This article supplied by Troy Media.

 By Lee Harding 

The rise of debanking threatens free speech and financial rights. Canadians have a right to be worried

If you thought bank account freezes ended after the 2022 convoy, think again. “Debanking”—the practice of banks abruptly closing accounts, often without a clear explanation—is on the rise in Canada and the U.S., and it’s fast becoming a tool to silence dissent.

Alberta lawyer Eva Chipiuk is a recent debanking victim. On July 17, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) sent her a letter saying she could no longer have an account there. She posted RBC’s letter, which offered little explanation beyond stating her recent account activity was “outside of RBC’s client risk appetite,” on X. She was told to transfer her funds to another financial institution within 31 days.

In an interview with the Financial Post, Chipiuk said she had made two $1,000 transfers to cryptocurrency platform Shakepay Inc. over two consecutive days to buy Bitcoin. The second transfer was blocked by the bank and triggered an account freeze. She went to the bank to have her account restored. A few days after succeeding, she received the letter saying her accounts would again be closed until mid-August.

While banks often flag cryptocurrency transactions for review because of antimoney-laundering regulations, such activity is lawful.

If that alone were grounds for debanking, more than four million Canadians would be at risk. According to the Triple A Global Cryptocurrency
Report, about 10.1 per cent of Canadians own cryptocurrency.

However, buying crypto does not appear to be the real reason. Chipiuk represented protesters from the Freedom Convoy, which began in
opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and sweeping pandemic restrictions, and cross-examined then-prime minister Justin Trudeau
in 2022 at the Public Order Emergency Commission hearings in Ottawa.

In 2022, Canadian banks froze $7.8 million from 200 accounts related to the convoy. A single mother in B.C. complained to her MP, Mark Strahl, that her bank account was frozen after giving a $50 donation to the convoy, which was legal at the time. In response, the prime minister and deputy prime minister said financial measures were meant only to target convoy leaders.

The convoy is over, but debanking is not. The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments opened 94 cases related to debanking in 2024 and 105 in 2023. A spokesperson for the organization told the Financial Post: “We are not able to challenge or change a bank’s decision. We are also generally not able to tell the consumer the bank’s reason for account closure.”

Debanking has also emerged as an issue in the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump complained about it in his Jan. 20 video conference with the World Economic Forum. He told Brian T. Moynihan, chair, president and CEO of Bank of America: “I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business.”

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren agreed. At a Senate committee hearing on Feb. 8 entitled “Investigating the Real Impacts of Debanking in America,” she said: “Donald Trump was onto a real problem when he criticized Bank of America for its de-banking practices.”

Warren said de-banked U.S. customers “all reported common themes,” namely: “No warning. No explanation. No chance to dispute or appeal. They described how one day, all of a sudden, they lost their place in the banking system.” The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has received 12,000 debanking complaints over the past three years. Georgia, Florida and Tennessee have introduced laws to curb debanking.

A completely de-banked person is left with only cash, but in Canada, Bill C-2 could significantly worsen their predicament. If passed, federal law will ban cash transactions of $10,000 or more to a business or non-profit for any given thing, whether that amount is in a lump sum or a series of payments.

Encroachments on free speech and financial rights are paving the way for a dystopian future, where those who refuse to bow to government diktat or bankfavoured ideologies are shut out of the financial system.

Canadians and Americans must defend their freedoms now, before a digital technocracy emerges to cancel and crush dissent.

Lee Harding is a research fellow for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Troy Media empowers Canadian community news outlets by providing independent, insightful analysis and commentary. Our mission is to support local media in helping Canadians stay informed and engaged by delivering reliable content that strengthens community connections and deepens understanding across the country.

This article supplied by Troy Media.

 By Michael Taube

Sean Feucht’s tour sparked a political storm in Canada, giving him more exposure than he ever sought

Most readers are likely familiar with this phrase, “making a mountain out of a molehill.” It’s taken directly from a line in English playwright Nicholas Udall’s translation of The first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the newe testamente (1548). To wit, “the Sophistes of Grece coulde through their copiousness make an Elephant of a ye, and a mountaine of a mollehill.”

What does the phrase mean? It’s a massive overreaction to something that should have been regarded as nothing. Many molehills have been turned into mountains in our world. Once that happens, it’s nearly impossible to turn these mountains back into the molehills they should have always been and remained.

Canada is dealing with one right now. It comes on the heels of a left-wing explosion related to Sean Feucht, a little-known U.S.-based Christian musician with a small planned tour of our country.

