Statement from the Exiled Patriots of Canada

Day 1,577, 09:26 • Published in USA Canada • by Rigour6

Note to readers:
EPC member Addy Lawrence has posted a TL😉R as the first post in the comments section of this article.


"Recent Events in eCanada have shown the need for those of us who left to explain our actions to newer eCanadians, our former co-citizens, and our TEDEN allies

Let us begin with a little history: The following is a matter of public record.

In September of 2010 Rolo Tahmahsee (hereinafter referred to as “The Thief”) was elected CP of eCanada. Shortly after that, certain allegations came to light which, while given every opportunity to refute, he did not. (Editor's note: my own futile attempt to get his side of the story can be seen here.)
As a result, a motion to impeach him was introduced in Congress.
eCanada has an in-forum rule that motions to impeach require 24 hours notice, and the motion was put before that entire period had elapsed, so it is agreed by all that the motion was not technically in order.
That said, the Thief did not then, nor during the period of time during which the motion was being voted upon, reply to the allegations made against him. He was completely and utterly silent, until sufficient votes to impeach him were cast. At that point, and before the vote to impeach was concluded, the Thief stole the treasury of eCanada, including liquidating a number of Crown Corporations (government-owned and run businesses) and seizing and selling strategic stockpiles. The total amount of the loss of team assets has been estimated in the vicinity of 6000 Gold.

In the aftermath of this event, multiple attempts have been made to reconcile this individual to the community. A full trial was held, the transcripts of which are still available. In addition, many leading citizens made personal overtures to attempt to heal our community. A restitution order was set at 960 Gold, a fraction of the amount stolen, in order to facilitate his return to the community. A few months ago, one of the former community leaders who now numbers himself among our number even offered to pay half of that. Partial and conditional pardons were offered if only the Thief would express remorse or failing that undertake to cease acting destructively towards the community.

All those overtures and attempts at reconciliation were rebuffed. The Thief has instead consistently undermined the community of eCanada, repeating his theft of team resources when possible, and using the stolen team resources to bribe fellow players and build influence. Again, none of this is remotely in dispute: persons who doubt the fairness of this recounting are invited to listen to an interview conducted by a pro-Thief supporter last November in which you can hear the Thief describe this chain of events in his own words.

As I am sure many of you understand, online games lack any real sanction and so those of us who play them are forced to occasionally deal with an individual who demonstrates John Gabriel’s Greater Internet Dickwad Theory or fails to observe Wheaton’s Law. Repeated efforts having been made and rebuffed, those of us who see a value in building co-operatively more or less went back about our business, to make the eCanada community a functional, harmonious, and successful one. Don’t feed the trolls, and all that.

A few months ago, the Thief and his supporters, some of whom have admittedly been bought, others of whom just enjoy the lulzyness of the whole situation, began systematically taking over other political parties within eCanada.
This was a very harmful development for two main reasons:
first, it decreased democratic choice of their fellow players but
second and most importantly, having taken over these parties, they neglected or refused to run them in a matter which blocked foreign PTO candidates from running.
At this point the actions of the Thief and his associates moved past annoyance and became a threat to the security of the nation itself and its allies.

The response, by the narrowest alliance of pro-Thief supporters and those fearful that failure to capitulate would lead to the loss of the nation through PTO, has been a 16-15 vote of Congress to unconditionally pardon the Thief. This despite no expression of regret, not even a penny of restitution, and no clear undertaking to discontinue his course of domestic mischief/terrorism.

None of the above is in dispute.

We, the Exiled Patriots of Canada (EPC), are players who place a higher value on the community and its shared values. Our group are not dissidents by nature: our numbers include 4 former Country Presidents and leading figures in many Cabinets and Military Units. We do not believe a secure or principled future can built on this sort of capitulation. We note that every survey of the membership at large has indicated the membership at a whole shares our view that pardon without remorse and some form of restitution violates our core values as eCanadians who feel a shared duty of good faith to each other.

We note that to some degree Congress’ decision seems to have been based not on principle but expediency – that is, we are told it would 'cost too much' to do the right thing. After some discussion, we have reluctantly come to the decision that if that is how certain members of eCanada’s Congress see it, the only way to change their minds is to raise the cost of doing the wrong thing. Accordingly, we shall be seeking to counter the Thief’s blackmail with some whitemail of our own.

Until this pardon is rescinded our membership will, among other activities, be actively engaged in efforts to deny eCanada its overseas territories in the UK. We shall instead work to ensure those territories stay in the hands of our TEDEN allies Ireland and France. eCanada will thus face the ongoing price of loss of incremental production bonuses and repeated resource drain in order to continually fight to maintain and retake any territories in the eUK on which it holds ambitions.

To say we regret being placed in this situation is an understatement.
We understand that many people will not understand or agree with our actions.
However, it is our honest view that to allow this pardon to proceed unprotested would set a fatal precedent for the future of our nation. And if what it takes for eCanada to find the will to do the right thing is a demonstration that it is also the most profitable thing, well then, so be it.

We invite all likeminded persons, be they eCanadians, former eCanadians, allies, or individuals who believe in democracy and integrity, to join our cause.
We pledge to support those who do so with our full moral and material resources.
We will support efforts of remaining eCanadians to liberate their parties and return true choice and debate to eCanadian politics, provided always that efforts be taken to protect the nation against foreign PTO.

To be clear: our group does not seek to compromise the natural territorial integrity of eCanada, nor to weaken our allies, who should bear no responsibility for this uniquely made-in-Canada mess. If it is any comfort to our countrymen back home, we expect the damages from this campaign to take some time before they amount to 6000 gold, and since you were prepared to pardon a thief who stole that from you for his own profit, we hope you can see it in your hearts to forgive those of us who do this as a matter of principle and without hope of personal gain.

Finally, to clarify two matters: We understand that our efforts may have to be intermittent, as we will seek as best we can to sanction eCanada without weakening the broader TEDEN alliance – accordingly there will be times when military action in particular will have to be suspended while our members fight on greater TEDEN priorities. Naturally, any action against eCanada cannot help but weaken its ability to fight abroad, but despite that our goal will be to insulate TEDEN members from the effects of a dispute in which they bear no responsibility. We hope they understand our ability to do that will not be complete, and we apologize for any collateral effect.

Also, we are told that before this crisis broke, eCanada’s CP received RL threats which, combined with the stress of the present crisis, have led him to curtail his in-game activities. The person who issued those RL threats has no connection to our group nor to the best of our knowledge was he motivated by the present crisis. We utterly condemn the use of RL action by any persons for any purposes. We can have strong disagreements in-game, but that is where they end.


Long Live an eCanada which is
True to its Principles,
Strong in Its Unity, and
Free from those who would seek to destroy it from within."




N by NE Volume 4, Number 1



(Note to readers: I am afk for the next few days and so will be unable to engage in my usual enjoyable conversations with readers, and to rebuff crisfire's ongoing mancrush. No inference should be drawn from this, other than the fact that my wife and I finally thought the twins were old enough that we could risk a shopping trip to Maine. Y'all play nice now.)