The 1967 CBC Massey Lectures, "Conscience For Change" – Martin Luther King http://t.co/unXKU5LfjZ – Fascinating https://t.co/3E8cBcwga5
— Citizenship Lawyer (@ExpatriationLaw) December 28, 2014
Recent discussions with a friend have me wondering whether Americans abroad are indeed the “property” of the US government. At first I considered this a bit exaggerated but am coming to appreciate that there is a great deal of truth in it. Perhaps reflecting a bit on the past might provide valuable insight on how we might approach this ongoing, changing situation. The idea that a human being could be considered “property” is initially strange to me. The only obvious parallel would be that of being a slave. In spite of growing up in a somewhat racially-tense city, I was largely unaware that the very foundation of the U.S. included slavery. I was 10 years old in 1965 when the riots in Watts occurred. Two years later, there were 159 riots during the “Long Hot Summer of 1967. The next year, following the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, more riots. By then I was 13 and able to understand some of the reasons: poor schools, lack of employment, overcrowding in filthy ghettos, pollution, discrimination by police, etc. MLK described it as “humiliation for decades, for centuries.” Along with the other assassinations, Vietnam, etc, it did not yet occur to me that the problem was rooted in a very underlying hypocrisy. In spite of the U.S. being the “Land of the Free and the “American Dream” supposedly available to all, the fact was the U.S. was a place where gross abuse of human “rights” was visible in daily life as long as I had been alive.
There are some interesting CBC Radio “Massey Lectures” given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr that John Richardson wrote about recently on the ADCS wordpress site. As I listened, I was struck by the fact that intellectually, it was obvious enough that “rights” had been violated in a perverse way for so long. But I was more horrified by the immorality of it. I was much too young to really appreciate what he was and am overwhelmed by his intelligence, clarity and devotion to non-violence. The issue of race in America is clearly an ethical issue, no doubt about it. One could go on and on about social, economic and other mitigating factors but at its root, the problem truly is that one group of human beings is denied the basic respect, dignity and consideration others receive due to discrimination of what they are from birth. The recent incidents in Ferguson, Cleveland and other cities show not much has changed in the last 50 years.
I was taught that America was born due to the brave actions of those who left England because of persecution due to religious beliefs; later attempts to tax the colonists who had no representation in the parliament etc. In recent years, having learned my ancestral roots, I have been proud of the fact that my family has played an integral role in that beginning. Yet at the same time, for the last three years, experience of the treatment at the hands of the US government definitely casts a different light on it. Americans abroad (and even people who are not truly “American”) are not given the same respect as those who live in the Homeland. What’s at the root of this? Does the U.S. view us as if they “own” us? Are we their property and are we not free to leave the country? We may be able to buy our way out but fundamentally, what difference is there between that and a slave from the past doing the same? In the modern world there is a tendency to minimalize emotional or mental suffering as if it is not valid since it is not as severe as say, physical torture. That may be true to a certain degree yet I fail to see how that removes the immoral forces that can be responsible for both. In fact, the only way to see it may be to draw parallels between them.
The reality is that slavery was just as much a part of the origin of the U.S. as the more euphemistic ideals. Most of the “Founding Fathers” had slaves. The original Quakers had no qualms about it; William Penn himself owned slaves. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, all had slaves. Though each did begin to change over time, the most basic right, to be treated with dignity as a human being, was denied to those who lived on their land, served them in their homes, etc. The U.S. was a nation based on slavery due to economic need and immoral racial discrimination. Plantation masters “owned” people as if they were property, something to barter, sell, used to populate workers (so as not to have to buy from the international trade, etc.). Ironically, during the Revolutionary War, the British Army recruited rebel slaves to fight and granted them freedom after the war. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was passed by a vote of 48-7 a mere 17 years after the beginning of the Revolution. The Act guaranteed the right of the slaveholder to recover an escaped slave. The South began to develop the perception that Northern States aided slaves and it became a major justification for secession of the Confederate States before the Civil War began in 1861.
Consider the plight of Oney (Ona) Judge Staines. She was “owned” by Martha Washington and escaped in 1796. She married a “free-black” man and had 3 daughters in New Hampshire. Yet, had someone turned her in, she, as well as her family could have been seized and returned to Washington as she literally was part of “the inheritance” of her mistress’ heirs. White abolitionists, free-born blacks, former slaves whether escaped or manumitted and Native Americans came together to set up the “Underground Railroad.” Canada was “Heaven” and the “Promised Land.” The Ohio River, the dividing line between slave and non-slave states, was called “the River Jordan.” The number who escaped is disputed but by 1850 some 100,000 had made their way to freedom. The US census claimed only 6,000 were gone.
