I noticed recently there is a new group called Canadians for Tax Fairness holding a summit in Ottawa in late March. One of the more prominent attendees of the summit is NDP Finance Critic Peter Julian along with many members of Canada’s organized labor community and several members of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. What is most concerning is the keynote speaker at the event is an individual named John Christensen of Tax Justice Network International. Christensen along with his partner in crime Richard J Murphy are huge supporters of FATCA, FBAR, and citizenship based taxation basically everything we don’t like here at Isaac Brock Society. Going through the different agenda topics at the “Fair Tax Summit” I see a lot of discussion planned on cracking down on “tax havens” and “tax cheats” but no discussion of the US’ extraterritorial tax and reporting requirements on Canadian citizens something in my mind should be very important for a group dedicated to “tax fairness” in Canada to discuss.
http://www.taxfairness.ca/news/fair-tax-summit-planned-march-29-30-ottawa
I would like to open up to discussion here at IBS as to what members feel about this summit, its agenda, and the possible involvement of the NDP Party(I am especially looking for the views of any people more involved in NDP politics than I am). I also noticed this is not an open to public event and in fact the admission charge of $150 is quite steep. Do you think we at Isaac Brock Society need to call upon NDP MP’s not to attend unless the likes of Richard Murphy and John Christensen are disinvited or at the very least their view on FATCA, FBAR, Citizenship based taxation are repudiated by any NDP MPs attending and speaking.
freedom of speech is for eveyone, specially for those whose position we oppose. disinviting these persons will not stop their message. they will go to another venue.
the best policy would be to ensure our MP’s are well informed, and strongly criticize the positions of Murphy and Christensen
The British Columbia caucus within the federal NDP, particulary Alex Atamanenko MP, have been very supportive of “US persons” caught in this situation. So, either there is difference of opinion within the NDP (entirely possible) or they do not see the connection between US actions against “tax evaders” and the intended victimization of many Canadians and US residents of Canada. Incidently, I fully support pursuit of tax cheats using off-shore tax havens. It’s just that persons living in Canada are not tax evaders.
Personally I am not against tax havens. The wealthy earned the money; it is their money, and they should be able to do with it whatever they want, including expatriating it into friendlier jurisdictions. The only way to stop that from happening is with things like FBAR and FATCA which has detrimental and tyrannical effects on the little guys, grandmas saving their wealth. Then comes currency controls, and tyranny. Freedom means having freedom to expatriate one’s wealth and one’s body and family. Tyranny means having all these things under the control of government. The United States has become tyrannical because it wants to control money going out of the country. That is not how to build a strong and free economy.
The other way to stop expatriation of money is to become investor friendly–you give incentives (like fair tax rates) to companies and wealthy people to invest, and they will create jobs and the whole country becomes wealthier. You want to tax the “1%” and make them pay the lion’s share of the government services that everyone enjoys, then they will take their money to where it is more welcome. In Canada, we are on the edge: if you make the wealthy pay more than they are currently paying, it will be detrimental to investment and it will kill jobs. The current environment is sufficiently friendly, but that can turn on a dime.
The NDP gains a lot of credibility in my eyes by fighting for those who are affected adversely by FBAR/FATCA/and US extraterritorial taxation. But by wanting to chase down “tax cheats” themselves, they show themselves to be schizophrenic and unfriendly to our plight. The big issue is one of sovereignty. We need to support those politicians who will best defend the sovereignty of Canada against the extra-territorial aggression of the United States. If that is the NDP, the Liberals, or the Tories, it remains to be seen. Or perhaps, we can only support individual politicians, regardless of party, who come to our rescue.
I agree with Rivka on this. I’d rather have the NDP and other opponents in the room arguing the contrary case, than not have them in the room at all.
I wonder who they’re going to get in the audience at $150 a pop. I’m sure not going.
BTW to be confirmed later, the meeting at Tom Brown Arena in Ottawa on March 26 on FATCA and FBAR, organized by Paul Dewar my MP, may not be open to everyone. I asked about that in a follow-up email to his office, since I know I’m going to get an invitation to attend and was wondering if this was by invitation only. The reply says the meeting is “a public forum open to residents of Ottawa Centre” which is Paul’s riding and in which the arena is located. I don’t think this was intended to exclude people, probably more to keep the numbers manageable and within the Fire Marshall’s limits for that arena. So if you’re from out of the riding, certainly out of Ottawa, don’t come unless you’re prepared to maybe be turned away. I hope not.
I plan to begin a separate short thread about this on Brock once I get an invitation, but I may have to mention in that post that it’s intended for residents of the riding (which is quite large and populous). It’s not fair to the organizers or to riding residents if they get turned away because of too many “outsiders” getting there first. In fact I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t mentioned this on the other thread …
as a follow-up, I do plan to go to that March 26 meeting at Tom Brown, and I will report anything new or different that I hear, on this website.