AtticusinCanada has written a nice little summary of her sufferings–I nominate it for the comment of the day award:
My whole life has changed because of this. I’ve felt immense grief that the only way to deal with and move on is to renounce. I always assumed if you were born some place you were entitled to that citizenship without any other need of proof. As long as you didn’t commit treason or some serious crime you were a citizen. I had never, once heard of an FBAR! I called the IRS many times over the years to make sure I still was within their rules and nobody every mentioned such a thing. Nobody mentioned when after 9/11 we were required to get a U.S. passport either. Some have said that it’s written on page 4 of the passport. Well, my vision is VERY bad even with glasses and I never even attempted to read those pages. I assumed if it was anything important I would have been told about it and barely glanced at the tiny,tiny print on those pages. Couldn’t someone have informed us when we landed here? In fact up until I had to get a U.S. passport I wasn’t too sure I was even a citizen there anymore sometimes since the person I spoke with when I landed at Buffalo insisted over and over that “You may lose your U.S. citizenship over this” So when I went for that passport in the back of my mind I was worried they might not give me one. When they did I mentioned the fact I’d been told I might lose my citizenship and the person there did say “No, you were misinformed.” I came here in 1980 so maybe the rules were different or something back then but, I only landed and had not taken citizenship.
The constant worry about money and fines, fees, penalties. The hours and hours lost trying to figure out the right paperwork, how to fill it out, who to trust or not and how in the bloody hell to pay for this “compliance” has made my rheumatoid arthritis flare up over and over when it was under control before. I have been in the hospital once with a terrible breathing problem they couldn’t get under control except for the use of steroids over a long period. I now think this was brought on by extreme stress. The situation was so bad at the hospital that I was questioned about extensive measures and did I want to be “revived” if things got worse. That situation also made my son’s illness worse since one of the things wrong with him is severe panic disorder and depression. He was there and had to witness the situation in the emergency room and hospital. I have no doubt in my mind at all that I was made sicker by worrying over this and fretting day in and day out. Loss of sleep, constantly trying to figure out “the right thing” only to find out that not even the IRS knows the “right thing” many times.
I found out about all this after the death of my mother and in the midst of dealing with a very difficult sibling. I wouldn’t have owed them a thing. In fact they owed me 600 dollars which I am afraid to claim. I still believe there are thousands of people who do not yet know about this at all!
I’ve had my tax forms prepared twice at quite an expense and I’m sure the paperwork is wrong and so have not sent it in. I have not done FBARS as I would need help with them and cannot afford it. My sons illness has flared really badly twice since I found out about this and some of his treatments are very expensive so any “extra” money I have goes to that. Not that we have any “extra” money!
How can anyone actually say how much they are affected by this since it just invades every area of your life. I haven’t been able to put this on the back burner and not worry about it even when something good is happening. As I said above I have one sibling who is a very, very difficult person and so telling my family I’m renouncing has been just peachy. That sibling will use this for the rest of my life to portray me as a “bad” person to other family members at every opportunity. So not only did it strain my marriage, it put me in the position of being a perpetual “black sheep” who will be “tolerated, pitied and disliked” an outsider, not “one of them” I’m so looking forward to having to deal with the dynamics that will go on once I have renounced. Some will know better but, others won’t.
Lately, this situation has lead to problems with my spouse because I haven’t renounced yet. It’s not that I don’t want to. I am terrified to go forward and file all that mess should a penalty be assigned to me. And tax payer advocate or not, I am just not in any physical shape right now to drag myself through such an ordeal. It’s GOT to be done but, this is such a catch 22!
This stupid witch hunt which people inside the U.S. think is going after the uber rich “off shoring” in “tax havens” has done more to harm low and middle income “targets” than anything I’ve seen them do down there in a long time. I have learned a hard lesson about what citizenship taxation is and what it means. I’m sickened by the comments I see on certain U.S. based articles. Is this who they really are?? Oddly, I think not. I think if it were happening to THEM they’d have a completely different opinion which makes them very selfish. The thing I am most angered about at the moment is that comment by President Obama last week that they are paying to fix their infrastructure by “repatriating taxes” First off that is a LIE, it’s NOT “taxes” It is fines and fees and penalties on paperwork nobody ever heard of outside the U.S. for the most part and they know it. If it were taxes it would even come close to being enough as according to American Citizens Abroad 82 percent of expats would owe zero taxes. Secondly, it told me that all this suffering was PLANNED. That they are NOT going to RBT and do not ever want to. That they know what they are doing and know no one inside the U.S. will care.
