steep rate for a little booklet and frankly not worth it in my books.

As of this year alone, the US renunciation rate has gone up 222% in the last quarter of 2013 and Americans are starting to get a bit concerned, but they still have the mindset of "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out" or "Murrica, Fuck Yeah!". There is a note of exceptionalism and superiority with every "homelander" remark that they make about having to "defend the world" (when in actual fact, they stick their noses in everyone else's business even when they aren't supposed to) and "time for those who ride on America's coattails to pay up".

It's not a matter of US exceptionalism any longer. The rest of the world with the exception of a two bit banana republic called Eritrea, taxes their citizens based on residency and not citizenship. Even Russia, a hold out, folded their citizenship taxation when the Iron Curtain fell in 1991. So the United States, a nation 17 trillion dollars in debt holds company with a two bit dictatorship in Africa while the rest of the world tries to tax their citizenry fairly.

But rest assured my diatribe does not single out the US alone. My enmity is for all those nations who capitulated and signed a pact with the devil himself, Uncle Sam. All the nations who willingly threw their citizens under the bus just because they held US citizenship (1/2 of a dual citizenship) are contemptible. Canada recently on February 5, 2014 signed an FATCA IGA and threw 1+ million (5 million or more if you count all those affected) US indicated individuals (Canadian citizens or those who are permanent residents and are seeking Canadian citizenship) under the bus. The Stephen Harper government did an end-run around the Privacy Act and made the banks reportable to the CRA (which has now become an arm of the IRS). Harper and his Tory cronies decided to sell-out Canada's sovereignty and tried to make Canada a territory of the United States. To this Canadian, the Tories are traitors to Canada and should be imprisoned for life. In fact, I doubt with the exception of Murray Rankin, Elizabeth May, Alex Atamenenko and Linda Duncan there is a politician in Canada that will stand up to and reject FATCA. What the world needs now is a nation with the backbone to stand up to the United States - a nation that is willing to tell the United States where to go and have the might to back it up.

All malicious empires have their Achilles heel. It's just a matter of finding where the United States' Achilles Heel is. This attack on innocent expatriates of every nationality just because of US indicia should not be tolerated by any nation.

Anti-American and Damned Proud of It!

Anti-American and Damned Proud of It.

I'm tired of hearing American apologists saying that "we are so lucky that the United States is our friend". Yeah, well, what friend extorts 30% out of Canada's banks and then tries to mask that as going after tax cheats?. What "friend" goes into Afghanistan and Iraq as a masquerade for going after non-existent weapons of mass destruction then conducts a regime change in Iraq? What "friend" enacts extra-territorial laws against other countries in the world not respecting the fact that other countries have privacy laws? What "friend" is an enemy of most other countries in the world.

Canada on February 5th, 2014 surrendered their sovereignty to the United States in the American's attempts to find "tax cheats" which are laughing uproariously at the fact that the IRS has diverted attention from them to expatriates in foreign countries tarring them as "not pulling their weight". In fact frankly, why should they? Expats pay taxes in their own country of residence usually at rates higher than in the United States. They also get no benefits from the country of their birth. There is no consulate protection. All of the rhetoric coming from US government financial entities is unadulterated bullshit. Expats are considered resident in Washington DC? Well, where are the rent receipts and tax forms utilized to determine residency? What the United States is doing is creating phantom citizens to pad their tax base. The United States is a tax-and punish society.

...which is incredibly hypocritical of them as the formation of their country was formed on seceding from Great Britain under protest for "unfair taxation" and now they have become the epitome of "unfair taxation".

 

Now the United States is telling Russia that they are impeding on Ukraine's sovereign right to govern themselves. Well, they're the world's biggest hypocrite in enacting financial laws that are extraterritorial (and usually unenforceable outside of the good ol' US of A), but because of America's military might and nuclear weapons - the unspoken threat, those laws were rammed through at the barrel of a gun. And they're considering sending in the USS George Washington battle group to make their point about Russia being an abusive power. What the United States is doing is making steps to starting a war that they cannot win. At what point will Russia resort to using nuclear weapons? At what point will the United States retaliate with the same? Then we'll all have other things to worry about than FATCA going through.

