Visa declined because of nationality

[Stevez]

I am surprised that a large retailer like that would deny your purchase because it is a VISA card sponsored in Canada. But, retailers are becoming more and more savy of their true costs of taking credit. I'm in this business and it costs them more to accept payments from foreign bank sponsored cards, period. They have to authorize and clear the payment via a Canadian Bank and I'm pretty certain that VISA charges the retailer more for that (called inter-change and it's in addition to the money they make on the spread in currency rates, believe me). As said here, the retailers can choose, just like some won't accept Discover, AE, etc.