I really want to believe that the NDP will provide us with support. Murray Rankin is the lead on this and he seems like a sincere, good man, See links below…
http://murrayrankin.ndp.ca/u-s-tax-law-invades-canada
http://murrayrankin.ndp.ca/government-must-address-public-concerns-about-u-s-tax-law
http://www.ndp.ca/news/canadians-deserve-answers-fatca
Murray.Rankin@parl.gc.ca
“The Canadian government has a responsibility to protect Canada’s tax base, and while we understand the United States’ desire to protect their own tax base, this should not come at the cost of the rights of individuals residing in our own country,” stated Rankin.
About Murray
Murray Rankin is the Member of Parliament for Victoria. Shortly after being elected, Murray was named Official Opposition Critic for National Revenue by New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair. He also serves as Official Opposition Critic for Pensions, and sits on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance.
Murray is a nationally recognized expert in environmental and public law, who has been involved in many landmark legal cases in British Columbia and the Supreme Court of Canada.
For over 30 years, Murray has been associated with the University of Victoria, first as a full Professor of Law and subsequently as an Adjunct Professor. Before being becoming an elected official, he was also co-chair of the Environmental Law Centre, a University of Victoria student-run legal clinic, and he had a private law practice in Victoria.
Murray has dedicated his life to fighting for the environment. He was president of the West Coast Environmental Law Association and the BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
He has been a director of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and he has also lead a team of legal experts fighting to stop the Enbridge pipeline.
With law degrees from the University of Toronto and Harvard, Murray was a managing partner in the Victoria law firm Arvay Finlay for over a decade. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1999 and is fluent in French.
For years Murray coached minor league baseball at Beacon Hill Little League as well as soccer with Bays United.
A resident of Victoria for the past 35 years, Murray currently resides in Oak Bay with his spouse Linda and their two sons, Benjamin and Mark.
The conservatives have a majority. They can do what they want. Efforts should be directed towards convincing conservatives about how bad the IGA is and convincing them that their political future depends on them opposing Harper and Flaherty on this. The opposition can make them uncomfortable but they don’t have the votes. I am surprised that the news media are not more outraged about this invasion of Canada. What a bunch of shortsighted wimps!
I sent a thank you note to Mr. Rankin a few days ago, with copy to my member of Parliament. I am sure he would welcome support.
@Joe ZInga
The Tories have cut their deal (Keystone, I assume) and they’re not looking back, so personally I’d forget about them and focus on building the opposition threat. That’s more promising, but may also be futile in the end – the public is asleep in front of their television sets, and Trudeau is a puppy leading a party that has been MIA for decades. The Charter is the only plausible game in town, IMHO.
@Two Joes: The Cons have the votes on their side. Each time I have contacted my Conservative MP about FATCA, he sent me a fact sheet outlining my obligation to file FBARs. I don’t think he’s going to be bucking the private party line.
He was invited to our public meeting on Saturday, but declined with no reason given.
In contrast, the NDP MP in a neighbouring riding advised she would like to attend, but she and her staff are at a Veteran’s Town Hall meeting at the same time. She posted information about our meeting on her website, sent the information to her constituents who have contacted her about this and tweeted a link to Maple Sandbox about the meeting. That was all done before yesterday’s announcement.
Her assistant followed up with me this morning to ensure I had a copy of Murray Rankin’s letter.
I will send him a link to this thread.
I will vote for whatever Liberal, NDP or Green candidate has the best chance of defeating my Conservative MP.
@Joe Smith
As USXCanada would say and I agree:
1. U.S. persons are not liked and so there is no interest in protecting them.
2. There is NO cavalry coming to the rescue.
To that I would add that when we are dealing with the U.S., we are dealing with the most immoral of countries and laws. I remember a scene from an old movie where the character said this:
“When policemen break the law, then there isn’t any law – just a fight for survival.”
That’s describes where we are today.
It’s your responsibility to take care of yourself and your families.
This is OUR country, not the Conservative Party’s.
@FreezingDarkness
The opposition threat? Christ! (facepalm)
Does anyone really believe that Justin Trudeau would stand up for any Canadian that might have US ties? Did Justin Trudeau not say recently that ‘Duals fall under USA authority’?
USCitizenAbroad is 100% correct. If you have the taint of US personhood, you are an undesirable all over the world. There are only two choices left for a US person abroad. Either dump your US citizenship, or go back to the USA. Period.
Every man for himself.
Knowing now that the Harper Government has no problem selling out Canadians that have the taint of US personhood, and that most likely, Justin Trudeau would’ve done the same thing. I’m now at a crossroads.
Harper wants me to wait another year so that I can understand the value of Canadian citizenship. The value of which he wants to cheapen by throwing some Canadians under the bus, and setting up a two-tiered system where the first class citizens are the ones born here, while the second class ones are the naturalized ones that can be deported for ‘terr’ist’ activities. No doubt ‘dissent’ will fall under ‘terr’ism’ in these paranoid times sooner or later, but what I’m unclear on is whether the ‘second class citizens’ are duals or not. Also, how do they intend to strip someone’s citizenship if that may render the person stateless?
I’ve also just learned that my mother is seriously ill and is in the hospital with a heart condition. The doctors say she’s okay, but they have to put in a couple of stents in her heart to open up clogged heart vessels. If she gets sick like that again, I won’t really have much choice but to go back to the US to see her, so rendering myself stateless is out, as that will prevent me from travelling.
I have though about just packing it in and returning to the US, but that would also mean divorce. On the other hand, it would remove the taint of US personhood once and for all from her, just from her association to me, but, given her disability, the care of her would end up reverting back to her parents, and the provincial government, and she’s NOT wanting that! She wants ME to take care of her, and that is also what I want to do. We don’t want to have a divorce.
