FATCA Fact Sheet Anti-FATCA Slogans Protest Press Release
AtticusinCanada has received an official permit to protest on Parliament Hill Oct. 16, 2013, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.! We will meet at 9 a.m. in front of Parliament Hill and proceed to the Hill itself once we have a reasonably sized group. Families and even children are welcome if you feel they are old enough! We ask that everyone bring their own sign. A good idea would be to email AtticusinCanada with the slogans you would like to use, so we have as few duplicates as possible.
First posted on September 11, 2013
The mini-protest in Ottawa on Sept 9, 2013, garnered some well needed media attention. Just imagine how much we could achieve if more Brockers joined forces for a larger protest at parliament hill this fall!
Many of us believe that a formal announcement of an IGA for FATCA is just around the corner. It’s time to ramp up with the push back. The letter writing and emailing to our elected representatives has been great, and some illuminating articles have been written by Lynne and Victoria, but we need to do more.
Atticusincanada and I would like to be the drivers towards organizing a larger protest, but first we need to gather enough participants. For those Brockers who can commit to coming to Ottawa for a day, and would like to join us, please email Atticusincanada at atticusincanada@gmail.com.
I’m planning on contacting my two local news websites, and sending the fact sheet. They mostly report the police beat, and press releases, but they get a fair amount of eyes.
I’ve asked Elizabeth May to stop by the Ottawa protest. If you would also like her to stop by you can contact her at:
http://elizabethmaymp.ca/ask-elizabeth-anything/
What a great idea, Hazy!
Just a side comment…
Don’t underestimate the service we may be doing to the Government of Canada. The Government (and party is irrelevant here) is between a rock and a hard place. They say they are close to signing an IGA with the US, but they have been saying that for a long time now. Negotiations can be assumed to be rocky. It may serve the Government of Canada well to have a groundswell of citizen opposition to FATCA.
@ Hazy
Good suggestion. I just e-mailed Elizabeth May re: the Protest and I also asked that she take some time to read Blazes’s “open letter”. I think it’s a stand out piece of writing — straight from her heart.
http://themoneyguide.ca/open-letter-finance-minister-jim-flaherty-fatca/
Possibility of discounted fares for newly minted (within one year of receiving citizenship) Canadians travelling to Ottawa or elsewhere in Canada by Via. See terms and conditions.
http://www.viarail.ca/en/new-canadian-citizen
Also other discounts and special offers.
Blaze’s letter is fantastic. http://themoneyguide.ca/open-letter-finance-minister-jim-flaherty-fatca/ A must read!
@ badger
Funny you should mention that. My husband just picked up his “cultural access pass” today. He’s looking forward to getting into the national parks free for a year. The rail pass is 50% off but I doubt he’ll be using that. Canada does a fine job of welcoming its new Canadians which is in stark contrast to the treatment pukekonz is getting at the US consulate in Auckland. I honestly don’t think Canada treats its few renunciants that way.
Did y’all call up the Green Party to join in? FATCA is one of their calling cards for bringing in votes. Certainly one million US persons electorate in Canada ought to be an interested segment?
They had once responded to my emails and had tried to get the intl Green parties interested, unsuccessfully. I also have cellphone and Skype phone addresses for MacKenzie, available via email.
Political parties meeting with human beings attracts cameras
Mark MacKenzie, President,
Johan Hamels, Chair of our International Committee
Green Party of Canada>
http://www.greenparty.ca/contact/offices
National Office Telephone & Fax Numbers
Toll-free: 1-866-868-3447 (1-866-VOTE-4-GPC)
Telephone: 1-613-562-4916 (Ottawa)
Fax: 1- 613-706-1424 (Ottawa)
Deputy Leader
georges.laraque@greenparty.ca
President
mark.mackenzie@greenparty.ca
Vice President English
ard.van.leeuwen@greenparty.ca
@Mark Twain, I do believe someone contacted and invited Elizabeth May. However, it would be good to notify and invite through the national offices as well.
Lynne and I were discussing doing a joint press release for the protest. Someone would need to collaborate with Lynne to write it up. Do you all think this is a good idea to get it in the Ottawa papers as a joint release?
@Atticus,
If we really want to go big with this, then I think a press release would be a great idea. However, so far, our group of protestors is not that big, and I am not aware of any simultaneous protests going on in any other cities across Canada. A press release almost seems like overkill to me.