As some here have said it’s not the America we grew up in for those of us that did grow up there. Or maybe it is and we’re just now seeing how they operate with those that don’t live there. At any rate the feeling of betrayal and back stabbing runs deep. Like many of you I have spent decades here feeling I had to defend the U.S. at times and stand up for Americans because I felt many times they were all negatively portrayed and not all Americans are bad people. I had to deal with this daily since my mother in law was staunchly anti American. Coming to a new country and having to deal with her hurtful remarks was hard but, I DID win her over. Her and most people who got to know me well. I feel the U.S. is losing something they cannot get back. They can never make us back into good will ambassadors ever again. There was little justification for us to do that in many cases to begin with and now there will be none.
At any rate my main worry is keeping MY health up because my son needs me to be healthy. I can’t help him when he needs it if I go down too far. I’m just going to renounce, file what I can by sending it straight in and not going into any “program” as I do NOT trust ANY of their “programs” Why they would put families abroad who would not owe them a dime in taxes through this is beyond shocking to me. As Obama said they are going to rebuild their infrastructure by “repatriating taxes” NO it’s not “taxes” It is fines and fees and penalties on zero taxes owed in most cases. Who ever thought up such a plan and feels it is right is an immoral, vicious jerk.
I now believe there is no hope for them to resolve any of this with residency based taxation as the evidence and Obama’s comments show this was planned and is being done on purpose so why on earth would the let any minnows go and not penalize them?
That was quick! I just posted it. I meant “negatively portrayed” not “betrayed” but, betrayal is on my mind so it was an apt slip up.
I am not Canadian but I have been miserable since I learned about FATCA last year at a seminar the US Embassy hosted. I am retired and had to pay a large sum in taxes for the sale of a home I bought 25 years ago with money I earned in my country of residence. I will not give up my citizenship because I am afraid, since all my children and grandchildren live in the US and I want to be able to visit them. I paid an accountant a large sum of money to help me with the forms. I have lost sleep over FATCA and find it very unfair. It´s scary because I live on a fixed income, all I have are my savings and it´s nearly impossible for me to find employment in my country of residence because of my age.
Thanks AtticusinCanada for pouring your heart out as you have. I have to disagree on one point though.
“Who ever thought up such a plan and feels it is right is an immoral, vicious jerk.”
You’re being too kind.
@guardian, I have nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings and a father down there. I am worried about what the crossing the border situation will become in the future too but, I cannot, CAN NOT justify keeping U.S. citizenship. The onerous expense to my Canadian spouse and child in the future can’t be carried by my family. We don’t have much except our home to leave our son and should I be liable to give the U.S. any part of a sale on it or should he end up owing them anything on any inheritance as tiny as that might be when I could have prevented such from happening would be too much to bear. It’s just too hard to have my foreign spouses accounts reported on. To have this hanging issue over our heads till the day I die. No way.
So either you live with the fear of future border crossing rules or you live with the fear of what they will do next to expats. No choice is good if you have to travel back there for family reasons. It’s okay for now but, who knows. I put nothing past them. Still, I have to weigh in on the side of renouncing. I don’t feel I have a choice in that decision. It’s been made for me. Either way it’s going to cost every single person, something valuable to them in some way. There’s no “fair” way out.
@ atticus
I feel your pain. I know your sleepless nights. I know your anger and fear.
I came to Canada 44 years ago tomorrow, by bus with my husband. 2 suitcases and 2 hundred dollars and the belief our life would be better.
Our 2 sons were born in Canada. In 1993 we became Canadians, knowing we had no desire to live or work in America. We loved Canada. Our hearts were here. We were just working middle class. Did not own a home but saved for our retirement with RRSPs. We complied every year up to and including 1993 filing us tax returns, never having to pay becausebwe made less than required.
Little did we know 5 years later both my son and husband would be fighting cancers. Our son was to die 1999 and my husband in 2001.
I am still not over it.
then in 2011 I find out about FATCA. At the same time my older son is moving to England.
My friends AND my son said that this was crazy, FATCA and to not worry.
But I have not stopped worrying.
Thankfully I found you all on IBS. You gave me good advice and I met some of you last June. I am hoping I will escape FATCA with a CLN that I formally asked for last month in Toronto US counsel.