The US is nobody's friend. And the United States' behavior as of recent is like a rabid dog. And rabid dogs need to be put down with due prejudice. Time to start digging your bomb shelters.

"A CLN is Your Proof of Purchase" BULLSHIT!

From Philip Hodgen: 

Your CLN Is Your Proof of Purchase
 
Think of it this way. Pretend you go to a store and buy a camera. You hand over the money and the cashier puts the camera in a bag and you walk out. The camera is yours.
 
Now pretend that you buy the camera, but the cashier puts a receipt in the shopping bag, along with the camera.
 
Does the receipt make a difference as to whether you, standing on the sidewalk, are the owner of the camera? No. It is merely a proof of purchase, so that if needed in the future (e.g., you want to return the camera and get a refund), you can prove to someone else that you are the owner.
 
A Certificate of Loss of Nationality is like that receipt. It is an acknowledgment from the U.S. government that you stopped being a U.S. citizen, just like the receipt from the camera store is an acknowledgment that you bought a camera.
 
Plainly put, getting the Certificate of Loss of Nationality doesn’t make you a noncitizen. Not getting the Certificate of Loss of Nationality does not mean you remain a citizen.
Standing in front of the Consular official and swearing the oath makes you a noncitizen.
However, what the State Department thinks (you are relinquished your nationality) and what the IRS thinks (we’re not sure whether you are an “expatriate” or not) is where we get confusion.

You know, Phil ol’ boy, this is the first time that I’ve ever heard of a “un-servicing” having to be paid for. I guess it’s really true that the United States thinks that US citizens are all slaves. I guess we have to pay for an acknowledgement that the United States decided that they are kind enough to let us go quietly rather than a flaming AGM-65 Maverick up the wazoo. But in this case if you’re comparing the loss of nationality to the purchase of a camera… you are absolutely nuts.

In the first case, all I’m left with is a receipt in my hand and no product other than a kick in the ass and a “see you later, traitor”. Not much for customer service, are they?

In your comparison: let’s see if I go to The Camera Store in Calgary, AB for example and say to Chris or Evelyn, “Hey, I wanna buy a Nikon D5 (y’know. The latest and greatest), I have product in my hand, a brand-new Nikon D5 which I can take to shoot landscapes, hockey (Canada’s greatest sport) and all that. And on top of that, I get a cheery smile from Chris and Evelyn and a “thank you for your business.” I think I prefer that customer service over the US Department of Immigration which hasn’t done shit for me except take my wife’s hard-earned money.

With the CLN, that’s all I get…and nothing else. If I was getting some benefits, Medicare, US infrastructure and education for all that tax-money that we are supposed to pay out to the United States, I’d be more apt to agree with you that the CLN was actually a receipt for “services rendered”. But my wife got her post-secondary education in Canada – Canadian taxpayers helped pay for her education.

But we have to pay the United States for what? Wastrels who spend their time getting knocked up and then exclaiming that “Someone done need to pay for my kids.”? And entitled scumbags that want free money for doing nothing?

You know what; I’d rather not pay them a dime if supporting those in the States who want to do nothing is what my wife’s expat taxes have to do. So fuck your CLN and fuck your people who want others to pay for them.

And fuck your comparison of obtaining a CLN/receipt to a legal transaction of services/product rendered for cash paid. Because a CLN is nothing but highway robbery; essentially a comparison should be made for an acknowledgement of slave-ownership and the $2350 is the emancipation fee.

But unlike most of my “born-in-Canada” friends like me…who would have no connection to this sort of problem unless they married an American (I did and thus was hooked into the FATCA mess – I’m trying to extricate my spouse who still unlike me has no idea of just how vitriolic the land of her birth can be)… who continue unawares of the injustices of the donkey of a nation south of the border against those who would seek to leave.

I have lost absolute faith in the humanity of those of my countrymen who just say “shut up and pay the taxes”…or “lose your citizenship”. This coming from Canadians who don’t seem to get the problem that presents itself of my wife having to pay for taxes for services that she doesn’t receive and that would, in an instant of Canada revoking services, revolt on paying taxes – what hypocrisy!
On top of that she is expected by both Canadian government to pay taxes to a country (in whom she is a landed immigrant/permanent resident) who treats her like she doesn’t matter, that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms isn’t worth the paper that it is written on. Well, we use services here and our children go to school here in Canada so pay we will.

