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.
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