Canadian Confiscation and Protecting Your Wealth

In the midst of continuing and peaceful Freedom Convoy protests in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has declared Martial law, and can now seize citizens’ bank accounts leaving no recourse. The friction between Government powers and individual liberties continues to intensify. It also makes a perfect case for having some wealth outside of the traditional banking system, whether that be precious metals or cryptocurrencies.

The 1988 Emergencies Act, and its predecessor the War Measures Act, were used during the First and Second World Wars to deal with threats to ‘sovereignty, security and territorial integrity’. The emergency provisions grant the government the right to deploy the military internally, compel insurance companies to cancel their insurance. Premiers of Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, and Saskatchewan have already publicly opposed the overreach. From all accounts other than those they oppose, the protests are peaceful and citizens are exercising their democratic right to dissent. Now they stand to have their assets confiscated in retaliation.    

How has Canada found itself here?

Last week also saw the GoFundMe controversy reveal some of the pitfalls of centralised systems. The Canadian Trucking Convoy, which is peacefully protesting in Ottawa, raised more than $9.6m from 119,000 donations before having the funds frozen. Whatever opinions people may hold about the principles of the protest, most would expect the crowd funding website to reimburse all donations if they are no longer willing to host the cause. Instead, the company proposed to distribute the funds to charities that they support. The furore has led GoFundMe to backtrack first saying that users could apply to have their funds returned, and then finally accepting that they need to automatically refund.

Showing one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, GoFundMe’s competitor GiveSendGo gave the truckers a politically neutral home immediately after the initial deplatforming. The Truckers were able to raise $8 mil on GiveSendGo before the Ontario government froze the accounts, declaring that the donations went against the Criminal Code. At this stage the funds have been frozen, but the next step may well be seizure.

This has led to a classic “Bitcoin solves this” scenario where the crowdfunding has moved onto a decentralised platform and now has the truckers raising donations with Bitcoin here. Of particular note is the way that donations are being measured in Satoshis (one one hundred millionth of a bitcoin = ?0.00000001). Transactions can be made using the lighting network or on chain, and can be made truly anonymously. This is not just speculative fervor, but some real world changes happening right now.

While cryptocurrencies are attracting more and more attention as a hedge to centrally controlled banking systems, Gold and Silver have always been exchanged for goods and services, or for the currency of the day that people use to purchase those services. While at present currencies such as the Aussie Dollar and US Dollar are essential for daily purchases, they will ultimately go to zero through a lack of confidence. A Western “Democracy” threatening to freeze the bank accounts of those who dare criticise their policies is more than just the first couple of cracks in the dam.

As discussed in yesterday’s news, precious metals are the risk-off trade in an increasingly uncertain macroeconomic and geo-political landscape. Precious metals, held securely, cannot be taken away by any third party. For larger holdings, a range of storage approaches is often taken. Aside for storing at home, there are three major options:

The Melbourne Vault / Reserve Vault: Hire a secure bullion box and store your bullion, documents and any other (non-perishable) possessions. You need to be physically present to access and there are ongoing storage fees. We deliver you bullion to, or buy back from each at no charge.

Ainslie Allocated Storage: You choose the specific bars, and we store them for you. Any time you want to take possession, give us written instructions and you can pick them up from our Melbourne or Brisbane stores, or have them sent out to you. Alternatively you can sell back and receive a bank transfer. Annual fees are $13/oz gold & platinum and $17/kilo for silver.

Ainslie Unallocated Storage: You buy in just under the 1oz Gold or 1kilo Silver price, and then when you want to take delivery, we provide you with the same weight of metal, but in the denominations of our choosing. For example if you have 10oz Gold, you may get an individual 10oz bar, or 2x 5oz or even 5x 2oz bar, it is up to our discretion. Unallocated holders need to provide 2 days written notice or cash out with a bank transfer. Importantly, there are no ongoing storage fees for Unallocated.

For both Ainslie bullion Storage options, there is a minimum transaction of $10,000.

In terms of digital assets (including our own Gold Standard and Silver Standard 100% bullion backed tokens), we can also provide a super safe home for them as opposed to leaving them on an exchange, app, or similar ‘hot’ wallet:

Ainslie Cold Wallets – Available only in store (Brisbane or Melbourne) we provide a complimentary completely cold wallet (no digital footprint at all and hence unhackable) you can take with you.  You could then store that in your own Safe Deposit Box in The Melbourne Vault or Reserve Vault.

Hardware wallets – We sell both Ledger Nano X and Trezor Model T hardware wallets for a friendly but secure interface to allow you to manage your crypto assets.  We can also help you with these.  For extra security you can store the seed words (private key backup) in your own Safe Deposit Box in The Melbourne Vault or Reserve Vault.

Ainslie Cold Storage Account – You pay a 2.5% transaction fee that gives you a lifetime of cold storage with individual (fully allocated to you) cold wallets held deep underground in a safe inside the ultra secure Reserve Vault in Brisbane.  There is a minimum $5,000 transaction size for this service.

Ainslie Storage Account holders (for both bullion and crypto) have access to a portal where at any time they can see their holdings and their value.

Call us today to find out more about holding cryptocurrencies and precious metals.