I WILL NOT pay a country whose services my wife does not receive. I will not pay for someone else to receive those benefits that my wife is supposedly “on the hook” for. In otherwords, the United States who has sent a bill to every single expatriate living outside of the United States.

The country that she lives in is Canada and she will only pay for the services that she receives from Canada where she works in. She will not pay the United States to allow someone ELSE to NOT work and collect welfare. She does not drive on US roads, She does not use the United States education system. She has paid into Canadian taxes and has made use of the Canadian education system of post-secondary education. So I won’t let her pay a single penny into the United States tax system and they can FUCKING WELL GO TO HELL!

Yeah, I should really save my energy, but nothing pisses me off more than the United States 99% leeching off of countless expat families who are making middle-class wages to minimum wage. What pisses me off even more is that those 99% think that they’re ENTITLED to those families’ money in return for nothing from the United States Government.

My question to them is: WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!!!

An Innocent Bank Error? FATCA & Ramifications

Today, an interesting article from Forbes.com came across my screen as I was doing my usual surfing. Bank Error In Your Favor. This struck me for a moment, "Hey, I wouldn't mind having someone inject $50,000.00 in my bank account. However when one looks at it, it's not the happy rosy situation for Americans abroad who are afflicted by FATCA and its reporting requirements. Even a simple mistake can have catastrophic repercussions.

FATCA requires people to report their bank accounts to the Department of Treasury if at any point during any calendar year, the account goes over $10,000.00. So take for example the hypothetical dual border baby who came up to Canada, made a life for herself or himself in Canada, grew up married, had kids, the whole nine yards, all while thinking she was a card carrying citizen of Canada, not knowing that she had the plague that was United States Citizenship like a noose around her neck? So while those of you who are 100% fully Canadian would cheer uproariously to find $50,000 in your bank account; the unknown dual is having a heart-attack, because her operating account just got punched up over ten thousand, all through a simple "bank error".

What happens to her? Well, for one, the IRS pitbulls get a sniff at her. "Oh...you got money over $10,000 in your account, they say. Doesn't matter. Your account was over the limit for 2-3 days. It was technically YOUR money for that time, so you owe Uncle Sam. the taxes on it...as well, since you failed to report it, we're going to ding you with $100,000.00 fine for failure to report it on an FBAR. Considering the fact that it is wilful since you knew that money was there, took steps to figure out where it came from, we'll just classify it as willful, won't we?"

So poor Ms. "I Didn't Know I Was American" gets to undergo FATCA(T) scrutiny just because the bank made a stupid error. Seems rather unfair doesn't it? Unfortunately the IRS and US Department of Treasury doesn't think so.

Will this happen to someone? I'm absolutely sure of it. And when the ramifications of that simple "mistake" on the part of the bank comes out, the American expat ends up losing damned near all their finances thanks to a mistake made on the part of the bank. In that sort of instance, I think the bank should be held liable for the damage done to the person's finances. But unfortunately the courts may not see it that way.

I'll Fly My Canadian Flag Whenever The Hell I Want To!!!

With Canada being battered by this FATCA legislation which has been implemented by the United States and aided and abetted by the Obama-apologist Harper Progressive Conservative government whose focus appears to be turning Canada American, I've become rabidly Canadian. This year will be the first year that I intend to put up a Canadian flag; replete with angled flag pole bracket from Lowe's Canada. I looked for one at Rona (a completely Canadian hardware store) and infuriatingly, a Canadian store isn't patriotic enough to carry flagpole brackets and Canadian flags so that patriotic Canadians can actually fly OUR FLAG on Canada Day. As a child I didn't realize how good Canada was to me, having been born and raised here all of my life...viewing our elephantine neighbour to the south with rose-colored glasses. As I have aged, married and raised a family here in the glorious and free home and native land that I have grown to respect, love and cherish, I feel more and more patriotic and am proud to be a Canadian; born and bred and realized just how much this country means to me.

