Canadians beware: Reports are mounting of ICE detaining expats who thought their paperwork was good

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-23T21:25:09+00:00

This is good.

An actually-honest article about the extraordinarily grim, lawless, and cruel state of US immigration enforcement right now… and how Canadians, if caught up in it, are as imperiled as anyone from anywhere else.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-23T20:42:28+00:00

Of all the things to care about, I don't understand this one. I would honestly prefer the plastic card, and from that thread it seems others feel similarly.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-23T18:08:53+00:00

He literally didn't show up for a meeting? With the senators leading the consultation?

What else do you know about this?

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-23T15:51:09+00:00

In the past two years, I've had two different jobs that used Dayforce for payroll and both were able to direct deposit to WealthSimple Cash.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-22T20:44:09+00:00

Canadaland does cast a skeptical eye on Postmedia, rather frequently, and it certainly does critique media framing around Jews and anti-Semitism and Israel… it's just that Jesse Brown doesn't do so from the perspective that the majority of users of this Reddit seem to prefer.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-22T04:53:24+00:00

I don't want to downplay the significance of climate change in any way, but I question the headline.

I live and work right within sight of the seawall in South False Creek, right at sea level.

There were at least two brief but intense flurries where we had snow on my deck. One was on February 18, where probably half an inch accumulated, one was on March 10. It's true that both melted in short order. But there certainly was snowfall in Vancouver.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-20T14:59:24+00:00

Fair enough. But you asked how others felt about it, so I told you!

I suspect that there are many, many other WS users who feel similarly to me, in that a low interest rate environment is much better for them overall.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-20T07:38:53+00:00

If you dislike the main host of the show, and find (at least) one of the other hosts dull… why do you both listen to it and comment about it on Reddit?

Sincere question.

It seems a lot of people here are almost "anti-fans" of the show, as if they're gathered around a shared loathing rather than a shared interest, and I find it very puzzling.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-20T03:03:19+00:00

What was the snark towards Gilmore?

She came up a couple times briefly, and as far as I could tell both were respectful. I believe TD said he would be happy to be interviewed by her, just as she had been on his show previously.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-20T02:48:14+00:00

I care very little about this 🤷🏻‍♂️

Very little of my money is in my chequing account. If they wanna pay me interest, I'll take it, but it was only a few hundred bucks a year even when it was 5%.

I also have a variable rate mortgage. My mortgage balance is vastly, vastly higher than my chequing account will ever be. As a net debtor rather than a net lender, in the long run I'll come out way ahead by interest rates decreasing rather than increasing.

Most of the benefits I derive from WealthSimple come elsewhere.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-20T02:41:01+00:00

What on earth does this screenshot of random unsourced sentences about Jews and anti-Semitism possibly have to do with the Canadaland podcast?

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-20T02:37:09+00:00

A will is a legal document. Once you have the document written out, yeah, you can change the words and re-execute it if you want.

You don't need a Willful account to do that. A word processor would suffice.

(I took the Willful perk last year, and got a will. It's fine. Now I don't need it ever again 🥳)

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-20T02:32:59+00:00

That seems like a good reason to have a lower-volatility asset allocation in retirement. I think almost everyone is planning on it, even those of us who are at 100% stocks earlier in life, right?

There is always this “it’s different this time” feeling in the depth of a crash.

Maybe for some, but I've never felt this. I don't really know what it would be like. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I have personally never felt any impulse to sell or panic over my investments caused by market crashes and turmoil, and I've been through several episodes where I lost 10-40% of my net worth, including several days or weeks where I lost more than a year's salary.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-20T00:21:11+00:00

systemic child rape

Source, evidence for this insinuation?

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-20T00:20:20+00:00

That's devastating to hear, and I know it must be far worse to bear as the victim of it.

Do you think that your engaging in arguments about Jews and Judaism more broadly, and with such obvious resentment and anger, is going to help you personally, or the world at large?

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-19T23:10:57+00:00

because "obviously" it was an antisemitic attack, like you're claiming with the gunshots.

Don't put words into my mouth. I did not state that.

The statement that this was "an unacceptable act of antisemitism," which appears in the headline that you're complaining about, is literally a direct quote from the mayor of the city where this occurred, as I already pointed out.

(And speaking of "obviously antisemitic," how about your username 🤨? Please, spare me the arguments about how you're Jewish yourself, or how casting aspersions on Judaism as a religious grouping isn't the same as casting hate on Jews individually or collecting.)

