THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE CONFEDERATION OF CANADA

Once upon a time in America …

In Congress, July 4, 1776

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation …

CANADA is a free and united land, and we hereby profess through these presents to remain so in the face of tyranny, lies, rudeness, bluster, dishonesty and deceit. Our former friends and allies having become feckless, we herewith remind all that we will not be cowed. We have fought before for our freedom and for that of others, and will do so again. Those who would wish us harm should be warned that we do not equate politeness with weakness, and that our history demonstrates that we are a formidable foe when pushed.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all peoples are to be treated with respect, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among peoples, deriving their just powers from the faithful consent of the governed.

That whenever any foreign Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to defy it. When that government threatens CANADA, it is an obligation to defy it, lest it seem most likely to affect our Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Treaties long established should not be changed for light and transient causes such as ignorance or pernicious design. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Provinces and Territories; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their bonds with former friends.

The history of the present Resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the District of Columbia is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over others. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

• He has refused obey the Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.He has forbidden to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained.
• He has refused to pass other Laws for the welfare of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish their rights, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
• He has endeavoured to prevent the population of his States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws of Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither.
• He has called together his confederates at places unusual, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
• He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his own judges.
• He has made administrators dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices.
• He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass his People, and eat out their substance.
• He has threatened to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
• He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our own constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended legislation:
• For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
• For imposing tariffs on us without our Consent:
• For depriving us of the benefits of Trial by the International Court of Justice:
• He has declared us out of his Protection and waged a Trade War against us:
• He has excited domestic insurrections amongst his own citizens.

In every stage of these Oppressions, We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.

Nor have We been wanting in attention to our American brethren. We have warned them from time to time of his attempts to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us as well as other friends such as Mexico and Denmark. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our friendships. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the citizens of a free CANADA, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Provinces and Territories, solemnly publish and declare, That we CANADIANS are, to be Free and Independent; that we are Absolved from all Allegiance to the American Imperium.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our sacred Honour.