Thank you, @pmharper for signing in Bill C288. Red Ensign beside my Canadian flag protesting your sell out of Canada. pic.twitter.com/9zqluI6AeF

— Wildlife Photog (@WildlifeFotog70) March 4, 2015

I am sick and tired of the Canadians who are so bloody apathetic that they would care less about their country that they would allow Harper to continue his sell-out of Canada to American interests. My grandparents, uncles and mother were imprisoned during WWII in the Japanese-Canadian internment camps in the interior of Canada under the Red Ensign of Canada (flying the Red Ensign brings my family memories that it would rather forget), but Harper has made it such a deal that I WILL FLY the RED ENSIGN alongside the Canadian flag as a symbolic protest against the United States and what its apologist Stephen Harper is trying to do to MY Canada.

Another thing that royally makes my blood boil is when I see articles like this: Is Flying A Canadian Flag On Your House Too American? Are they f***ing kidding me? Are they reducing my love of my country to being as jingoistic as an American? I love my country and I don't think many of my compatriots love it enough if they either disdain the flag or the ideals for which Canada's flag stands for, because they really are ignoring Canada's ideals when they ignore what Stephen Harper is doing to this country.

Other articles question why there aren't more people flying the Canadian flag: >Why Don't More Canadians Fly The Flag? The homeowner's association in Belle-River, Ontario should be ashamed of themselves. If the Homeowner's Association is so anti-Canadian that they won't allow for Freedom of Expression enshrined under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, then I'll be happy to drive them to the damned airport and they can each go back to where they bloody well came from.

Perhaps we should take a page from the Americans when it comes to our flag and state that anyone who flies a foreign flag on Canadian soil had damned well better couple it with an equally large Canadian flag. I don't care what country they come from - I don't give two sour owl shits about your creed, culture or religion, but when you are on Canadian soil, there'd better be a Canadian flag beside your country of origin's rag or else, be prepared to explain yourself to a pissed-off Canadian. And that also goes for you jingoistic Americans too. Fly the Stars and Bars at your leisure, but if you live on Canadian soil, there'd damned well better be a Canadian Maple Leaf flag along-side it. Just this morning when I was going to drop my daughter off to daycare I saw some Yankee yokel with a US Flag emblazoned in the back window of his truck flaunting his American-ness along the streets of Surrey. No Canadian flag to be seen in his truck with BC plates. That was like a red flag to a bull. My only thought was: "You Yankee DUMBSHIT!!! You come up here to live in this country, earn a living in this great country of ours, partake of our free healthcare and our hospitality and you have the fucking guts to flaunt your American flag in my face with no nod to the country who took you in? You sorry-ass sonofabitch!!!"

Bill C288 protects my right to fly a CANADIAN flag anywhere at anytime on Canadian soil and I will take that as my God-given right and as my country's anthem says: "God keep our Land; Glorious and Free". Too many people have forgotten the phrase that goes along with it. "Oh, Canada, We stand on Guard for thee..." and I'll be damned if I let Stephen Harper do any more to sell-out this great country of ours.

This post has become the first post of a new Canadian Patriot blog

This Is Not The Canada I Grew Up In.

This is not the Canada that I was born in.

The Canada I remember, was one of Pierre Elliot Trudeau. The very same who stated: “We must now establish the basic principles, the basic values and beliefs which hold us together as Canadians so that beyond our regional loyalties there is a way of life and a system of values which make us proud of the country that has given us such freedom and such immeasurable joy.” when he signed the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms in 1981. Back then we were so proud that we had a Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms to aspire to. That at the very age of eleven, I looked on believing Canada to be the land of the just and upholder of human decency. We were proud of being Canadians; the first to put together such a proclaimed charter that the Queen herself had given Royal Assent and personally signed in a ceremony on Parliament Hill. We truly believed that Canada was at the forefront of civilized nations.

Yet…here I stand not 33 years later angered and bitter at the fact that Canada, under Prime Minister Stephen Harper has signed away those very rights and freedoms that were enshrined to us under the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms by passing an omnibus bill that contained a United States law called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). That over 1 million Canadians with clinging US indicies were painted as US persons – as delinquent US taxpayers no matter how long they were living in Canada or whether they were born in Canada. With that flourish of a pen and with the passing of the vote in which not one governing party MP deigned to vote against, Canada surrendered its sovereignty to the United States. For such is the foul taint of United States citizenship that anyone who is even the slightest bit connected to any person with clinging US indicies in question is labelled a US person (of interest) to the Internal Revenue Service; even if they were born in Canada, had never set a foot on American soil and has never even thought about taking out US citizenship.

