The Impersonal Cruelty of 2nd Class Citizenship

• How Crossroads Credit Union Employees Got Banned From Mountjoy Music Studio
• One Man's Lonely Quest For Something Productive In The Mysteriously Boring Land Of Bureaucratica
• The Peoples' Champion. Enter The Ombudsman.
• MLA to the rescue.

The Replaceable Customer Is Non-Essential

I am a second class citizen because I don’t have a bank account anymore and I don’t want one. I was planning to get one again when Trudeau is out of office. Now I’m not so sure given the way the credit union has treated me for the last several months. I am a second class citizen in a country where “essential” services like banking are denied non-account holders. Even to the point where they won’t cash cheques people write to me for a fee. The policies they cite change as fast as their excuses. In the end they always end up cashing them, generally because I only bring in government cheques and someone eventually reminds them they have a legal obligation to cash government cheques. While they were more than happy to claim essential services status as a single provider in an under-served rural area to keep their doors open during the pandemic while other local businesses were forced to shut down; they refuse to provide basic services (cashing cheques and paying bills) to non-account holders.

Today I brought in my 500 dollars of Moe money and they again refused to cash my cheque saying managers (not in the building conveniently) told them not to. I reminded them we’ve been through this for 6 months with my dad’s pension cheques that I manage because he has Alzheimer's like dementia. They always try to deny me service and then eventually cash the government cheque. If it’s a non-government cheque then I just endorse it to my mom who does have an account and she cashes it for me. Today was a little different. They refused to acknowledge that the provincial government was a government. Which is highly ironic(and offensive) because this credit union is provincially regulated. Refused to cash the cheque and lied to me claiming my mom specifically told them not to let me endorse cheques to her.

I went and got my mom who explained to them she’d said no such thing. Then they simply changed their position again and said they would use their discretion to choose not to let me endorse cheques even to an account holder. I asked if they are accusing me of fraud and they said no. That they would cash the 500 cheque today, still refusing to accept it’s a government cheque, calling it a “third party cheque” they are choosing as they have discretion I remind you to cash it... this time, but moving forward only government cheques will be cashed. Still not sure this applies to provincial cheques as they never admitted the provincial government is government. Now this is irritating, but it gets even better.

Before they agreed to cash the 500 they lied to me again. They said I should talk to someone at a bigger branch who had the authority to get this dealt with... well I get on the phone and rather than asking about the cheque cashing problem (an essential service they didn’t mind using to keep the doors open during the pandemic while my business down the street went under btw) the woman on the other end immediately accused me of harassing and bullying. Well before she even finished her sentence I switched her over to speaker phone so everyone in the room could hear what she was saying and then we really got into it as the till ladies looked stunned and confused at the claims she was making.

Talk about punching down. The power imbalance between the bank and I couldn’t be further apart. They hold all the power and I hold none. Yet they play the victim card. If they refuse to cash these cheques then I can’t pay my dad’s rent at the memory lane in Yorkton hospital. Dad has kidney dialysis 3 days a week. Where else is he supposed to go? They are literally holding my dad’s life hostage against me. All because I and my dad(back when he could still remember) refuse to have a bank account in a climate where PM’s are taking accounts away for our political beliefs.

The gas-lighting at this point got even worse as I told her she was on speaker now because I nolonger trusted that she would relay anything honestly about this conversation. One of the other till ladies came over and kindly sat beside me as we spoke, and tried to mediate at this point because Preeceville is a small town and accusing me of harassing people here isn’t gonna fly. The people in this town know me and have for a long time. I teach their kids music for Christ’s sake.

It was clear in the room, at least to me, that these ladies have no issue with me personally and this is just some kind of policy issue. Unless of course they’re lying, too. Maybe the kindness and sympathy are just an act. This has made me very cynical. After getting broadsided instead of helped this was now escalating again because the corporate leadership on the phone continued to gas-light, demand, accuse, and strong arm me into getting an account using all kinds of unethical strategies to do it. There is no reason for them to deny me basic financial services. At least offer me a fee option since I don’t have an account, but they refuse even that.