The very long process of changing began and continues to this day. Over 200 years later, we still see this depraved treatment of our fellow human beings. It is reflected in the news, books, and movies such as 12 Years a Slave, Selma etc.
Which human rights then, were denied the slaves?
- They could be whipped, branded, raped, imprisoned without trial, and hanged
- The right to be with their families
- The right to move freely, even off the plantation where they lived and worked
- The right to be paid well enough to save for the well-being of themselves and their families when they could no longer work
- No right to representation in the Congress (even later enumerated as only 3/5 of a person)
- unreasonable searches and seizure of property
- no access to the rule of law
- no access to legal representation or use the courts
- make contracts, or own any property
- denied the right to assemble
- denied the right to have guns (under Jim Crow laws)
- right to own property without proof one was “free”
- requirement to have papers to reflect status
- They primarily could not escape their fate due to what they were from birth
It doesn’t require much to know that what is listed above is quite simply, immoral. Would granting the slaves the exact same “rights” have made them equal? Would that have righted the wrong? How long does it take for people to change?
All of the above are things we’ve been taught to think are our “birthrights” because we were Americans. Some of the things listed above do not apply but it is interesting to see some of the ones that do:
- The Reed Amendment & the proposed ExPatriotAct would deny ex-citizens the right to be with families whether for enjoyment, to care for in illness, death, etc. Some believe this is what we deserve and should be punished for
- The same would deny expats mobility if not within the US, connections to flights, etc.
- The same right to save without penalty for retiring that other Americans enjoy ( It is apparently too difficult to see the “sameness” between an RRSP and an IRA; a TFSA and a Roth IRA so the solution is to make it “equal” i.e., no RRSPs, no TFSAs, no foreign mutual funds, RDSPs, RESPs since Homelanders cannot have them)
- No meaningful, realistic right to representation in Congress
- Demands to financial information assuming criminal behaviour; 8938?
- NICs list would prevent an expat from having a gun (unwanted but similar nonetheless)
- Must have a CLN to prove one is “free”
- Cannot enter the US without a US passport which creates condition of “using” citizenhip benefit and thus nullifying acts of loss of citizenship and attempted re-imposition of tax status (with a lot of help from the compliance community)
- And finally and most importantly, this is our fate because of our birth
Is there really much difference between the Founding Fathers using slaves for the economic advantage and the US suddenly applying tax law and reporting requirements because of the deficit? Is it reasonable of the US to claim that their treatment of expats is equal to Homelanders, that we are not being discriminated against? Is the Exit Tax and 877 and 877A not somewhat equivalent to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793? FATCA and/or the Whistleblower Act a different consequence than what would have happened to Oney Judge Staines if someone had turned her in? How about the denial of the US government as to the actual number of relinquishments/renunciations and the same with regard to the number of escaped slaves prior to 1865? The mocking tone of those on online forums acting as if losing us doesn’t matter since so many are clambering to get in? And in a positive sense, in the same way different types of people who were anti-slavery came together and formed the Underground Railroad to help those in need, we have border babies, accidentals, duals/former duals and family members coming together at Brock and Sandbox to find a way to help those affected “escape?”
My favorite parallel of all:
While the economic impact was minuscule, the psychological effect on the slaveholders was immense, led to the Civil War and finally, the 13th amendment, passed on Dec 6, 1865.
It seems uncanny:
- the number of us leaving will not have a huge financial effect on the U.S.
- in spite of the abuse given on the forums, it is clear that it does bother the US establishment that this is happening; (the IRS has made changes for the better in the last 3 yrs; others like Shumer want to hit us harder; DS has raised the fee etc)
- at present it does feel like a sort of war what with the ADCS-ADSC Challenge, the Human Rights Complaint and inside the US, the FATCA lawsuit and the Florida/Texas Bankers Appeal
- The only thing yet to become clear is when US legislation will happen to right this situation
Writing this and accepting the fact that the U.S. does indeed consider us as nothing more than property, takes the drama out of feeling angry and all of that. This recognition actually does give me hope that something eventually will lead to a change in American law so this will be resolved. Just like the slaves and the very slow road to equality being experienced by African-Americans, someday we may find a shift in the attitudes and laws and this will end.
But what do you think?
Oh Freedom
Oh Freedom
Oh freedom over me!