I am sick over this. It is on my mind everyday. I have friends up here where I live who are also APs. And they are not Canadian citizens. They will not do anything, but wait. They don’t believe it to be real My son will not talk to me about it. He too is trying to ignore it. He has a US passport. I never had one. He thought it was a good thing to have a Canadian on and a US one. I was upset when he got the US one but he is 43 and adult. He got it a few years ago. We rarely talk anymore.
I worry for my retirement rrsps, as my husband’s company gave him a buyout and all of it is in rrsps which I have taken out a little each year.
I worry my bank of almost 44 years will kick me off for being an american person. The worry what to do. I will not give the I R S one cent of my husband’s hard worked for money, working in the cold, rain and heat in all hours of the day and night.
I am so, so disappointed in Obama. I feel betrayed. He is not the man I thought he was. I believed he was a good man.
I was there 50 years ago, during the civil rights riots and marches. I was a believer in good for all.
My brothers who live in america hate Obama because he is black and is a Muslim socialist and they hate me too. My parents hated me too, before they died.They called me a traitor for becoming Canadian.
I have traveled in 40 US states. I will never visit the USA again.
FATCA is consuming me. And I hope it does not kill me.
@guardian
I too am only in this mess because we sold our house in Vancouver in 2008. We entered OVDI in 2011. Had we not believed then IRS commissioner Shulman when he said “The situation will just get worse in the months ahead for those hiding assets and income offshore. This new disclosure initiative is the last, best chance for people to get back into the system” there would have likely been a much different outcome.
@northernstar, I cannot begin to imagine the loss of your son and husband in such a short time. I am so sorry to hear you are dealing with that and this too!
Yes, I grew up in the civil rights movement in that era too. My mother was actively and dangerously involved in that movement when we lived in a small southern town with the sheriff of said town living across the street from us. My mother having African American friends coming and going and staying over night in our home lead to some very scary incidents indeed. We lived near Memphis at that time and so were caught up in the aftermath of that too. But to be honest with you last American pol I really believed in was Bobby Kennedy and that was a long, long time ago.
As many of us here now know they do not care about us. They don’t care what your history is in that country, they don’t care if they harm your spouse and children. They just do not care. It’s downright evil what they are doing. They could just disallow dual citizenship again but, then they couldn’t continue to demonize us as a way to justify grabbing up tons of penalties to “fix their infrastructure” or pay for whatever else THEY will use and we will lose out on.
@AtticusinCanada
There is a unified gift and estate tax exemption of $5.25 million. So unless your home is really expensive you should be OK.
What the exemption means is that on death, the 1st $5.25M of your estate is exempt from taxes. Also, before death you can gift (give) up to $5.25M without tax consequences. You have to fill out the appropriate form(s) for this (quelle surprise, not). And, whatever you gift reduces the tax exemption of your estate on death.
Also, you can gift to a NRA spouse up to, I believe, $140K annually and this would not require form filling and does NOT impact your $5.25 exemption.
If you were to want to sell your house, you would want to consider gifting your half of it to your non-US spouse prior to sale (I’m assuming that both names are on it).
If you’re up at night worrying about this I urge you to look into the estate and gift tax rules in depth. Note, however, that the exemption could change for the worse in the future, so no guarantees given.
@AtticusinCanada
Bless you and thanks! I’m lost for words as to how to express my gratitude to you for describing so clearly the way this situation “just invades every area of your life.”
After reading your words I realized how true this has been for me also. I looked at the paperwork spread around this room and realized that virtually every item in progress has been tainted or driven by this trap that we (or our friends and family) find ourselves in.
Wishing you comfort and better health – and thank you for taking your time to share with us….
Actually, there’s a $250K exemption on the gain for the sale of your home, so you wouldn’t necessarily have to gift all of your half (again, assuming both names are on it) in order to escape tax free.
@tdott, thank you for the clarification. No way is our home worth anywhere near that. I’m not clear on all of this obviously. However, the expense to find someone who IS clear on it and can get me out of this mess is too much for us right now. I just cannot find the funds to hire another person who may or may not know what they are doing at this moment.
I have had to think long and hard about how much I trust what the U.S. will or won’t do about many things including FBAR. When the renunciation numbers go up who knows how much more punitive this will all become. They sure are not going to turn around and say “Oh, we are doing wrong to these minnows!” no way. They will just keep up the beating until morale improves as someone here mentioned lately.