Finally, while I’d love to be rid of US citizenship, I will not pledge fealty to the Harper Government. The natural extension to that in my view would be that, If that means no Canadian citizenship, then so be it. However, after just reading the Canadian Citizenship Oath, I’ve come to the realization that I don’t have to pledge fealty to the Harper Government. Just the Queen, her heirs and successors.
Obviously I need to get a grip, count to ten, and fully digest the ramifications of recent events. It is likely that I may just need to continue to follow my course as I’ve already laid out. To do ‘nothing’ that I’m not already doing now.
I know I’ve been pretty livid here, but I want to thank my fellow Brockers for their patience with me. I’m pretty overwhelmed with life it seems.
@mjh: I understand your concerns about your mother. My mother died at the age of 90 last month and she was my reason for visiting the US. Now that she is gone, I hope to make one final trip down in the spring for a celebration of her life with friends. After that, I plan to never cross the border again.
You, unfortunately, will go into your Canadian citizenship knowing these words on your certificate are worthless: “… entitled to all of the rights and privileges and bears all the responsibilities, obligations and duties of a Canadian citizen.”
Most of us believed those words from the moment we received those certificates decades or years ago. Yesterday, we learned how meaningless those words actually are.
You should still believe those words, Blaze. It’s the current government that’s imposing on us any “duties” we have to the United States, not Canada as a nation. Important distinction.
@Joe Zinga The conservatives have a majority. They can do what they want. Efforts should be directed towards convincing conservatives about how bad the IGA is and convincing them that their political future depends on them opposing Harper and Flaherty on this.
NO FUCKING WAY!!! If I vote I vote Green because Elizabeth May is a dual and was the first to condemn FATCA. Without 5 million associated to US Persons and Citizens here Harper the cheeseburger munching piggly wiggly is finished. He just committed political suicide and you want to help these Nazis understand what human rights are?
There is hardly a person among us that cares about ANY other issue in Canada because we have just lost our citizenship rights and are now a deprived minority. This is where the Conservatives are missing the boat. None of us care about ANY other issue and our only goal is getting rid those who are supporting US style financial terrorism.
@Blaze
“Yesterday, we learned how meaningless those words actually are.”
That is the part that bothers me the most. The concept of a government that would sell out some of it’s own citizens to a foreign government.
The very sight of the Canadian government selling out some of its own Canadians to MY government….My brain can’t process that! It’s too unreal! Some other governments have already signed on, and there are others that will follow.
We are indeed living in strange and dangerous times. Are we looking at the embryonic signs of a one world imperialism under the banner of the USA, where nations under American influence devolve into constituent nations of an all powerful super-republic? (credibly threatened only by China?)
….We’ve always been at war with Eastasia….
@Joe Smith:
“1. U.S. persons are not liked and so there is no interest in protecting them.”
Irrelevant. There are 5 million directly affected people in Canada, more than enough to close big banks, grow the credit union movement and throw out incumbent parties. Hey, I am a US Person and feel the same way. But I don’t like Canadian hypocrisy, paranoia, cowardice and apathy. Our society is a big zero. But I speak from a ’60s perspective.
Folks, Canada Day is coming? Lots of parades. Any hecklers and flag haters out there that would boo both flags as they march past? Let’s make this a July 1st Canadians will never forget
@ChearsBigEars
“But I don’t like Canadian hypocrisy, paranoia, cowardice and apathy.”
I don’t like it, either. Also, it doesn’t seem like a 60’s problem, anymore.
I don’t like the concept of being taught ‘the value of citizenship’ by those that would cheapen it by throwing its own citizens under the bus. There is nothing of value that I can learn from those people, other than what cowardice and hypocrisy looks like, and I would dare say that they have no fucking clue as to what the meaning of citizenship truly is, as no doubt, they were all born with it and have taken it for granted themselves. No. The only people that understand the value of citizenship will be the ones that dare issue a Charter challenge to the Harper government over this issue Meanwhile, I’m also aware that the Conservatives (especially Harper) hate the Charter itself.
As for apathy? From what I’ve seen here in the two years I’ve been a resident, they’re at least as apathetic as the Americans if not perhaps more so. I think there are perhaps quite a few of them that would have no problems with surrendering their sovereignty just so they wouldn’t have to cross border shop, if that meant they could also keep their health care and gun control. (which will never happen)
But yeah. If I were to ever gain the right to vote here, I will NEVER vote Conservative. Only Liberal or NDP for me. (other parties will be considered)
@mjh49783
Judging by the fact that Canadian Cop was just told by his MP to fly under the radar, I would agree with you that the current government has no clue what citizenship means, especially the extraterritoriality of US citizenship. It’s one thing to know all of the facts and make a well informed conscientious decision to not comply, but for your MP to shrug it off as a non-issue? Completely unacceptable!
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/02/05/an-open-letter-to-prime-minister-harper/comment-page-2/#comment-1074129
An email from Thomas Mulcair in my inbox this morning:
@ Wren
Got that e-mail from Thomas Mulcair too today. It was a good opportunity to reply with a thank you to one and all for their efforts. We have a by-election coming up so now he knows the NDP candidate here will be getting two votes — mine and my husband’s.
@ Em
I concur. If I could vote for the Greens, I might, as Elizabeth May has been very vocal on this file, too. But I have been impressed with Mulcair’s NDP. I like their fighting spirit, even on not-so-sexy issues. My first vote as a citizen will be for them.
https://twitter.com/gamutalarm/status/477254330945269760