This is a second response to a constituent from MP John Weston that has been reported to Isaac Brock: The most recent John Weston reply to his Constituent.
The previous John Weston, MP reply to bubblebustin seemed a bit more forthcoming and hopefully took less than the five months and repeated requests before this constituent received a reply.
What new have we learned from Mr. Weston? I have had a quick look at his website to see if, in fact, there was anything I could find on the issue of FATCA and the negotiations on same by the Canadian government. Perhaps someone else can find what I didn’t see. Why does FATCA not rate a place in Mr. Weston’s Government News?
In this most recent reply, his constituent learned that Mr. Weston agrees with Minister Flaherty that we Canadians of dual nationality are “honest, hard-working and law-abiding people” and the proposed IRS penalties for failing to file IRS paperwork seem out of step with justice and fairness. I do not see anything that leads me to believe that Mr. Weston can understand and convey to his constituents, let alone ALL Canadians who will bear the cost, anything about what FATCA is and what it means for loss of our rights as guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
I looked in Tax Savings for You and Your Family link and found there was no full disclosure, a warning to US Persons in Canada, when saying that a TFSA can help ALL Canadians work toward their short- and long-term financial goals. :
TAX-FREE SAVINGS ACCOUNT (TFSA)
Canadians have many reasons to save for the future; from home renovations to retirement, or even medical expenses. The Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) can help all Canadians work towards their short- and long-term financial goals.Our Conservative Government’s TFSA is a flexible registered savings account, available to all Canadians 18 years of age and older. Investment income, including capital gains, earned within the account is not taxed; and withdrawals are tax-free. Our Government recently announced an increase in the TFSA’s contribution room by $500, helping account holders save even more.
Starting in 2013, Canadians will be able to contribute up to $5,500 each year. As always, unused room is carried forward to the next year. For example: If Albert opened a TFSA in January of 2012 and contributed $2,000 that year, he would have room to deposit $8,500 in 2013 (i.e. the leftover $3,000 from 2012 + the new full amount of $5,500 for 2013). It’s important to remember that withdrawn money can only be re-contributed in future years. It cannot be re-contributed in the same year without penalty (e.g. if Alice has used all her contribution room and withdraws $1,000 in April 2012, she cannot re-contribute that money until January 2013).
… but you can click on the appropriate box to receive all of the news that Mr. Weston deems important enough for his newsletter.
Re: “….while allowing the US the right to tax its own people…”
That wording bugs me. I am not one of the “US’s people”, just because US says so. What right does USA have to tax someone who left as a child, has been gone for decades, has never had an American family member or ancestor, never earned income in USA, and has never and will never cost the US anything?
Oh yeah, silly me, I forgot that I am OWNED by the US and one of the “US’s people” because I was born there.
You and all other ‘accidental Americans’ SHOULD definitely be one of Canada’s people — hands off our people, US, is what the Canadian government who protects your rights / all US Persons in Canada rights should say, with no reservation. Have you checked that “Made in and property of the USA” tattoo lately?
PS: I am not one of the US’s people either (second time around now that I’ve renounced; first time around I was warned as a punishment that I would be losing my US citizenship if I became a Canadian citizen).
I haven’t heard anything from Mr Weston in months. Mind you, I haven’t written to him lately. Seemed kind of pointless when my efforts could be spent elsewhere.
John Weston is a smart guy. His letter sounds like he is being gagged or otherwise prevented from making a significant reply; it’s unlikely he’s at a loss for words.
According to his bio, Mr. Weston is “a well-established constitutional lawyer, in 2002 he was a founder of the Canadian Constitution Foundation.”
So his constituents need to hammer away on the Charter issue. It’s all about “framing” the issue. This is NOT about tax evasion – or the US taxing its “own people”. It is about the violation of certain Canadian citizens’ charter rights to security, privacy and freedom from discrimination based upon place of birth. It about a foreign state imposing its own definition of “US personhood” and obligations upon certain Canadians, based upon place of birth, not economic nexus.