Thanks again for your input. I am worried about anything I leave my son but, also worried about how he will handle all the paperwork etc…the situation for him at that time will be just devastating enough as it is given his health issues and I don’t want to put all this off on him. I TRIED to take my name off our house and the bank told me I could not do it. I don’t know why exactly as my spouses name is on it too. I am just livid that I have to even think about such things at all. Having been a stay at home mom to a kid with lots of health issues ALL I HAVE is this house.
@tdott
I didn’t have your email to ask you if you would want to talk to a journalist at the Wall Street Journal about renouncing US citizenship. He only wants to talk to people I know or have met personally and who would be willing to use their real names. If interested I can send you contacts for him.
Can an admin please forward my email address to Bubblebustin?
TIA
@atticusincanada ,
Thanks your kind words and new post on how you feel , to help us out there express our fears.
I guess I am an idiot idealist, believing in people change, countries’ policies changed. I too believed in Robert Kennedy and was devastated when he was assassinated. The NJ train his coffin was on rode past my home . and that i just 2 months I would be married to the love of my life and then in Canada a year later. Politics changed my life.
We share the same family situation.. I am completely cut off from my American family. It got worse each year but after my son and husband died and my parents it was final.. Obama brought out the racism I tried to ignore in my family but could not.
I also forgot to mention how else I feel betrayed. Perhaps it is too early but I feel betrayed my own Canadian government.. It is not the strong assertive Canadian government I came to in 1969. They too speak politics. I swear their mouths are moving and saying nothing.
@Sad-in-the UK
I want to ask you if you went to the London meeting. And if you did what did you find out how FATCA will affect UK APs.
My son is living outside of London and he seems to think I am crazy and insane worrying about FATCA.
He has never filed US taxes. He traveled recently to the USA on an American passport which really frighted me. The only thing I can do is let him find his own way. He is my only flesh and blood, living so far away. Sometimes I feel so alone.
@northernstar, I feel betrayed by the Canadian government lately too. I have mentioned before that I am here when the elder Trudeau was our PM. Whatever you thought of that man he would have immediately told the U.S. where they could stick their FATCA from the get go. Of that I have no doubt at all. I miss that type of strong Canadian leader who knows where the damned border is and wants to protect Canada and all that, that implies. What we have now is people in the NDP of all things thinking FATCA is super when they don’t even fully understand it!! Why tout something when you haven’t done your homework!?! I was a member of the NDP but, have joined the Green Party as they seem to be the only ones speaking up with any understanding of this issue at all.
Flagherty is silent these days and they can’t speak while talks are going on. Really? So when do we the most affected get to have a say? After they have told us what will be? Too late.
The younger Trudeau says much with his silence. That’s too bad. I wanted to like him. The second I start seeing our newspapers here touting FATCA because they’ve been told to will be a dark day for me.
I believe the IRS has stolen from me a normal banking relationship with my wife.
Maybe some marriages work better when the couple in question has separate accounts. That ability to make that kind of decision in my marriage has essentially been robbed.
Also, the IRS will either have stolen a normal banking relationship with my bank, or my rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, depending on whether or not I sign away with my blood.
It’s nothing monetary or tangible that is being taken away. It’s my dignity as a human being. Something far more valuable.
@mjh49783
I can understand what you are saying about sharing a banking account. I am a widow and in a relationship. I dare not even consider marriage or common law…the IRS would want to be in bed with me and take from even my partner. Our politicians are letting them do this….so strange, like an old world family situation from another era. parent giving the child up for $.
@Atticusincanada
You have written everything I feel. i have written for years to the NDP gal who is running in Toronto to compliment her on her columns…I have written her again to ask how she can feel , LOVE, FATCA.. she has not replied at all. Same as the young Trudeau, no replies . I was pleased too when he was running….Now…I don’t know. I have written to the Green Party as well about FATCA and received no replies on FATCA, just a plea for a contribution.
I saw a cartoon on Facebook today…It had the Wizard of Oz characters, the Lion, Scarecrow and Tin man…and Dorothy and Toto….Dorothy was captured as saying “You must be politicians because you have no Courage, no heart and no brains..” It made me laugh a sad laugh.
RE: Justin Treadeau
I got the following reply to my mass mailing to MPs earlier this year …
While the prevention of tax evasion is an important objective, it is important that the government also stands up for those Canadians who are being unjustly caught up in complex, American tax rules.
