Pay your Visa bill with pennies...

That's what Don Rogers in Kingston did, to protest that his bank has moved its credit card processing to the US. His concern is one of privacy - because a US company is involved, US authorities can now gain access to his personal information under their Patriot Act.

So he paid his bill online in 985 installments, and his next statement was 35 pages long and half-an-inch thick!

Similar concerns about how the US Patriot Act could affect Canadians were raised last year as well, when the BC government planned to sign a contract with an American company to take over management of health records (MSP and Pharmacare).