Meet Joseph O'Brien.

As Mark Twain once said: The reports of his death are greatly exaggerated.

O'Brien, a long-time resident of Carmacks and 20-year veteran of the Canadian Rangers, spent weeks trying to prove to the government he's not, in fact, dead.

"I'm alive,” O'Brien said Wednesday afternoon — stating the obvious as he walked into the Star's newsroom.

It was three weeks ago that O'Brien learned that, according to federal government paperwork, he had died.

O'Brien was at the Whitehorse H&R Block offices, expecting to receive a cheque after completing his taxes when staff told him the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) had a hold on his file.

Standing in line at the government office later that day, O'Brien said, he had no idea what the problem was.

"I gave them my social insurance number and it came back as Joseph O'Brien is dead. We never even had my potlatch,” he said, laughing.

Any semblance of humour ended quickly as O'Brien was passed between departments and repeatedly questioned by a federal investigator.

"She started asking me all sorts of questions over and over again. I felt like I was a criminal,” he said.

In total, he made the 175-kilometre trip between Carmacks and the capital eight times trying to sort out the mess, costing him time and money.

"At first, I thought it was funny, but later on, it's not so funny. It's annoying, I can't do anything.”

O'Brien said officials told him earlier this week it would take about 10 business days to straighten everything out.

On Thursday, fewer than 24 hours after O'Brien spoke to the Star, the mistake was fixed — O'Brien was alive again.

Despite his bureaucratic resurrection, O'Brien remains incredibly frustrated with the process.

"With Revenue Canada, they penalize you for being late, they threaten to take your bank account and your assets and they also threaten you with jail,” he said.

"But as a citizen serving this country in the military, how do I get treated?”

Last summer, O'Brien received a service medal from Defence Minister Peter MacKay — the fourth of his Ranger career.

"I loved this country, but how the heck is it that they made a mistake like that?” O'Brien asked.

"Nothing happens to them – ‘oh, sorry, we made a mistake,' but they can mess with people's lives.”

It is unclear exactly when O'Brien "died.” He's been given no explanation for what happened.

Officials say they can't discuss the specifics of the case with the media, citing confidentiality.

"Something like this is very rare,” Bradley Alvarez, a Canada Revenue Agency spokesperson, said from Vancouver.

"We get our information from a number of sources, and sometimes we get information that is incorrect. We try and fix those mistakes as quickly as possible.”

O'Brien successfully completed his taxes the same way last year without any problems.

Since then, no one he knows with his name or a similar name has died, he said.

Though he is grateful to be able to move on with his life, O'Brien would like, at the very least, an apology for the stressful mixup.

"It could have affected everything I think, if you're registered as dead; you're nobody.”