It is important that the IRS communicate clearly with Canadians affected by FATCA to help avoid the heavy penalties that come with failure to comply with the act. As the legislation is written by America for Americans, it is important that we ensure that our own legislation is not being hindered by these agreements. With regards to the taxation of deferred saving vehicles such as RESPs and RRSPs, as well as the taxation of Tax Free Savings Accounts, we must ensure that Canadians, who are using such programs legitimately, are protected accordingly. Canadians should not be punished for acting responsibly by saving for education and retirement.
Furthermore, it is important that any sharing of personal information between Canadian banks and the IRS only take place with substantial safeguards and oversight to protect Canadians` interests.
The Liberal Party of Canada has raised this issue in Question Period and will continue to press the Conservative government to protect Canadians.
Sincerely,
Justin P.J. Trudeau
I wasn’t entirely satisfied with JPJT’s response so I replied with the following to which I received no reply …
I do not think it is possible to put “substantial safeguards” in place, either here or in the USA, which would totally protect the financial privacy of Canadian residents if the Canadian government allows FATCA to be implemented here. The USA has no more competence in this regard than any other nation or entity. The IRS has already been found lacking in the security department with a current surge in identity theft and false refund filings within the USA so how could we expect any better security on a global scale? The risks are simply too great. With FATCA, the amount of detailed information transmitted would be devastating for an unfortunately targeted individual not IF but WHEN it passes through the hands or across the computer screen of someone with ill intent.
FATCA is a potential slippery slope too. To subject some Canadian residents to this type of intense financial scrutiny could quite arguably be called discrimination. Therefore I believe it would not be very long before the Canadian government, under the guise of treating everyone in Canada “equally”, would require financial institutions to file the same detailed reports on ALL Canadians to the CRA, not just residents with US connections, a 3% subset of the population. The best solution therefore is to NOT send the 3% into the FATCA maelstrom because eventually the other 97% would be fodder for a similar vortex — all in the name of “fairness” of course.
I urge you and your party to fight against the implementation of FATCA in Canada as I’m certain you recognize that Canada and the USA already have a more than adequate tax treaty in place. If Canada is to maintain any semblance of sovereignty it should not succumb to additional US interference into the financial lives of honest, tax-paying Canadian residents.
Thanks for sharing this. Since 2010 my life has changed and became hell. Blood pressure went after many sleepless nights trying to do the right thing. I now have cardiac insufficiency, living on fear. President Obama disappointed me and pretends that he does not see what we are going through.
@Em, well at least he has said something! I too only want to hear a definite “NO” to FATCA coming over our border violating our Charter and Canadian citizens privacy. But I wrote to him twice and got nothing. I will try again. Thanks for posting that response.
Atticus I’m reasonably sure you have no worries about FATCA. You said you can’t afford to pay for help with fbars. RRSPs will be exempt. Accounts under $50K will be exempt. Accounts under $ 1 million will be subject to an ‘electronic search’ for US ‘indicia’. Your bank is not allowed to ask where you were born . So FATCA need not affect you. You can relax a bit.
northernstar. You are safe. What you worry about won’t happen to you. Ask yourself- ‘Do they have the time or resources to go after me?’ The answer is no they don’t.
Justin Trudeau comments are weaker than Flaherty. I doubt Pierre Trudeau would have stood up against unfair taxation by a socialist. Have your ever heard of National Energy Program or Petroleum & Gas Revenue tax.
@money, Pierre had quite a bit to say about U.S. over reach though so I don’t think he’d have taken kindly to this situation. It’s one thing if something is a law made in Canada for Canadians but…this and the cross border policing with their officers wanting to be exempted from our laws while on our soil is something quite different.
@ That Is Me,
I also got high blood pressure too, for the first time in my life, after I learnt about this “US mess” in August 2011. (It actually went back down to 118 when I checked it about two weeks after I made my CLN application at Toronto in May 2012). But between Aug 2011-Feb 2012, with my blood pressure spiking, I lost 30 pounds in six months. Which seemed kind of odd as I’d heard high blood pressure had a connection to overweight, and I was downright skinny having lost 30 pounds. I had insomnia, too, and depression for the first time in my life. I’d always rolled with the punches, but I’d never met anything like this.
