356 thoughts on “An Historic day! Help Canada Stand Up to the American Bully: Donate NOW to the Canadian Charter Challenge Fund!”

1. I wonder how politicians get away with their lies and deceit ….. I am sure that you have all seen Harry Reid’s statement in the US Senate stating that ALL people claiming to have been hurt by Obamacare are telling lies – despite the millions who have lost their Healthcare insurance, their normal Doctors and their treatments for existing illnesses.

2. I just donated, and was happy to do so! I consider it a small token of appreciation for the information and moral support received from IBS, that led to my successful relinquishment.

3. @ grouchyandmad (and others)

   Before my beautiful noisy grandkids descend on us for a week of fun (and no time for much else), any of you interested in the list of US-born Cdn journalists that I’ve gathered?
   I was also briefly looking at the Wikipedia site of US-born Cdn writers & was surprised to find Robert Munsch of children’s-books fame!!!
   They are all US-born Canadians, sufficiently well-known/well-connected to be listed in the wikipedia site and all facing FATCA…..

4. @LM, I’m sure that list would be helpful. I’d like to have a copy and I am sure Blaze or Stephen would too! atticus in canada at gmail dot com

5. I’m sending you this info. Please confirm that it arrived.

6. CCCF Donors and Sympathizers:

   The fund was established on Friday. Today — Monday — the first cheque was received in the mail.

   This means that the post office box is working.

   We confirm also that we are on high alert for a foreign (i.e., non-U.S.) financial instrument coming in that bears the logo of a tiny closet.

7. IRSC

   Something here is lost on me! If you are comfortable sharing, what is the significance of the “logo of a tiny closet”?

   Thank you.

8. the American politicians think FATCA is enforceable because the US is too big to fail, so central to the world economy that we cannot do without it in our lives. regardless of the outcome of the charter challenge
   we should find ways to divest ourselves of US products and services. There are alternatives, buy local food products, or from non-US sources, apples from Chile as good as those from the US and so forth.
   It may hard to do without Windows or Mac O/S, but Word Perfect and Open Office( free) are excellent office products. An Australian company offers an excellent suite of accounting program ( free for small enterprises less than 5 employees and non-profits) They are lots of locally developed and community developed games.
   those of a certain age can share some of their favourite DOS application, most of which are public domain or abandon ware, and can be run under DOSBOX in Windows 7, some one will need to check for Windows *

9. Good afternoon,

   I guess it is time for me to put up or shut up. I will be making a donation later today.

   Cheers.

10. @ northern shrike
    I guess I started that when I mentioned that my bank “twig” is located in the closet of a store. It communicates with the main “branch” via telephone (not a computer) and does its computations with an adding machine (not a computer). Such is life in a small town. IRSCF is just indicating that either he or Tricia will let me know when my cheque arrives safe and sound because I won’t get a statement from the main “branch” until after the deadline. Of course my cheque really doesn’t have a “tiny closet logo” on it but he’ll know it when he sees it.

11. GOLD HITS 1500.00 CAD just now.

12. Great initiative!
    Am sending money order via post.
    No beach holiday this year…

    Pretty please, with sugar on top, if at all possible get the CCCF site a proper URL…
    it will make fundraising more effective.
    If a legal action moves forward, assume Arvay’s office will organize a “plaintiffs’ group” approach?

13. Obviously C3f needs 180 $100 donations. I hope we’ve got that many committed (as in dedicated, not insane) Brockers plus some others to pull this off. For the post-opinion, even bigger, challenge we’ll need some “sugar mommies and daddies” for sure. That’s where the list of better known Americans in Canada will come in handy. Wonder if Tina Turner, all free and clear in Switzerland, would even consider helping a Canadian based initiative push over the first domino in the FATCA-FBAR-CBT chain? Maybe she feels she has already paid a high enough price for her freedom.

14. @ Em
    We have some famous IS-born folks in Canada who could/should be approached. How to do this approaching may need some discussion. Are there any Brockers out there who are moderately-to-well connected with professional sports or stage/film acting or politics who would be interested in some more direct contacting?