The United States confers US personhood upon each and every single one of them if one of their parents was a United States citizen having spent the requisite amount of time state-side.  These are not tax cheats, they are law-abiding Canadian citizens who pay taxes to Canada who have cast off the US citizenship that fetters them in the past by committing a renouncing act and thought themselves free of the burden only to be told by the United States that they were United States citizens all along regardless of what they did.  With the constant movement of the taxation goal-posts, is there truly any way for a former US citizen to be truly free of the United States?  The United States citizenship is mistakenly thought to be so exceptional that Canadian citizens who are mentally disabled are held hostage by the United States government if they had an American parent, regardless of where they were born.  Those affected in such a way can be truly thought of as tax-hostages to the United States.  They cannot renounce their unwanted US citizenship at all because according to the Department of State, they must understand the reasons for giving up their citizenship and that no-one may renounce on their behalf.  This is a violation of human rights in its most flagrant form.   The only reason for this is the US government wishes to get its hands into the disability trusts that the Canadian government establishes to support their most vulnerable citizens.  And when that fact was pointed out, the Conservative members of parliament stooped so low as to heckle and deride the member of parliament of the NDP who was stating that fact and was calling the government out that they were making a pact with a group of organized criminals: the United States Government; a government who holds themselves above international law, under the guise of "world savior". 




I stand here today a jaded 44 year old who trusts his government much less than that innocent 11 year old of years past. Knowing just how much his government has betrayed his family and his loved ones has brought him to that point. My ancestors were interned in Slocan during WWII, Japanese-Canadians born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia when the Japanese of their father’s homeland bombed Pearl Harbor. Mackenzie King was the architect of that internment and violation of Human Rights. He was also a Liberal, which made me swear that I would never vote Liberal for the rest of my life. The only party that stood up to his violation was the CCF (Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation). The Progressive Conservatives righted the Liberal wrong by making restitution to the Japanese-Canadians for forcibly being removed from their homes and their possessions taken and sold. And that was what prompted me to support the Progressive Conservatives when I began to vote. I am a Canadian citizen first and foremost and only a Canadian citizen.  We have become, from a nation that created a great fighting force against the forces of tyranny and freedom during the Second World War to a nation of apathy, that takes its freedoms for granted and doesn't spare a thought that these freedoms could be taken away with the stroke of a pen.   I realize now that government is for sale to the highest bidder with the betrayal of Canadians to the United States.  That we, as Canadians, if we are not to see our sovereign nation’s rights ceded to a foreign nation, we must stand on guard and protect our sovereignty, under arms if we must.

The blatant subornation of a certain segment of population by the Progressive Conservative government should not pass without reprisal. The US government has labelled those with clinging US indices tax cheats and have thrown the full weight of the IRS at those who they claim “flout their laws” and the Canadian government is a willing accomplice. The Canadian government should be brought to task for the criminalization of the segment of Canadians and all Canadians should be outraged that their citizenship and our nation’s sovereignty should be valued so cheaply. This law does not affect just those with clinging US person-hood, but it affects all of us. We will be forced to pay out of pocket for the rising costs of the bank compliance through higher fees, intrusive interrogation when opening a bank account that normally would be cause for a Human Rights complaint, but because of a flourish of a pen, is made legal to ask. One by one our rights are being eroded and instead of being enraged for the further erosion of this once-great country, we are complying with a whimper. Trudeau would ask about the location of our spine.

The acts of our government would indicate that we have none.

For more information: Contact: Isaac Brock Society
Maple Sandbox
and donate to the following Charter Challenge: at adcs-adsc.ca (Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty)

Our freedoms and human rights are at stake

FATCA = Economic Warfare

With the looming hostilities in Crimea and the Ukraine versus Russia, it's not surprising to find the old Cold War adversaries jawing at each other across crossed swords. But as much as the USA tries to paint the Russians as being the bad guys this time around as last - the United States isn't the squeaky clean image that it purports itself to be either. Fresh off the Benghazi debacle, the NSA wiretap scandal, IRS targeting of conservative groups, FATCA and other hostile acts by this American government, the USA's image has been tarnished quite considerably.