18 months ago, on another thread, I posted,
At the time I wrote that post in February 2012, although I had not posted about it I had been to been to my local US consulate, which tried to convince me I could not have possibly ended my US citizenship in 1979. Whilst I remained quiet, rather like a little mouse, I did not give in (it was too important – I can’t exactly re-live 33 years of my life). But then after failing to convince me of this for about 20 minutes, suddenly, to my surprise, about-face, I was told maybe it was possible I had ceased to be a US citizen in 1979 and I could come back 7 months later for 2 to 3 hours of intensive questioning for them determine if I had. The person who interviewed me in Jan 2012 was quite interested in taxes. There was no Consulate Report Directory then – this sure made me realise the need for one – I’d been collecting the few expatriation stories I could find on the internet simply to prepare efficiently for my meeting (not expecting trouble). But because of these few stories, I knew that harassment was not proper procedure for sure, and it also seemed pretty clear that Dept of State was not the least bit interested in taxes.
Anyway, typical tax dodger, I was making minimum wage when I relinquished my US citizenship in 1979 and I made under $20,000 in 2011. I have no family in the US because I sponsored them into Canada years ago. It was clear from my 4079 and affidavit that I had had no connection of any sort whatsoever to the US for most of my life. That consulate tried so hard to hang on to me, it was sick. It made the US look pretty sick, too.
I was a little mouse at that consulate, but I knew I needed a CLN (because reality is reality, these 33 years had happened, I could not rewrite them). And this 2 to 3 hour interrogation, which is what intensive questioning is, that they wanted me to come back for, I knew was not proper because of those few accounts I’d read about expatriation meetings – clearly that was not something anyone was required to put up with and this little mouse wasn’t going to. I just went home — looking, my husband said, 20 years older than when I’d entered the consulate — and I typed out three pages of everything I could remember of my meeting, complete with verbatim quotes whilst they were fresh in my mind. Of course, had I known this consulate had an attitude problem, I never would have gone there. It was only after my bizarre experience that I asked around town and found out that their odd procedures and hostile attitude towards former or soon-to-be-former Americans, was apparently standard operating procedure there.
It took me a couple of months to figure out what to do. I went to Toronto in May 2012.
The personnel at Toronto Consulate were like the personnel at the US consulate I’d visited in 1972. I walked out of Toronto Consulate feeling good about the United States. As far as I’m concerned, if I could feel that way after living through 8 months of hell, people at the Toronto Consulate should get a medal. I actually said that to someone fairly high up in the State Dept – State Dept, btw, is absolutely not trying to keep people in US citizenship against their will and consulate number 1 has cleaned up its act.
But overall, the loss of respect I have for that country … not just what happened to me at consulate number 1, which appears to have gone on for at least 1 and 1/2 years — but this whole crass equating citizenship with money (which I sure never learnt in a US school) and demonising people who have chosen to move and commit themself to another country (ironically how the US itself was built) and government officials knowing they’re destroying people and families, but preferring to do that because they can gain political points by so doing with a very gullible and inward-focused electorate (in the 60s and 70s, there was a healthy scepticism in the US, something which Canada and, to my knowledge, most democratic countries had then and still do)… argh .. the loss of respect I have for the US since 2011, I really don’t have words.
Well, some words did come to me the day I got my CLN in the mail in Nov 2012. I posted,
Back in the 70s, in my early 20s, I just felt that I wanted to have 100% participation and commitment in one country, ironically a concept I picked up growing up in the US. I did, and do, believe that is how the US became the strong country it was in the 20th century.
And back in the 70s, knowing that so many people in the world are stuck in pretty bad countries, I actually felt privileged that I got to choose between two really good ones. A few years later I began working in refugee law and that just confirmed it. Prior to 2011, I had no idea the US had any problem with people choosing to leave it. I realise now that of course a confident country doesn`t, and the country south of here today is a scared and flailing one.
Myself and my family suffered severe financial, physical and emotional health problems since August 2011 because I was born in the USA. There is only one country in the world that has ever hurt me and unbelievably it is the USA. Not the USA I grew up in or left, both physically and legally, before most Americans alive today were born.
Ironically in trying to defend myself against this New US, I ended up helping to start Brock and now spend more time focused on the US politics in one week than I did in the past forty years. Which feels odd because though I’ve been mega-active in Canadian politics for 34 years, I’d only been a vacationer in the US. Then came 2011. Whilst I have had, legally and morally, no commitment or allegiance to the US for most of my life, I did think the US was a pretty good country, second best in the world, and felt fondly toward it. But then it turned on me. And why? Because I was born there.