Maybe this is the time that we need some IBS cheerleaders to encourage more people to commit to the Ottawa protest, and encourage people living outside Ottawa to kick-start other simultanesous protests in various cities throughout Canada.
Small groups can get attention. The news release would be a strong statement about the issue to draw the attention of the media. Then, it would let them know about the Ottawa demonstration.
Did you see Victoria’s post at Maple Sandbox? A reporter suggested webcast of the protest with a virtual protest around the globe. He said the media would eat it up.
Also, has anyone ever heard of a Portrait Petition? I hadn’t until someone sent me one a few minutes ago to try to free two Canadians detained in Egypt.
http://freetarekandjohn.tumblr.com/
It occurred to me that would be great to do around the world as a Treasury Myth Buster. Each person could do their own sign I Am Not A Myth and perhaps the country. Then upload it to a particular site (maybe the techies could help us there).
If we could tie a webcast in with a Myth Busting Portrait Petition, I think we could really tweak the interest of the media.
Remember WhiteKat and Atticus, you were “Two Moms in Tennis Shoes” in Ottawa and you were reported in Globe and Mail and forced Flaherty to make a verbal public statement about FATCA.
@ Blaze
I might be able to persuade my husband to contribute to a portrait petition but I’m pretty sure he would not provide his real name at this time because he has just entered the relinky-dinky phase in his quest for freedom. I’ll see what develops with this idea before I ask him. I wonder how much it would cost to get a placard size collage of myth buster mugs to hold up at the demonstration? It would be a way for people who can’t be there to be there, so to speak.
Has anyone done any analysis on marginal seats? If they could be identified, perhaps ‘US persons’ could be enough to affect the majority in certain seats. That’s what I would do.
It should be straight forward to appeal to ‘US persons’ in certain constituencies. Why would they vote for a candidate that publically does not denounce FATCA?
No one need use their name on the portrait thing. I’ve seen those done lots of times and you can just use your sign, your face and that’s it. I’ve even seen some of them done where the sign was held up very high. Iraq veterans against the war did similar a lot. Some of them did not even want their face there so they just held the sign up higher. I think I’m going to do one with my whole family in it if I can get everyone here or I’ll just use a photo we already have and create a sign using an app on my computer.
@AtticusinCanada – is there a tumblr site set up now? If so, can you provide a link?
I haven’t set it up yet. We just got talking about this last night. I can go over there and see if I can get it set up today. 🙂
@WhiteKat
I can’t think of any venue outside of Ottawa that would garner the attention a protest on Parliament Hill would have, unless of course there was a simultaneous event being covered by the media elsewhere. I’m totally on board to do something here, should there be such an event any time in the future 🙂
Anyone staging a smaller event or with just one or two people can film a second or two of it with your smart phone. We can edit together later. Just hit “record” Or take a photo.
A place to comment, and to educate – an online Toronto news venue:
http://www.thetorontopost.net/2013/09/why-are-americans-giving-up-their.html
This Saturday, on Toronto NewsTalk am 1010, tax firm Altro Levy will be hosting the “Ask The Experts” call-in show from 5-6 pm. The firm deals with Canada/US cross border tax issues.
http://www.altrolevy.com/
http://www.newstalk1010.com/Hosts/AskTheExperts.aspx
@Marie, thank you for the alert.
Got a call from RCMP today. We’ll have our own officer at the protest. As we are a small group they were kindly just wanting to give us some guidelines. Heritage Canada had passed along my info to them. They were SO helpful. A few other groups will be on the Hill that day including “Idle No More” Girl Guides and two others much larger than we are. RCMP were SO helpful with information and even gave me the cell number of “OUR” RCMP officer. I’m impressed with how well Heritage Canada handles things and how nice it was of RCMP to call me with info and told me to call our officer with any further questions. Amazing how helpful everyone has been.
If you can come please do.
If anyone has a good list of Canadian media contacts for a press release could you please email me with that list?
Atticus, don’t have a list but if you want to attract some media (probably not this time but if things get dire in the future), we could always considered the Femen approach:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/01/screaming-topless-protester-interrupts-quebecs-national-assembly-to-denounce-values-charter/
Young people in Quebec really know how to protest.