So far, the United States is 17 Trillion in debt and that number is rising dramatically quickly. It is an economy that is sinking rapidly no matter how many pundits try to pontificate to the opposing viewpoint. Jobs are not being created - unless they are McJobs (part-time; temporary) and the economy is slowly deflating. For example Rhode Island's unemployment rate is at a staggering 9.1% as per this article by ZeroHedge.

"No, Janet Yellen, The Economy Is Not Getting Better

As one can see in this graph both Democratic and Republican administrations have contributed greatly to the National Debt. Treasury Yields have dipped significantly, GDP has declined in the past ten years and people are saying that the economy is recovering? In normal parlance anyone who reads a graph in decline and says that everything is improving would be fit to be hogtied, slapped into a strait-jacket and shoved in a rubber-lined room for their own protection.

Let's see. Obama signed the Hire Act in 2010 to rounds of applause validating "entitlement" of other people's income who don't even use US infrastructure by the extraterritorial implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act otherwise known as FATCA or perjoratively known as FATCAT. This is implementing United States law and forcing foreign nations to comply with US law world-wide. Normally this would be grounds for war with the blatant violation of other nation's sovereignty. But the United States is riding forward on the idea that no-one will oppose this because (a) no-one likes tax cheats (b) no one wants to oppose the United States due to its good-will around the world and the fact that if one chooses to oppose them, the United States will target their military on them. Of course they won't come right out and say that, but it's implied. "Oppose us and suffer". Needless to say the IRS and Congress know that most governments are spineless at best and self-serving at worst and tacking on a 30% fine on US earnings to non-compliant FFI (Foreign Financial Institutions) for not reporting their United States tax slaves to the IRS was just icing on the cake. Plus on top of that the Department of Treasury will happily stick a $10,000 fine (non-wilful; $100,000 wilful) for failure to file an FBAR. Needless to say most of the Dept of Treasury assessments will find the failure to file FBAR wilful. Oh, there's no getting around that. After all, the Mighty USA is always right.

Meanwhile, Canada's government (the Progressive Conservatives) in the hopes of saving their own sorry skins and pandering to the banks have thrown the majority of "accidental Americans" (Canadian duals and Canadians born to American mothers in Canada) to the wolves (the environmental wildlife photographer in me protests comparing these political Conservative scumbags to wolves who would be insulted)

It is a sad state of affairs when we look to China and Russia to uphold the bulwarks of "freedom". Push the two nations who have nuclear weapons that can oppose the United States on their economic war and we will see missiles fly.

Economic War is just another form of warfare and the United States upon signing the Hire Act declared war on each and every other nation in the world. Let's hope to heck that FATCA can be repealed and the nonsense that it spawned can be contained or we will not survive; once Russia and China realize that this is absolute WAR.

"Don't Call Me American Bald Eagle!" says Canadian Bald Eagle

North American Bald Eagles are incensed to be called American Bald Eagles. "We have no partisanship" says one Bald Eagle named Harry, who lives in Serpentine Fen. "It's a case of the United States thinking that they have ownership over us. Next thing they'll do is imply that we are part of their tax base. How do you put a figure on the number of rats and the latest dead carcass that we consume and what sort of tax form do I fill out and send in? Hell, I don't even have fingers, damn it!?" He looked off to the side and gave me a gimlet stare with one of his eyes "I'm sorry, but I'm Canadian. I was born and raised in Serpentine Fen and haven't ever been across the border. I have no idea why the United States would think that I'm part of their own and pay taxes to the IRS? That's absolutely f*ng ridiculous!" At that Harry gives off a resounding snap of his beak in annoyance.

Harry looks over at the Canada Geese milling around aimlessly on the pond a few meters over. "Snowbirds" he mutters disgustedly. "The IRS should take a look at those bastards. They spend six months out of the year in the United States munching on US resources, flying in US skies. Hell they even down US planes for heaven's sake. At least they're using resources in the United States. We don't use a single piece of vermin in the US and we get taxed. We hunt, kill and feed our young all up here in Canada. Our lives are spent up here and the United States wants to tax us? Are they kidding me? I talked about it with Ma and Pa in White Rock and Mom n'Pop in Green Timbers, y'know, friends of mine, and they're telling me that extraterritorial taxation is a crock of shit. Hell, I'm not going to pay it." Harry says. "It's not a fair tax and Obama can go kiss my feathered ass!"

