There is an online petition to be sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. All are encouraged to sign.
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/URGENT_WARNING_USA_to_Invade_Canada_AGAIN/?ahiClgb
There is an online petition to be sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. All are encouraged to sign.
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/URGENT_WARNING_USA_to_Invade_Canada_AGAIN/?ahiClgb
The moveon.org’s one seems to have stalled.
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/repeal-fatca
Maybe this more Canada-centric one might get the attention of more Canadians.
We have 10 signatures in an hour, so lets hope that continues! I notice that there are international signers too! Obviously this affects everyone around the world. I hope that people realize that if they help Canada stand up to this bad law, that perhaps their own countries will not sign onto it or will repeal it, if they have.
What, specifically, are Harper and Flaherty being asked to do–or to refrain from doing–via this petition? I “get” that the petition is anti-FATCA but it is not as clear what specifically is being asked of Harper and Flaherty.
Harper and Flaherty can’t directly repeal FATCA as it is an American law. However they could be asked to terminate all negotiations towards an IGA. Or they could be asked to use the considerable weight of their offices to get the banksters to back off on pushing for an IGA. Or they could be asked to take the lead internationally in resisting. Or they could be asked to hold a Canada-wide referendum on the subject.
I think the petition would be stronger if it were clearer what action they were being asked to take.
@Dash1729 Please feel free to add an additional paragraph to that effect and it can be added.
“Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty are asked to cease any and all negotiations with the US government on an Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) that would implement FATCA in Canada. They are also asked to assure Canadian citizens, Canadian residents, and the Canadian banking community that Canadian and only Canadian law will apply to banking transactions in Canada. They are asked to remind the banking community and the US government that access to services in Canada is without regard to national origin including any possible “US personhood”. ”
(don’t think I can edit it directly on the petition page…
@Dash1729,
Good point. The Canadian FATCA FACT sheet was copied/pasted and used as a petition, but it was not really designed for that.
I completely agree with Dash. I didn’t sign because this does not seem to be a petition.
As Dash has said, a petition needs to ask or request a government or other body to do something–as we did in the petition to Ted Hsu.
Are we recreating the wheel when we already have one petition going in the format which is required by Parliament to be officially presented?
Blaze,
That is what I was wondering also. But what could it hurt?
@Dash1729 I have amended the petition with your words at the top. @Blaze you should have no problem signing now with this amended version. Its clear now what we are asking for.
Like the Moveon.org one, it’s more to raise public awareness. These types of petitions are informal and are really to provide a data base, I think, which could be useful in preparation for an official petition. For example, when a petition requires a great number of signatures within a short period of time, it might be very useful to have a data base of possible names ready for the collection of signatures within the allotted time. Of course in an official petition, the participants would have to be vetted to meet the legal requirements for participation.
This can also just show the targets of the petition that people do indeed care about this, and that they are being watched by those who are affected. No apathy for them to count on!
Would people be happy. if the Canadian government guarantied that Canadian dollar account can not be closed by banks and brokerages, if the client refuses to sign disclosures forms? The USA can apply the withholding on only US$ accounts that are recalcitrant. Mutual funds should also clearly indicate if they are over 50% USA and allow people to switch to funds that are not over 50% USA. The CRA (Canadian Capital Gains) will not tax the rollover but use a new adjusted cost basis for non USA funds.
@GeorgeIII
That would require a willingness on the part of the US to negotiate.
At the present time all banks can do is withhold 30% of US source funds, The government and courts could force Banks and Brokerage to keep your C$ account alive.
Just signed the petition…. Apparently, the Native community was left in the dark. I have an interview with the largest Native newspaper in the country Monday morning. The journalist was dumbfounded as to the threat of Facta.and it will affect a large number of Native peoples in Canada….. This will be stopped! Thanks all, you now have a lot more support than you think. and am working hard on getting the word out. I”ve reached over 300 people since yesterday and moer every hour…. Mike.
@Mike
This is great, thank you for your efforts. You may recall at in the War of 1812 it was the efforts of the British army, local militias and the Native peoples of Canada led by Tecumseh that thwarted the US invaders! Good luck with your interview on Monday. Please let us know how it goes.
@Mike,
Welcome to IsaacBrock! We need more people from the Native community to understand FATCA. Thanks for doing your part to educate them! Hopefully together, 200 years later, we can kick US butt again!
I signed a few minutes ago. Up to 36 names, and I was the first one in two hours according to the website.
We need a lot more signatures on that petition. I think there’s a way to hide your identity when you sign, if that’s what’s worrying you. But at this stage, honestly your identity is going to be open to the IRS anyway if FATCA and an IGA go ahead, unless you have a CLN. Plus my sense is that petitions signed anonymously aren’t going to carry as much weight as those signed by people willing to put their name on the line.
So what are all of you out there bloody waiting for? You can continue to stick your head in the sand I hope to escape notice, or you can fight back even if only this way — which takes less than 60 seconds of your effort.
Just do it, or be shorn and slaughtered like a sheep.
I think its a matter of not enough exposure. There will be more postings on FB and Twitter soon and I hope this will grow exponentially then.
@Schubert,
I signed also, and I am a considered by USA to be a non-compliant ‘US person’. If I can sign it with my full name, then so can everyone else who reads BROCK and thinks FATCA sucks. People should be WAY more worried about FATCA, and what will happen to our country if we start down this slippery slope of giving it all up for the USA, than they should be worried about signing a petition!
Schubert is not even a ‘US person’, yet he has been working hard to protect his fellow Canadian citizens from this immoral witch hunt. It would simply be rude of us to read here, post comments about how awful we think FATCA is, and yet refuse to sign a petition.
Gwen has fixed the wording to be more ‘petition like’ for those of you who had problems with the wording.
PLEASE EVERYONE WHO READS THIS AND AGREES THAT FATCA IS BAD, JUST SIGN THE PETITION!
@Gwen,
It is more than just not enough exposure. Its part fear, and part apathy, and part ‘let someone else do it’.
@WhiteKat you are probably right. We have to keep fighting the inertia!
@MIke
It’s great that you are getting the FATCA warning out to the Native community!
This issue is under-reported and mostly unknown. If only it had 5% of the press coverage Rob Ford gets!
FATCA makes no exception for Canadian First Nations people. Any Canadian person who happened to be born on the US side of the Canada/US border is fair game for the foreign law FATCA. Even if the parents were First Nations Canadians, even if that US born Canadian First Nations person never lives or works in the US, and even if the birth was due to a medically necessary referral to a cross-border hospital. The concept of First Nations sovereignty means nothing to the foreign law FATCA.
The number of Canadians who could be so-called “US persons” under FATCA could actually equal the number of First Nations people in Canada. So there should be a natural affinity and collaboration between these two groups to oppose the outrage of imposing the foreign law FATCA on Canadians and First Nations people in Canada alike.
@Gwen,
I just printed out a bunch of the new and improved FATCA FACT sheets that you made so attention grabbing. I am going to post them on mailboxes around town – the group boxes that get visited by many people daily. Also, I will start distributing them as flyers door to door. My kids can help. I will keep some in my car so that wherever I go, if there is a place to post them I will. I bought some plastic covers at the dollar store (12 for a buck) that can be used to keep them from getting ruined in the rain.
Thanks, schubert! I’ve signed too. That there are so few of us concerned enough about FATCA in Canada and the rest of the world to effectively fight it is, what else but, sad. If we ALL were there, it would be a much easier fight. You’ve said what needs to be said: “Just do it — or be shorn and slaughtered like a sheep.” How did we all get to be such sheep?