Well as the only financial institution in the town that happily played on their essential service status to stay open when my business had to close I think they should be at least obliged to a) acknowledge the provincial government is in fact government and b) cash all cheques government or not at least with a fee. This is reasonable. They refuse. They claim, for example, that these are fraud prevention measures. They know I’m not claiming to be someone else and the cheques are government cheques.

This is discrimination. Pure and simple. The same political corporate class that jumped to it when the PM illegally demanded they close accounts without court oversight are now the same people making life as hard as possible for those of us that stand up for our rights. The banks are not my government. Their policies are not the law. Their standards are not the charter. They can’t force me to maintain an account if I don’t want one and they can’t hold basic access to the economy hostage to force me to do something against my will.

They still have universal human rights standards to live up to. One of those standards is reasonable access to basic financial services. I have legal ID, I am a citizen, the cheques are valid, there is no evidence or even claim of fraud. Yet, policies designed for so called fraud prevention are being used as an excuse to deny me basic service and even when eventually provided only after severely diminishing and insulting me, accusing me of things like harassment and verbal abuse, lying to me right to my face and getting caught almost immediately, and ultimately conceded they are choosing not to cash them even though they give no clear reason for the refusal.

My name is Anthony Mountjoy. I own property. I have no debt. I pay my taxes. I have no criminal record. I have never been arrested or even accused of a crime. Yet, I am a second class citizen because of my political beliefs. Because I value freedom and am willing to fight for her I have no place in Canada’s new corporate order. Some day soon I may not have any place at all. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope it helps. If something like this is happening to you, too, please send me your stories. You’re not alone and I will read and remember every last one of them.

The Response From Jeff BissChop On Dec. 22, 2022

"Let me preface my remarks by saying how difficult it is for me to evaluate a situation when conflicting reports are provided. My investigation revealed that the staff of the credit union have acted in accordance with reference to Section 627.25 of the Bank Act and have negotiated Government of Canada cheques that you have presented, drawn on the Receiver General, that are less than $1,750.00. Staff have refused to negotiate any item that you present that is not a Government of Canada cheque, drawn on the Receiver General, in accordance with reference to Section 627.25 of the Bank Act."

Notice how he doesn't even address the Moe Money cheque. Again refusing to acknowledge the provincial government being government nor does he address the endorsement of non-government cheques to an account holder or their arbitrary denial even when the account holder wants to allow it.

"Crossroads Credit Union is committed to providing a respectful work environment that is supportive of the physical and psychological safety of every employee, we will take all reasonable steps to prevent abuse and harassment towards our staff during performance of work duties. When our employees have not met your service expectations by following Crossroads Credit Union’s regulations and sound business practices, your comments and behaviour to them were perceived as abusive, aggressive and threatening towards our staff. As a result, we regret that we are no longer able to meet your financial service needs. We are informing you that you do not have permission to enter a Crossroads Credit Union branch, at any of our locations. If you violate this request, Crossroads CU staff will politely ask you to leave the premises. Refusal to do as requested, the RCMP will be contacted to remove you from our premises."

-----

My final word before sending to regulators as I dust off my protest placard. :)

"I am not satisfied with this response and will be contacting the regulators. I expected better and now regret giving you the benefit of the doubt yet again. You are as self serving and dishonest as the staff you hired. I hope you kept all recordings and video of my presence in the bank because I'm sure it will be required at some point for evidence. I am more than happy to never set foot in your bank again. In fact I will never do business with a credit union again and if any of your staff tries to talk to me in passing as they've done many times I will ignore them as they ignored my concerns. If they try to lie to me again with insincere sympathy I will simply walk away in disgust. You're a terrible boss and your organization's behaviour is a reflection of that. Good day."

