British politician Nigel Farage has a problem. His bank has fired him as a client..In the normal way of things, Mr. Farage's travails would not merit a comment on these pages. On the other hand, here's a prominent critic of governments, the World Economic Forum and blind stupidity in all its forms with no credit card and only his mattress to keep his money in. .So the question for people living in Canada, is what have you had to say about the government lately?.Without charging off down the tin hat trail of alarm and conspiracy, what exactly is going on here?.First, you have to know who Farage is. Often insightful, frequently over the top but never in doubt, the broadcaster and former British Member of the European Parliament Farage has a talent for saying what governments hate to hear, but that regular working stiffs are surprised needs to be said at all, it being so darned obvious..A sampling:."There is no Left and Right any more. Left and Right is irrelevant... We need big change. We've got to get back control of our country."."How can any government arrange sensible healthcare provision for citizens when the migratory flow is so large, with absolutely no power or control over the quantity coming in every year?"."I love Europe! France is wonderful. It should be. We've subsidised it for 40 years.".Have you ever said anything like that? Thought it, perhaps? Certainly, here in Alberta a lot of us think Quebec is "wonderful," too..Anyway, like him or not, that's Farage and he is something of a lightning rod..All this makes him what they call a 'politically exposed person.' This places him in an unprotected category of humanity that banks are allowed to dump. .While that seems uncomfortably arbitrary, it's not indefensible..The PEP moniker is the creation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) an international group that "leads global action to tackle money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing.".Any bank observing suspicious transactions is in an invidious position; inevitably if scandal breaks, management will be asked awkward questions about why they didn't take action. So it's reasonable to give them an out..However, Farage wasn't up to tricks. He was just saying things that a lot of less well-known people think, and had a special gift of obnoxiousness in the saying of them..Met him once at a Manning Conference in Ottawa, during which encounter he was the soul of charm. But when he's on, he's on. It's easy to see how people he doesn't like, don't like him..And apparently, nor does Coutts, his bank. .Coutts is a high-end private bank that requires clients either borrow a million pounds or keep £3 million on deposit. Their version of events is that Farage didn't keep enough on account. .Farage doesn't deny that, but notes that it didn't seem to bother them for the last ten years. He suspects instead that he may have been the victim of prejudice because of his campaigning for Brexit..He also relates a few other examples of political people — candidates for his own party — who have been unbanked not for their deposits of large amounts of used, non-sequential bank notes but because of their politics. .After contacting nine other banks, he still hasn't found one to take his business..What does that look like? As he says, "Draw your own conclusions." However, Mr. Farage is a resourceful person. He will no doubt solve his own problems..Not insignificantly even the government of Great Britain itself, upon which Farage has relentlessly poured scorn for two decades, has seen fit to warn banks against shuttering accounts belonging to “politically exposed persons.".The question is, if you Mr. and Mrs. Canadian are also outspoken, could it happen to you?.The answer is, possibly. But not probably. Most of us after all, do not have the profile Mr. Farage has built for himself. .However, one cannot exclude the possibility..A few years ago Ezra Levant of Rebel News did encounter a comparable situation, when he was denied a commercial mortgage because of his politics..And, during the Convoy protest, some Canadians did have their bank accounts frozen, some merely because they made small donations to the cause: $20 was enough to trigger an account stoppage..Sure, it was the Government of Canada that did that. But some say — I would say — the banks were over-eager in their patriotic enthusiasm to assist the civil power... It's their job to be on their customers' side, and they weren't..It's too much to expect that the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau would ever echo the stern warning issued to banks by the British government, to avoid 'unbanking' people with politically charged views. .It is not too much however, to ask the Conservative Party of Canada — when it gets the chance — to make 'unbanking' for political reasons, illegal. It is enough that Canadian governments attempt to police thought. The last thing Canadians need is for private enterprise to start doing it, too.