And before I’d be a slave
I’ll be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy
He believed that the aristocracy were a burden on the poor, and that the only solution to how we live together is through anarchism. He also opposed private property.
Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker, social reformer, and Georgist. His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Bevel. [DK]
Still Laughing at “Anarcho”-Capitalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy
He believed that the aristocracy were a burden on the poor, and that the only solution to how we live together is through anarchism. He also opposed private property.
Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker, social reformer, and Georgist. His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Bevel. [DK]
https://www.facebook.com/SLANCAP/photos/a.1393137554231666.1073741828.1393134544231967/1578910448987708/?type=1
We, US Citizens living outside the USA are clearly treated as property by the US Government. While this is most clearly true for those of us living outside the USA, it is also true for homelanders but they likely don’t see if from their inside the country perspective. Citizenship = US Taxes no matter where on the planet we are, like cows to be milked.
Moreover, it is interesting that while US citizens are treated as property by the US, other countries treat their citizens, for example, Thailand, as children. In Thailand, the government (in this case at this time being a military dictatorship) simply will not allow open fair elections, freedom of expression or debate about any of the most pressing issues facing the country.
I am not sure how Canada treats its citizens, and would be interested to hear from IBS members on thier perspective.
The comparison of CBT to slavery is apt. The comparison of FATCA and its ilk to the Fugitive Slave Act is also most apropos. It is time for the world to upend this nonsense once and for all. Slavery is and was abhorrent. To make matters worse, the danger to the population of the earth is now so much greater … as all are affected … the entire world being made into a “Slave State” …. the endangered not merely those who find themselves within musket or arrow shot of aggressors but now EVERYBODY.
Having said these things, a couple comments on matters arising from the article:
“later enumerated as only 3/5 of a person” Careful about this, it is often misquoted and misused as suggesting that white people considered black people to be only 3/5ths of a person at the time when the US Constitution was written. As I understand the history, the Slave States wanted the numbers of slaves to be counted in their populations to influence the size of their States’ contingents in the fledgling Congress. The other States said effectively … “sure, provided you free the slaves. If the slaves are chattels then they should not be counted as their position as chattels is no more than that of livestock.” The Slavers of course wanted the influence and so as a compromise the slaves were counted as 3/5ths of a person each in arriving at the quantum of a State’s influence in the new Congress. Please correct me if I am mistaken on this.
The other thing to remember is that throughout the history of the world Slavery has been an accepted institution (as repugnant as that seems to us today) – go back as far as you like even unto the situation with Moses in Egypt. It was the English who eventually overturned the table in the early 1800s and said “No More.”; it was the Royal Navy that patrolled the seas and oceans seeking to disrupt and stop the slave trade (and were successful in cramping the Atlantic trade but could not stop entirely the eastern trade out of Africa into the Muslim realms). Slavery was not only of Black Persons but every race has at some point been enslaved by others. Every race has participated in the enslavement of others through history. I am not aware of exceptions to this.
Certainly and excellent parallel presented in your well thought out piece, Tricia. I live next door to descendants of the underground railroad. I visit their museum that they have so lovingly built to keep black history alive. I listen to the stories of their ancestors and how they were chased by dogs over the border. I see the scares left on their skin that determined ownership in the pictures that are placed around the rooms. The balls and chains are a horrific reminder of what the US did to these slaves to keep them at home. Granted, Canada was an escape from their enslavement but life was hard here too. Jobs were scarce, living conditions brutal, but as a group they were able to gather in their small communities and eek out a living. There is strength in numbers. They built their own little church which still exists today. I visit often because the place is welcoming and comfortable. Lots of homelanders from the US come here to visit the museum and attend the little church service. They are amazed by the extent of the artifacts on display at the museum and are always grateful to the families that have put it together.
Tricia
Wow! What you wrote took me back to 1967. The riots were in the next town from me. I became very aware of what was happening in the country. 3 years later I was living in Canada. I left the USA wanting freedom.
You should send this to every US and Canadian media and every major world media. I do suggest you send it to President Obama and all of Congress. Send it to Pope Francis and the United Nations.
THE BOOK OF THE NEGRO will be on American TV in a week. Sending your essay would be very timely. The blacks in America have obviously not been treated as free, even after the emancipation. Current events show this. Chomksy says it is Poverty that keeps them down. The elite and corporations are the modern day slave owners. They control people keeping them down by keeping them poor. The corporations and elite control Congress. FATCA is all about owning people and their financial well being and keeping people slaves to the government. Expats are like the blacks.
