Saturday evening we enjoyed the annual fund raising dinner of the Georgetown Rotary Club of which my father-in-law is a member. Before the meal, we sang the Canadian national anthem. I found myself fighting back tears. The Harper’s government signed an Inter-governmental agreement to betray banking information to the IRS of US citizens living in Canada, thus enforcing FATCA, an extraterritorial law made in Washington–a law which claims global jurisdiction over bank account information. Since many of these so-called “US citizens” are Canadians living on Canadian soil, they are part of that collective nation we call “Canada”. “True patriot love in all thy sons command!” Yet clearly, the current elected leaders have cynical intentions: money is more important to them than protecting Canada as “the True North strong and free”. I sang with a heavy not a “glowing heart” as I see Canada’s sovereignty weaken and her freedom diminish.
“From far and wide”, means that Canada consists of every citizen who lives within the borders of this country, from Atlantic to Pacific.
O Canada is noble and beautiful song. It is an oath and singing it with “True Patriot love” should be considered an expatriating act under US law, and the hundreds of times that we sing, “We stand on guard for Thee”, must under US law count as a oath to a foreign land. Everyone who reads this blog and is a Canadian citizen has sung this oath many times. When we Canadians sing it, we vow to protect the rights of all Canadians. The French version makes this even more explicit (my translation):
Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillants exploits.
Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.(“Your story is one of epic of the most shining exploits. And your valor, steeped in faith, will protect our homes and our rights” )
In French, Canadians sing as a collective to defend the homes and rights of all Canadians. But we live in a generation of vow-breakers. Unfortunately, the Harper finance department does not take this oath seriously and has agreed to turn over our sovereignty to the USA, by abusing the equality rights of those Canadians whose birth incidentally took place at a US address. This treachery saddens me.
We must urge the Harper government to keep their oath to stand on guard for Canada. To protect Canada is their first and primary mandate.
@Petros,
re; ..”Everyone who reads this blog and is a Canadian citizen has sung this oath many times. When we Canadians sing it, we vow to protect the rights of all Canadians…”…
Very interesting perspective – I hadn’t thought of it that way before. Thanks for the insight.
Thanks for the heartfelt post Petros. I can’t hear O’Canada anymore without feeling a sense of betrayal.
Last Canada Day was a sad one for me, and that was before we had a signed IGA. I think there will be many of us that wished we could take a vacation out of the country for the next Canada Day since that will be a double whammy as it is also the date that FATCA takes effect.
Thank you, Petros. The hypocrisy would bring me to tears as well.
In pondering the advice at http://blogs.angloinfo.com/us-tax/2014/02/17/help-i-want-to-expatriate-but-they-wont-let-me-part-ii/ (also at taxconnections.com), I think:
So, more money for proper advice since the country in which my son was born, Canada, will or can do nothing to protect him? In fact the Government of Canada just waived my son’s rights in signing an IGA with the US. (And the rights of others like my son; and the rights of other persons who may have a “mental incapacity” like someone with age-related dementia.) The person with Mental Incompetency Issues is even lesser than the second-class Canadian citizenship that all other ‘US Persons in Canada’ now have with the US IGA, compared to “all other Canadians, no matter where their ‘national origin’ or the ‘national origin’ of their parent ( s ).
***OR, am I to assume that the advice is I SHOULD NOT Hold a Canadian Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) for my son? Besides an RDSP not being a good investment for a US Person, he doesn’t deserve to have the benefit of such a plan — it is not for those the Government of Canada now deems a ‘second-class citizen’ by virtue of an arbitrary, unregistered NATIONAL ORIGIN by birth to a US Person IN CANADA, because I was still a US citizen at the time. Swallow hard and cash in the RDSP, turning back to the Government of Canada the bonds and grants they contributed to the RDSP and on which I have already paid income tax to the US. Too bad about the amount I paid to a US accounting firm to correctly report to the US my son’s RDSP on my behalf. How can one so-called US Person in Canada have made so many mistakes in life planning 101 and trying to best provide for my son when I am no longer alive?
Thank you, Andy Grossman for offering your comment which makes me / us think / try harder for a solution for this “injustice” — for my son (others like him with a ‘mental incapacity’) AND those other “Accidental Americans” born in the US only by “accident of where their parent(s) happened to be when they were born — another country than their real home country.
Any further thoughts on Mr. Grossman’s thought-provoking comment?:
Advice from the author, Virginia La Torre Jeker J.D.:
…do I just do nothing and ***HOPE*** that ***they*** (whoever they is: local CANADIAN “foreign financial institutions” or the Canada Revenue Agency or the US Treasury or IRS [ who has the information on my son in my FBARs (Foreign Bank Account Reports) ] will not take action? I refuse to register him with the US and the abyss of cost of administration of compliance of a US citizenship never registered / never asked for (the only purpose for which would be the ability to renounce, which he can’t). It’s a circular conundrum.
Thank you Petros. Your post made me very emotional indeed.
Thanks Petros – I’ve been very conflicted these last couple of weeks about the entire notion of patriotism and the role of the nation-state.
Could the far-too-easy capitulation of more and more countries to the US be a true bellwether of a coming One World government, or perhaps of a coming world war? It seems to me that the other shoe(s) haven’t even begun to drop yet to answer that question. I find it impossible to imagine that EVERY government around the world will cave-in as easily as the G-8 seems to be. What then? What new dynamic will be at play when the dust settles and half the world has signed-up for FATCA/GATCA and the other half refuses to play along? When that stage is set, I believe we’ll have an entirely different outlook on the concept of country and nationality and patriotism – and I don’t think it will be at all pretty.
“Oh CBA, we stand on guard for thee”.