---

This is what happens when you stand up for your rights with this corporate class. They smear, lie, and deny access to basic services under the pretense of anyone who defies them must be a bad person. I've asked the Ministry of Justice to forward our correspondence to the appropriate regulators. Maybe if they send it the regulators will actually take it seriously. I don't want to go down yet another run around of "authorities" just to discover they won't listen, they don't care, they're just there to make it look like there are legitimate options when really big business is gonna win, they always win. They get to claim both essential service status and deny essential services because I am just a nobody that got justifiably frustrated with dishonest people jerking me around.

---

So we enter January 2023 and the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan reaches out to set up a phone call to explain what has already been explained... and around we go.

"The Premier's office referred your email to me, do you have time to chat at a convenient time?"

"Thank you for taking my complaint seriously. This is a small community and the bank's response to 6 months of reasonable complaints/concerns by not fixing anything, gaming me, shaming me, and ultimately accusing me of verbal abuse the moment I finally raise my voice in pure frustration to defend my dignity after being lied to, right to my face, repeatedly [grrrrrrrrrr] and then on top of that the CEO[Jeff BissChop] refusing to fix anything instead just kicking me out of all locations for daring to send, through formal channels, my grievance, in effect punishing me further simply for pursuing my rights, leaving me without any recourse but the one you and I are discussing right now...[please excuse my run on sentences].

This has hurt my professional reputation in the community and makes it harder for me to get students and artists to record in my studio. Beyond that not having access to basic financial services without having to drive half an hour hurts me. Treating me like a child has hurt me. Insulting my Province as if it isn't a government hurts us all. It's anti-Canadian and intolerable!"

And so we have a call and I ask her opinion which she won't give me, of course, claiming she must remain fair and objective. But we all know refusing to give an opinion isn't the same as not having one. Hiding your bias doesn't mean you're neutral. So instead of substance we chat about juggling hot potatoes. It's not a long conversation, just about long enough to throw a potato to someone else. She very politely tells me there's nothing she can do. Apparently regulators don't have the power to make the credit unions they regulate do anything. They can just take notes and share those notes with the minister. Maybe some day these notes are used as a cautionary tale for some future legislative process... but beyond that?

"Thanks for the guidance." I say. "As you suggested on our call I've also contacted my local MLA, Terry Dennis, and made an appointment for Feb. 1 to discuss options on the legislative side. Perhaps adding a small amendment to the relevant banking act explicitly stating what should be clear on the face of it, that a provincially regulated credit union be obliged to cash provincial government checks and not just federal. As to the other concerns related to discrimination and poor general treatment of non-account holders; I will, as you recommend, engage the Ombudsman. I hope some good can come from a bad thing. Though, each of these steps takes time, we soldier on. :)"

---

After sending an update to the ever growing central email chain of back discussion and document sharing with Premier Scott Moe's office and government employees circumstantially involved with this process, I chuckle at the growing amount of reading some hot potato catcher is faced with ever time one of their colleagues tosses a potato to someone else. lol As if I've never played hot potato before! Ahahahahahahahahaha.

---

And so the journey through the mysteriously boring land of "Bureaucratia" continues.

---

Jan 18 - The Ombudsman sends an email. They've request related documents. Not sure if they read the email chain they were included in since they asked for stuff already available in the old emails. I send the documents and the following:

Good morning

I'm attaching the original pdf I sent to crossroads on Dec 9. when I complained as well as the response they sent back on Dec. 21 as requested.Thank you for looking into this. ;) The complaint only contains some examples of the shenanigans they tried to pull over several months and I am more than happy to describe other examples for you such as the two different times they tried to claim cashing dad's pension cheque(around 1600) and OAS cheque(Around 200) collectively exceeded the 1650 limit they both have so they wouldn't cash either.?Or a few months earlier when dad's pension got a bump along with the cheque cashing limit increase to 1650 and he was past 1500 so they wouldn't cash his cheque. I pointed out the 1650 limit on the cheque and they said noone told them the limit increased so it wasn't valid. Again after a bunch of BS they finally cashed it.