What you wrote is so stirring. I hope it can stir people out of the apathy and pessimism that is taking over. We need a MLK, a Ghandi, a Tolstoy.
Thank you for this. It took a lot of work and time. Thank you.
@Tricia
This is a brilliant and “thought provoking post”. Your list of parallels between America’s “agreed upon” slave past and the current treatment of so called “Americans” abroad is interesting, relevant and (I would argue) “accurate”. That said, I think the following parallel should be added.
The “Exit Tax” (offensive if applied to anybody) may be justifiable if applied to Homelanders leaving the USA. It is completely unjustified when applied to the assets of Americans who have lived outside the USA for most of their lives. The Exit Tax is the simple confiscation of wealth because somebody doesn’t want t be a U.S. citizen. The “Exit Tax” when applied to Americans abroad is the exact equivalent to a slave in the south “buying his freedom”. If somebody can see a relevant difference between S. 877A Exit tax rules (applied to Americans abroad) and a slave buying his freedom, please, please, explain it.
“Of course the “Exit Tax” is only paid by some Americans. Lest you think of you are exempt from having to “pay for your freedom” (if you are not subject to the Exit Tax), remember that ALL Americans are required to make a $2350 payment directly to the U.S. government and must pay additional fees to “Form People” for compliance. Therefore, the direct monetary costs needed for Americans to “buy their freedom” are threefold. They are composed of:
1. The Exit Tax if applicable.
2. The $2350 (which is sure to increase) direct fee to the U.S.
government
3. The fees paid to the “Form People” (tax compliance people).
An interesting discussion of the history of slaves buying their freedom is here:
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/emancipation/text1/text1read.htm
Now, somebody who disagrees with the analogy between the Exit Tax and slaves purchasing their freedom might say:
Oh come on. The slaves were, well slaves. Americans are free people. The issue is whether Americans abroad are free people or property is the point of your post. Rather than use labels, it would be more useful to examine the circumstances. The simple fact is that Americans abroad are controlled by a system of laws, regulations, threats and penalties that citizens of no other nation are subject to. Let’s call it a “Code of Conduct For Americans abroad” or “Code” or short. To make it worse, the U.S. justification is NOT based on meaningful citizenship, but based on “place of birth”. The “Code” controls all aspects of their life. It keeps them living in a “Fiscal Prison”. It puts them in a position where they must do violence to their country of residence and their families because they are controlled by the Code.
How can this happen. As I have written before, U.S. citizens do NOT have rights based on their status as “Human Beings”. Their rights and freedoms exist only to the extent that they are granted by the U.S. government and restricted by the “Code”. Your post is titled “Is an American a piece of property? Well, that may be a bit extreme (you can choose whether to be property or not), but there is NO doubt that the U.S. government believes that it:
1. Owns its citizens; and
2. Has the right to regulate all aspects of their lives.
This is true of Homelanders too. It’s just that Homelanders have been drinking “America is the greatest country kool aid. The one advantage to being an American abroad is that you can see what the true meaning of “American citizenship is” – and it may be equivalent to “American property”. Certainly the citizens of most other Western democracies have rights that result from their status as humans and not from their status as citizens.This means that they have rights that are greater than those rights allowed to the unfortunate souls born in the United States. The U.S. is world leader in “eroding human rights”. Note that pursuant to a FATCA IGA a country agrees to lower it’s standards of human rights. (Even a Homelander would agree with that.)
Like you I have been thinking about this.
The issue of whether Americans abroad are “Club members” or “Club servants” is explored here:
http://renounceuscitizenship.wordpress.com/2014/12/31/are-americansabroad-members-of-club-usa-or-owned-by-club-usa/
Now, if you ultimately accept the notion that Americans abroad are “property” and NOT “people”, the question becomes:
“Should one accept that one is property or NOT accept that one is property?”
Now many lawyers would say: But, it’s the law! The problem is that in the America of today:
Law has become a substitute for morality.
Clearly the treatment as “property” results from the imposition of immoral laws.
This raises the following two questions:
1. Is there an obligation to obey such immoral laws?
2. Is there (as Thoreau in his “Civil Disobedience” suggests), a duty to NOT obey an immoral law.
Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” is a great work from a great American writer. There is an analogy between FATCA and the “Fugitive Slave Act”. Thoreau opposed the “Fugitive Slave Act”.