There is nothing in Canadian law that defines or bestows “US personhood” upon any Canadian citizen based upon their place of birth. Canadian laws and Canadian banks cannot be arbiters of US citizenship – or any other citizenship than Canadian, for that matter.
Therefore, any Canadian law or business practice that makes decisions based solely upon US place of birth indicia is practicing pure discrimination based on national origin (not citizenship) because it is seeking a place of birth, not a passport or similar documentation of current citizenship. In fact, certain Canadians born in the US may assert that, under US law, they also committed expatriating acts in becoming Canadian with the intent to relinquish US citizenship.
In explaining FATCA to fellow Canadians, I use an egregious example: a Canadian baby born in US hospital because their Canadian mother was sent there due to high risk pregnancy. This practice is common and was noted in the Globe & Mail, February 20, 2002 entitled “Ontario’s Border Babies Stir Health-care Storm”.
A “border-baby” born in a US hospital to Canadian parents is a Canadian citizen at birth. Yet now this person would suffer harmful discrimination under FATCA, even if they returned to Canada within days of being born, and even if they subsequently had no economic or residential connection of any kind with the US. This discrimination is because they were born in a US hospital due to their mother’s medical needs.
Naturally, some will say “well that border baby can simply renounce US citizenship”. Let’s add another factor: unfortunately the “border-baby” person is born with a congenital mental disability which makes it impossible for them to comprehend the concept of renouncing US citizenship. Their parents cannot renounce on their behalf. So now, due to their place of birth AND mental disability, they cannot escape to imposition of FATCA, because they have a US place of birth AND cannot present their bank with a Certificate of Loss of (US) Nationality.
Finally, remind your MP that the number of Canadians who are so-called “US persons” is estimated to be anywhere from 600,000 to 1,000,000. That is roughly equal to the number of Canadians who are First Nations people. So the potential blowback of wholesale discrimination against such a large group is significant.
@Calgary
@Wondering
Mr. Weston may be a “smart guy”. But, neither letter suggests to me that he really understands the “prison of citizenship-based taxation”. Neither letter suggests to me that he understands how U.S. tax policies are damaging to all of Canada and all Canadians because they force Canada to “pay tribute” to the U.S. Neither letter suggests to me that he understands that the definition of “U.S. person” can be changed by the U.S. at any time. Furthermore, I don’t believe that our friend Mr. Matthews completely understands this either.
I have a proposal as follows:
Why don’t we organize an educational session for Canadian MPs and really educate them on this issue. They are just like the “Homelander Congressmen” who voted for FATCA without having a clue what it really was or the effect it would really have.
I simply do NOT believe that our MPs understand the true effects of citizenship-based taxation, FATCA and how citizenship-based taxation will turn U.S. citizens abroad into U.S. trojan soldiers attacking their countries of residence. Really.
Maybe they don’t WANT to understand.
I think your suggestion is a good one though, especially after reading Marie’s latest post under Fatca Discussion thread. Have you read it?
Thank you for this, Wondering. You’re right on in your description of that border baby with a congenital mental disability that makes it impossible for them or their parent(s), guardian or trustee to renounce US citizenship on their behalf. It is bloody entrapment.
USCitizenAbroad, I like your idea of educating the MPs. I’ve tried with mine in the 1/2 hour I was allotted. It is absolutely impossible for me to understand how our Canadian government representatives can comprehend what we are going through and still cave in to the extra-territorial US.
@Whitekat
No what is that post?
Check out the FATCA Discussion Thread (Ask your questions) Part Two.
Last thing I want to be an unwitting trojan soldier! It’s not as though I chose to be born there, after all.
I’ve already said once before that if Canada were to offer me citizenship right now that I would dump my US citizenship in a heartbeat. If they want to make the act of relinquishing US citizenship a prerequisite to gaining Canadian citizenship, I’ll have no problem signing on the dotted line.
But yes, I’m all for getting out the word to our MPs that FATCA is a horrible idea for Canada, and really for any other nation in the world. Us being less dependent on the US for trade can’t hurt, either. I know it’s unrealistic to totally isolate ourselves from them, but once they really start circling the drain, we don’t need to follow them down the toilet bowl.