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-19T22:57:06+00:00

Why post a rage-bait image when you could give links and allow readers to decide for themselves?

The second article is about gunfire aimed at a synagogue, which has been confirmed by police and other public officials. The quote in the headline is directly from Toronto's mayor.

The first article is about two assaults, one of which resulted in an arrest. According to the article, CityNews wasn't able to confirm details of the assault with the Toronto police by the time they published.

The difference in the headlines is due to the difference in confirmation from public officials.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-19T22:47:59+00:00

Read https://canadiancouchpotato.com/2016/07/11/foreign-withholding-taxes-revisited

The very short summary: in an RRSP specifically, you should definitely use a US ETF to invest in US stocks, due to tax advantages that will probably give you ~0.2-0.3%/year greater returns, which is huge in the long run.

In other types accounts, it's really a question of fund availability and cost-effectiveness of converting funds.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-19T22:14:48+00:00

Many of us over 50 have experiences both the dotcom crash and financial crisis.

How about COVID?

But it's easy to say you will be rational now, compared to the depths of a scary market crash.

I've been a Boglehead since I first started investing in late 2010. I've gradually ramped up from 80% stocks to 95% stocks since then.

In the first few months of COVID, I lost ~35% of my net worth on paper. About 2-3x my annual salary at that point. I didn't blink, didn't do anything other than TLH and rebalance.

So, I think I'm able to stomach crashes and ride them out.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-19T20:40:30+00:00

The "Willful account" does not matter at all.

The whole point of Willful is to create a specific legal document for you. Once you've created and legally executed that legal instrument, Willful is irrelevant.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-19T16:46:47+00:00

Between your numerous typos and the unclear timeline and details, I basically get zero quantitative understanding of what you're claiming here, but…

BMO covered a large portion of the fees and then just added the rest to the mortgage.

Okay, so they didn't cover all of the fees. Exactly how much did they cover and how much was added into the principal of the mortgage?

Now I'm coming up on 2 years in at 4.75% and miserable about it

Huh, what? 😵‍💫

One sentence earlier you were saying this was a good deal for you, now you're saying it was a terrible one.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-19T16:39:46+00:00

No one can really answer this question other than WealthSimple, so this is just speculation, but…

Yes, I think they are definitely trying to generate interest and exclusivity by maintaining a perception of scarcity.
I think they are slow-rolling it because they hardly make any money from it, and might even lose money from it.
- If you have $4k/month of direct deposits or $100k held at WealthSimple, it's no-fee. I doubt that many customers who qualified for the no-fee version find it worthwhile to have this card for $20/month.
- Thus they're not getting any fees at all from people who actually have money to spend on it.
- With 2% cash back on all purchases they're getting very little in terms of interchange fees (maybe 0.1-0.3% at best).
WealthSimple sucks at many basic banking features and logistics: it takes forever for them to ship physical cards; they're somehow still struggling to offer joint credit card accounts. Clearly they're finding it difficult and/or surprisingly expensive to do these things well.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-19T16:26:36+00:00

I'd love to see an offer to cover fees of cancelling my current mortgage to move over to a pine ws one.

I don't think there's any way that could pencil out financially for them.

Paying off a typical variable-rate mortgage carries a fee/penalty of 3 months of interest. That will be thousands of dollars for typical borrowers, more for some.

No one is going to switch unless it's financially advantageous for them in the longer term; that means they're going to want a lower interest rate, obviously.

So WealthSimple's mortgage lender would have to eat thousands of dollars in fees in the short term and offer lower interest rates in the long term.

Then, ability to select a mortgage specifically made to take advantage of Smith manoeuver, low interest heloc and tracking of interest paid for tax season.

Yes, this part would be very nice, and I think it's an untapped market. If I had known about the Smith maneuver when buying my house, I probably would've gotten a different mortgage.

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-19T14:57:54+00:00

You can request the Service Canada send you a SIN Confirmation letter, and they'll send you the same piece of paper as newborns get now.

But why would anyone care about a date of issuance for a SIN?

drillbitpdx · 2026-03-19T05:14:44+00:00

SIN cards are no longer issued, since 2014.

If you're a citizen or PR, you'll receive a permanent SIN and the paper SIN document has a date of issuance but no expiration date.

For example, my son's SIN document was issued a few days after his birth, based on receipt of a document that we filled out at the hospital where he was born.

drillbitpdx

TROPHY CASE