An interesting discussion is here:
https://web.duke.edu/kenanethics/CaseStudies/Lincoln&Thoreau.pdf
and includes this excerpt that is eerily similar to the FATCA discussion of today:
The debate between Lincoln (it’s the law and must be obeyed) and Thoreau (it’s immoral and violates Charter rights) it’s has its analogy in the FATCA debates of today.
Thoreau was a great American writer and philosopher.
His thinking and work embodied the finest traditions of American citizenship.
Trisha,
Like Northernstar, I was transported back to my life at that time. We had riots in NYC as well but John Lindsay, then mayor, massaged and worked with the black community. I had friends in the Black Panther movement who grudgingly let me march with them, I worked for Paul O’Dwyer’s campaign and marched on Washington to hear MLK, at pretty much the same young adolescent age. As refugees from Nazi Poland, my parents breathed the notion of freedom and equity and justice for all and we consumed it. Now my son, thirty years later has been marching every night to protest the deep scars of racism in the same city in which I was raised. Another generation, another fight.
I agree that this piece is worthy of a much broader reach and read. Having taken the time to reflect and write, take the time to send it out so people everywhere can contemplate the notion of freedom and perhaps start to take action to realize it.
Thank you
@ brockers: this one got me started onthe eggnog early
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/30/living/america-in-five-words-twitter/index.html?hpt=us_t5
my 5 words would be
F.A.T.C.A
@USCitizenAbroad,
You mention Thoreau who suggests that we have a duty not to obey an immoral law.
Consider also the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who describes three approaches, with increasing level of resistance, for the “Church” to deal with a State that legislates immorality:
1. Question the State regarding its actions and legitimacy.
2. Declare that the Church “has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering of society”.
—and most important:
3. “[Do not just] bandage the victims under the wheel, but put a spoke in the wheel itself”.
The Vatican will now be complying with the immoral FATCA law. When will a Church speak out against this immoral legislation?
Tricia,
Thanks for this brilliant comparison of what is going on for those of us who somehow have an ‘American brand’ — many who have never lived there or have not chosen as adults with ‘requisite mental capacity’ to live in the USA . How sad there is still an undercurrent of such belief alive and well there, legitimized by the same *we are exceptional* mindset as that which sanctioned slavery. How many generations will it take for complete change?
Your comparison of the abuses for US-defined *US Persons Abroad*, with all the similarities to the human rights abuses of American black slaves you’ve highlighted, explains a lot of how we are perceived and what many “homelanders” believe we owe (some in our own families).
Martin Luther King knew it was about human rights and so do we. All ‘God’s children’ should have the same human rights — none of us should be more *exceptional* than another no matter the country of our ‘accidental births’. May we some day reach some moral equality. May we some day even, as a result, have peace.
Stephen, thank you for your question,
@Tricia: Those events and several others of the 1960s—assassinations of JFK, MLK and RFK, Vietnam, Chicago 1968, Kent State, Mississippi Burning, etc. were all factors in my decision to immigrate to Canada as what Arrow called a “spiritual draft dodger.” They were also all part of why I had no hesitation to renounce my American citizenship in my Canadian citizenship oath and to “permanently and irrevocably” relinquish U.S. citizenship as advised by U.S. Consulate.
Slavery was very much part of the foundation of America, so we should not be surprised to find ourselves part of the modern day version. Many of the founding fathers owned slaves, including 12 Presidents. Those Presidents include George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, whom we were raised to believe represented true liberty and freedom.
http://hauensteincenter.org/slaveholding/
“
Even “Give me liberty or give me death” Patrick Henry owned slaves.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1269536/The-Founding-Fathers-and-Slavery
Citizenship based taxation also dates back to the Civil War as a punishment for people leaving the U.S. That punishment continues today.
@U.S. Citizen Abroad: Thomas Jefferson said “If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it; he is obligated to do so.”
Of course, Jefferson also said “All men are created equal” despite the fact he owned slaves and denied black men and all women the right to vote. Hypocrisy reigned then just as it does now.
Thank you for this, NoWarToys!
Joan Baez, who was not afraid to speak for others in a time that instilled in many of us our need for speaking out now, says it so well with her beautiful voice. She has always been one of my USA heros.
It’s a lot worse than most Americans living outside the US think. The US political establishments of both parties seem to think the US owns the whole planet and everyone and everything on it. Which is the real reason IMO why most of the rest of humanity either hates or deeply mistrusts the US, for very good reasons.
