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
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