Feucht is a singer and songwriter. His music has mostly been self-published, with the exception of his moderately successful album, Wild, through Bethel Music in 2018. He used to be a worship leader at Bethel Church in Redding, Calif., and founded the Let Us Worship movement during COVID-19. He finished a distant third in a Republican primary for California’s 3rd congressional district in 2020.

There’s nothing in this list that really stands out. What caught some people’s attention was his association with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Feucht was part of a group of 50 pastors and worship leaders who met Trump in the White House for a faith briefing on Dec. 11, 2019. This was during the time that the president’s first impeachment probe was underway. Feucht was quoted in a Fox News piece related to this gathering. “All 50 of us crammed into the Oval Office,” the singer-songwriter said. “He sat at his desk and he said pray for me. We just laid our hands on him and prayed for him. It was like a real intense, hardcore prayer. It was so wild. I could not believe he invited us in. That he carved out time to meet with us.”

There’s nothing in this interview that would be classified as egregious, either. These were his personal observations about the meeting with Trump, plain and simple.

Alas, the story didn’t end there.

Feucht’s rallies and events were determined to be quite political in nature. His Let Us Worship concerts expanded from protesting government restrictions about COVID-19 lockdowns to focus on cities affected by the Black Lives Matter protests. Concerts were held in cities with racial unrest under the umbrella “Riots to Revival,” including the site of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, Minn., as well as Cal Anderson Park, which was linked with Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest. He was part of a protest against The Walt Disney Company for its rejection of anti-LGBTQ legislation in Florida. He joined the ReAwaken America Tour that mixed Christian principles and ideas with controversial topics like election
denialism, QAnon and frustration with COVID-19.

There were also several right-leaning political events. Feucht arranged a Let Us Worship memorial service in September 2021 that included a pre-recorded address by Trump. He also performed at campaign rallies in support of Republican politicians Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano.

Canada’s left began to take notice, too.

When word spread that Feucht was going to appear on shows at six Canadian venues, they pushed back. Parks Canada cancelled his concert in Halifax’s York Redoubt National Historic Site and cited “heightened public safety concerns” as the reason. A concert scheduled for Charlottetown’s Confederation Landing was cancelled due to “evolving public safety and security concerns.” The four remaining venues followed suit and denied his permits. Smaller locations have served as replacements, although the City of Montreal recently issued a $2,500 fine to the Ministerios Restauración Church for doing this.

Feucht has been labelled as being akin to Public Enemy No. 1 by some Canadian columnists and media organizations. CBC described him as a “MAGA-affiliated musician.” CTV borrowed liberally from The Atlantic magazine in the U.S. and called him a “MAGA superstar.” He’s been mentioned in the print and electronic media for days, with no end in sight for the time being.

If you’re puzzled by this situation, you’re not alone.

Feucht isn’t a well-known entity in either mainstream or Christian music circles. He wasn’t going to play at large venues in front of massive audiences. His concerts weren’t going to disrupt the daily lives of Christians and non-Christians alike. He has different viewpoints about COVID-19, the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Trump’s leadership and so forth. He’s allowed to have conservative ideas and beliefs and promote them as he sees fit. He has the right to free speech, freedom of expression and freedom of religion in his country—and ours.

Canada’s left, including some Liberal and NDP politicians, clearly think otherwise. They can’t handle dissenting ideas and opinions. They despise Trump due to the tariff battle and would like to restrict his, as well as supporters like Feucht, entry to Canada. They likely believe they speak for the majority of Canadians on this matter, which is a dubious claim at best.

Meanwhile, there’s now a huge spotlight on Feucht. It’s given him enormous publicity he wasn’t seeking out or intending to receive during this small Canadian tour. The political left transformed him into a short-term media celebrity, which obviously wasn’t their original intention. Things will gradually settle down in Canada, but Feucht will likely be able to use this unexpected controversy to his advantage for many years to come.

An enormous mountain has been made out of a microscopic molehill in the Great White North for no good reason. The Paraphrases of Erasmus have been validated once more.

Michael Taube is a political commentator, Troy Media syndicated columnist and former speechwriter for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He holds a master’s degree in comparative politics from the London School of Economics, lending academic rigour to his political insights.

Troy Media empowers Canadian community news outlets by providing independent, insightful analysis and commentary. Our mission is to support local media in helping Canadians stay informed and engaged by delivering reliable content that strengthens community connections and deepens understanding across the country.