For depressing, chilling, but perceptive reading, I recommend “The Untold History of the United States” by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznik published by Gallery Books (subsidiary of Simon and Shuster I think) in 2012. This review of US history basically starts with the 1898 Spanish American War and continues right through to Obama (and there are some delicious potshots taken at Geitner in that last chapter), but anyone familiar with US history as it pertains to First Nations people can trace the imperialism and sanctimonious hypocrisy of the US back to the Revolution (and descendants of United Empire Loyalists would have a fair bit to add to that story as well). Black slaves weren’t the only people abused and oppressed by the US. The only good thing I have to say about the US today is that there are still American authors like Stone and Kuznik and publishers like Gallery who have the awareness and the balls to publish antidotes to the brainwashing most Americans (including me when I was still American and still living there) are submitted to in the educational system and the media. Though I did manage to get a taste of the full story in my last year in high school, when I stumbled on some of the political commentary Mark Twain wrote during the Spanish American War. There’s a lot more to Mark Twain than Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, though one wouldn’t have known that from my high school English teachers.
If you need more convincing that we’re considered property, look no further than the rule that exempts renunciants with “dual” citizenship at birth from the exit tax.
When determining property ownership “possession is 9/10ths of the law”.
I have to look no further than the fact my right to renounce my citizenship is being violated by an unreasonable fee and an unreasonable delay to know that I am being treated as a possession of the U.S. government.
@Schubert
Thanks for the “heads up” on the Oliver Stone book. At one time you had also commented on “Liberty’s Exiles” by M. Jasonoff. Those interested can see the earlier comment here:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/08/09/meet-libertys-exiles-the-loyalists-in-the-revolution/comment-page-1/#comment-474704
How do I relinquish my ties to the US slavery? I am Canadian and born here to Aboriginal parents. Now, the USA has MADE me a “non resident alien”. I do not want this and never wanted anything to do with the USA as it is NOT my country. Is the USA saying to me that the only way to leave is to break up my family? Well, if I do, do I re-marry my wife? Is my marriage that was in Canada actually “legal” in the USA? If my legal marriage in Canada is only a legal document in Canada, than the USA has no right to any of my personal information. Idiots like Mr. Berg and all of the Conservative “stooges” that are spouting all of the hyperbolic rhetoric we get from them, might have a larger fight on their hands than they first thought. We might have to re-write the marriage certificate and family law to allow for the implementation of American law. Mr. Harper, do I have to break up my family because of Fatca? Looks that way to me……
@ Tricia So well done, this really needs a wider audience. I hope some of this has been included in the Human Rights complaint.
“Is an American a Piece of U.S. Property?”
The fact that we must hide ourselves and our legal Canadian financial accounts from the US government answers that question.
@maz57
Not only hide from the US… but make sure the people who work for the IRS now… our own country persons & gov’t… not know anything…. I also figure that CRA might comb their databases for anything US & they could turn us over also… no one even thought of that… clear violation of my charter rights… ohh… wait… Harper & his buddies have decided I am no longer canadian… When officials find out we have USness… will they flag everything we own & proceed to issue big badges to wear to point us out easier…
@ US_Foreign_Person I suggested that the banks might start asking for birth certificates to verifiy “US Person” status on another thread and another commentor suggested this was a “stretch . . that the US cannot force Canadian Banks to request birth certificates” I don’t think we can assume anything, the US is a mighty power that is throwing its weight around. They forced Canada to pass a law that violates our Charter of Rights. Remember we are “US Persons residing in Canada” regardless of whether we hold Canadian Citizenship. Canada will not protect us from the foreign government intent on attacking us financially. Only Eritreans in Canada get protection, because their country has no clout. The Canadian government has instead chosen to increase the vicitimization of residents in its country by agreeing to enforce FATCA. Many of us are scared.
How much of all of this has happpened already?
Logic Chain; or, How Banks Rule Canada
1. Jim Flaherty parrots current US-Canada tax provisions
2. Jim Flaherty writes a letter that no US outlet will publish
3. David Jacobson offers “sit tight” public relations
4. Canada rams FATCA through
5. Banks begin to implement data collection
6. FATCA starts to identify US persons
7. Big lawsuit fails to get leave to appeal to Supreme Court of Canada
8. IRS needs to pursue US persons
9. Canada stands firm in refusing to use CRA to collect for IRS
10. Canada administratively allows banks and courts to enforce IRS collections
11. Bank profit outlook surges when FATCA liability threat shifts to customers
12. Tax cheats that hide out in anti-American Canada get what they deserve
13. Privacy / ignominy / fear / boredom stifle news coverage
The system works, but not for you. Sauve qui peut.
@USX
You forgot the Bopp lawsuit.