Harry snorted contemptuously as he looked around trying to see if there were any crows present. "Those bastards will rat you out." he said. "You hear about that amnesty program, called OVDP?" he said with a disgusted look "One of my buddies over by the Delta Dump went into that. He got taken for a ride. They wanted tax returns from 6 years back and to admit that he was guilty of tax fraud because he didn't claim 66,000 rats taken last year. He didn't know he was supposed file that stupid piece of paper called an FBAR."

"Lil' Chucky", Harry grumbled. "He got away with his villa in the Dominican Republic.", "James..." he said. "...the list goes on. These bastards get to shill for the tax paying public and get away scot free when they evade taxes. It's a mother lode of bullshit." Harry said as he preened his feathers. "And they're coming after the small guys like us. Well...I can't wait until I get classified as a Canadian Bald Eagle..." he paused for a moment.

"Well...did you know that Canada signed an IGA with the United States on February 5th, 2014?" I asked him.

"Bloody Fucking Hell!!" Harry swore vehemently. "Maybe I need to ask my friend Boris, he's a Eurasian golden eagle, if he's got a place I can crash at for the next forty years."

The United States Sucks!

The United States has become a world-class bully of epic proportions. With its finances in shambles and its government in turmoil, the USA has turned to fleecing its expatriate citizens in an attempt to put money into its coffers. The land of the free and home of the brave has resorted to holding the proverbial exhorbitant taxation penalty to the heads of those middle-class American expatriates (dual citizens and landed immigrants) in a blatant show of mafia-like extortion.

And yet, this is only a small symptom of "class warfare". The ordinary American could care less what the US Government is doing. They only care to eat what patriotic bullshit that they've been fed from the time they were knee-high to a grasshopper. The usual "The United States is the policeman of the world", "The United States is the epitome of freedom", "The United States is the best country in the world"...and the most repugnant of all this bunch of patriotic bullshit is "The United States is God's gift to Man". Oh good God. If this is what God's gift is...I'd rather do without, thank you very much. The ones who don't put up with this bullshit are called leftist socialists and commie pinko lovers.

FATCA has turned expatriate citizens into involuntary tax-evasion criminals. How many families will be ruined by Obama's HIRE legislation? My wife has decided that remaining American is no longer an option. She grew up a loyal American and wanted nothing more than to remain an American. FATCA and FBAR is giving her no other choice any more. That combined with her desire to have a vote in the municipality and country that she lives in.

As a Canadian, I'm finding it absolutely repulsive how snowed I was by the potential of the American dream. As I grow older, I realize how much of an illusion the "American Dream" is. When the option in American healthcare is "if you have the money, you get the care, if you don't you die..." it's not a dream, it's a nightmare. My mother-in-law, I had to support while the United States Government got their act together to decide whether to give her Medicare for her health problems or not. Some of my cousins (on my wife's side) have to decide whether or not to eat or go to the doctor to make sure that their health problems don't overwhelm them. IS that the American dream? 'Cause if it is...I sure as hell would hate to know what the "American Nightmare" is.

FATCA and FBAR has the potential to screw up the finances of every dual-citizen/landed immigrant family as well as their Canadian spouses. With the birthright citizenship legislation, even our children are not safe from this taxation grab. They are making a grab for RESPs and birthright citizen children's bank accounts as well. If you get student loans or any form of court decision involving a sum of money, you will be taxed on that as well. In other words, the United States has you by the short and curlies.

This legislation has the serious implications of screwing up Canada's economy. With so many Canadian citizens (of dual citizenship origin) rendered financially insolvent, there will be a run on social services and Canada's pension plan will be non-existent by 2030 if this legislation is not repealed. So what this is, is the United States waging financial and economic warfare on Canada. If the reverse were true, the United States would be aiming its nuclear warheads on the offending nation.

The United States with its FBAR legislation is contravening every single foreign nation's privacy legislation and is throwing their weight around like a 800 lb toddler throwing a temper tantrum because all it's toys in the toybox are broken and it wants other people to fix its problems. It's high time that the rest of the world told the United States that we will not fix their broken toys.

...and EMPHATICALLY SO!