I just signed up on coinbase to see how it works. I bought 2$ (CAD) worth of bitcoin. I even managed to change it back into Canadian $. But I don't see any option to withdraw the money. Without the option to withdraw the money at any time, it's really hard to rationalize buying bitcoin. The thing is, I really want to. Badly. What can I do?
After searching for a pretty long time, I found this post confirming my fears.
Our banking partner in Canada shutdown last year. With them shutting down, we no longer have access to deposit funds to Canadian Bank accounts. Fortunately, we were able to provide credit card/debit card access to our Canadian customers so they can continue buying digital currency. We hope to restore bank account access to provide Sells again, but we don't have a timeframe for this.