And around and around it has gone like this with petty obstructions and disrespect just to end up cashing the cheques as they should have in the first place(as clearly evidenced by the fact they eventually always cashed the cheques). No obstruction should ever have been presented to me and I should never have been in that situation that they created with their (malice? or incompetence?). For months and months this disrespect went on so ya I finally raised my voice when they refused to even acknowledge out loud that the provincial government was government while refusing to cash the Moe cheque. I didn't call anyone names. I didn't yell at anyone. I was angry, though, and yes my voice got louder. Peaking when I exclaimed in pure frustration "Why are you doing this!? Are you just trying to make me look like an assh*le!?!" And frankly I was/am a lot angrier than my volume suggested.

I felt/feel like the butt of some terrible joke. The way they just smiled thoughtlessly with that condescending corporate tone in the voice where you can't trust a damn thing they say. I do NOT like being lied to. Grrrrrrrrrrr. My address is 48 1st ave Preeceville, SK. The phone number you can use for your records is ***-****, but I am almost never near it(I teach music lessons and do recording sessions so often can't be interrupted) so email or arranging a time for a call is best. You're welcome to stop by my studio in Preeceville to discuss in person during my regular hours (10am-4pm mon-fri, 1pm-4pm weds), just let me know when so it's not during a lesson or when I'm in Yorkton visiting dad at the Skinner unit beside Yorkton Hospital.

Thanks again! I've been passed around so much trying to find justice on this that I hope you can really do something about this other than just tell me you'll write some notes to the minister. It's starting to feel like "the big company gets away with it" is more than just a TV trope. Maybe they really do get to treat the rest of us like 2nd class citizens without consequence. At which point why should us 2nd class citizens continue investing in a system that refuses to serve our needs?

---

Now we wait for the Ombudsman's investigation to begin and hope the upcoming meeting with my MLA in Canora goes well.

Meeting Follow Up With MLA Terry Dennis

Dear Mr Dennis

As discussed in our meeting this morning at your constituency office in Canora I am submitting a request, as recommended by the regulator, and with the grace of your verbal commitment this morning; for you to sponsor a small legislative amendment, pending internal legal review, to the appropriate statutes which apply specifically to provincially regulated credit unions explicitly requiring these credit unions to cash provincial government cheques for non-members, as they are required currently for federal government cheques. Compulsion to cash Government of Saskatchewan cheques also solves the second problem, that of their refusal to acknowledge provincial government is in fact government. Satisfying this constituent and the needs of the community at large.

Crossroads Credit Union is a provincially regulated member-based organization that claimed essential status to stay open during the pandemic, something no other member based business, ie gyms, enjoyed because by definition if you are members-only then you are NOT essential. They stayed open while my business and others were shut down claiming they provide basic banking services even to non-members, yet when called upon to do that very thing they resisted or refused and then banned me from my local bank and all other locations altogether for daring to point out their hypocrisy in an official complaint. See previous emails detailing their behaviour over the last several months along with my original complaints both to crossroads, the regulator, and the ombudsman.

Thank you so much for your time this morning and for your attention to this critical issue! I look forward to hearing about your progress with the legal review and am very curious in regards to the opinion of the Minister Of Finance(deputy premier) on this matter. I imagine a cabinet member would be even more offended by a provincially regulated organization refusing to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Government of Saskatchewan even more than I am.

Ombudsman Online Portal - Agent Assigned

Hi ****, thanks for taking my case regarding the problems I've experienced at the Crossroads Credit Union in Preeceville. I had a great meeting today with Terry Dennis, my MLA, and he's agreed to sponsor a legislative amendment making credit unions honour provincial government cheques so some progress on that side of things for sure!

... yadda yadda yadda

I look forward to your investigation and if you need anything from me I am here to help in any way I can. To close let me just say I cannot personally tolerate a provincially regulated credit union refusing to acknowledge the provincial government as government. It's a direct attack on Saskatchewan's sovereignty and I will not let that stand. Thanks again for taking this on!

---

And so our journey continues....