For community leaders: join free, and stand together
You already carry your community: the airport pick-ups, the forms, the funerals. Bring your association into a Canadian network that carries it with you, at no cost, and keep everything that makes it yours.
Any group that people far from home have built for one another, whatever its size and whether or not it has a hall, a charter or a bank account.
Hometown and village associations
Cultural centres and heritage societies
Mosques, churches, temples, gurdwaras and synagogues
Student associations
Professional networks
Seniors’ clubs
Women’s groups
Sports and youth clubs
Francophone associations
Canadian clubs abroad
What you receive, and what you keep
Your association receives
Membership of the Canadian network, at no cost to the association.
Twelve areas of benefit for every one of your members, each of whom joins free.
An introduction to members in your city who are looking for a community.
A voice in the network, and a seat beside associations from every province and territory.
The Mutual Aid Compact, so that your community does not stand alone in its worst week.
Guides, Scam Watch and the first-90-days checklist, in English and French, for your newest arrivals.
Your association keeps
Your name, your history and your traditions.
Your treasury. We never ask an association for money.
Your elected leaders and your own rules.
Your independence. You speak for your community, and we never speak in your place.
We never ask an association for money, and we never ask anyone about status.
The Mutual Aid Compact
Every community knows the telephone call. A member has died, the family is far from home, and by evening someone is passing the hat.
The Mutual Aid Compact is a promise between the member associations of TAS Canada. When a member of one association dies far from home, or a family is struck by a sudden emergency, the associations of the network stand together. They share the news, they give what each freely chooses to give, and they lend the people who know the steps: the funeral director who understands the rites, the volunteer who has dealt with the consulate before.
No association is left to carry its worst week alone, and no family learns the procedure by making mistakes.
When a member dies far from home
A calm order of steps for the leader who receives the call. Keep it where you can find it.
1
The first hours
If the death is sudden or unexpected, call 911. Police and a coroner or medical examiner may attend; this is routine and is not an accusation. In a hospital or hospice, the staff guide the family through the first steps.
2
Choose a licensed funeral home
The funeral director normally registers the death with the province and obtains the permit for burial or cremation; ask them to confirm what they handle. Ask for several certified copies of the proof of death. They are needed more often than anyone expects.
3
Tell the consulate
Contact the consulate of the country of citizenship, and of the country where burial is planned if that is different. The consulate explains which documents the receiving country requires and may need to issue papers of its own.
4
Repatriation, or burial in Canada
Repatriation is arranged between a funeral home in Canada and one in the receiving country, and it is not done in a day. Burial or cremation in Canada can follow the rites of the family’s faith; tell the funeral home at once if the tradition calls for a prompt burial.
5
The community’s role
Name one person to speak with the family, so that they are not asked the same question twenty times. Interpret, accompany, cook, gather. Under the Mutual Aid Compact, member associations stand with yours.
6
In the weeks after
The family informs Service Canada (and Retraite Québec for Québec residents), the tax authorities, the provincial health plan, the bank, the employer and the landlord. Survivor benefits may be available from public programs; Service Canada, and Retraite Québec in Québec, explain them.
General information, not legal advice. Procedures differ between provinces and between receiving countries; the funeral director and the consulate confirm what applies.
How an association joins
1
Register your association
Use the form below. It takes two minutes and asks for no documents.
2
We welcome you to the network
We write to the person who registered and introduce the association to the Canadian network.
3
Your members join free
Each member joins individually and receives a card; the association is linked to it.
Register your association
Associations join at no cost. Tell us who you are and whom you serve, and we welcome you to the Canadian network.
We never ask for your membership list, and we never ask anyone about status.
Questions leaders ask
What does it cost an association to join?
Nothing. Associations join at no cost, and we never ask an association for money. Membership is free for each of your members as well.
Do we give up any independence?
None. You keep your name, your treasury, your leaders and your rules. TAS Canada is itself independent: it is not a government body, embassy or public authority, and it is not affiliated with any.
Is the Mutual Aid Compact insurance?
No. The Compact is mutual aid between associations. It is not insurance, there is no premium and no policy, and it creates no right to payment for any person or association. Families who want certainty arrange insurance through licensed providers.
We are a small group with no formal status. Can we join?
Yes. A prayer group, a student club or twenty families from the same town are as welcome as a society with a hall and a charter. Tell us who you are and whom you serve.
Do you ask for our membership list?
No. Your members join individually, by their own choice, and each decides what to share. We never ask an association for its list, and we never ask anyone about immigration or residence status.
We are a Canadian club abroad. Is this for us?
Yes. Associations of Canadians abroad join the Canadian house, and the regional house where you live recognizes your members’ cards.
Wherever you began, you belong here.
Membership is free. One membership per adult; children under 18 are included on a parent’s membership.