15. $500 given. Nothing better to give to.

16. @LM

    THERE YA GO!
    Suggest you ask for participants here to pick 2 or 3 letters, you can delegate them to try to contact those persons so it’s going to end up less time consuming if the work is spread around???

17. @ ChearsBigEars says
    Suggest you ask for participants here to pick 2 or 3 letters, you can delegate them to try to contact those persons so it’s going to end up less time consuming if the work is spread around???

    I am happy to do the printing of the write up that WhiteKat is going to do, and all the folding/stuffing/stamping/mailing.

    However, getting mailing addresses would be +++ helpful. So if there are folks out there who are willing to take, say, 5-10 names (with info RE occupation and last known Cdn residence location & all of this is on Wikipedia or other open websites), this would be a BIG help.

    Grandkids come for a week starting on Wednesday and then it will be a busy packing-up/cleaning out/driving 2 weeks northward before we get back to Canada so I wouldn’t be doing any mailing for several weeks anyway…..

    Anyone game for this? Further, I just worked through the largest of the Wikipedia pages with US-born Canadians; there are others (specify to particular occupations) that still need review (disregarding the historical figures, the murders, the folks who have generally moved back to the US to live). Anyone game for this?

18. Time for me to start saving up.

19. @Em and @LM,

    You raise the critical issue of finding donors for STEP2.

    We are already discussing how best to find for the next step those “sugar mommies and daddies” who are like-minded and we seek advice on this.

    My own thinking is that donors are often guided by self-interest.

20. @ mjh49783
    “Time for me to start saving up.”
    That’s called a war chest and I started mine months ago. 🙂 I’m ready for STEP 2 but I know it’s not good to project too far ahead. Eye on the immediate prize — STEP 1 — get enough donations for the legal opinion. After holding my nose and reading a bit over at Politico I am even more motivated to do whatever I can to make things right (defeat the FATCA monster) and set THEM straight (i.e. the ill-informed in the birthplace of the FATCA monster).

21. @IRSCF
    If this moves forward, critical exposure would come from Mr Arvay’s firm issuing a press release and possibly a press conference to announce the action. Anytime a Charter Challenge is announced, it is news-worthy.

    A few national newspaper ads regarding the suit would be effective – as would a law-suit specific web-site with a proper url, search-engine optimization, and the right Google keyword advertising.

    For the lawyer(s) and firm involved, its a chance to make legal history, so expect they will publicize it if there is any chance of winning.

    The best source of funding is when individuals can join a plaintiffs’ group for amounts ranging from $250 to $1,000 – especially if the plaintiffs’ group is organized and managed by the law firm (confidential, privileged, reliable). That is a significant – but not jaw-dropping – amount.

    I’m sure there are many individuals who have contributed similar amounts to the Federal Conservatives in the past who have been betrayed and will never do so again.

    If the opposition parties have any sense, they will get behind this as well; it is a major embarrassment to the Harper Government and spins as a collapse of moral leadership.

    If 1000 people join a plaintiffs’ group for $500, that’s $500K

    If a local group of activist community health care workers can mount a Charter challenge to successfully defend a heroin safe injection site, hundreds of thousands of working, middle-class and professional Canadians about to have their financial privacy destroyed can as well. It will be a combo of self-interest, righteous outrage and moral convection. However, so-called “US persons” in Canada will have to come out of the closet eventually – until they do so they will be powerless. A significant majority of people affected by this are probably still unaware of its implications.

22. @Wondering,

    Thanks for the good suggestions and comments!

    We will probably also need a more formal organization etc. and a small group of donors willing to give much larger amounts.

    I have moved on in my thinking. My mindset now is not “IF” but “WHEN” this moves forward.

23. Donation made. I want to hear about success once we have hit the amount. Let us know so we can celebrate.

    Cheers.

24. I am willing to do some letters, tweets to people on LM’s list if it is going to be distributed.
    not sure how to provide my email so that it caa be forwarded but if a moderator cares to do so that is fine with me.
    Thanks

25. letter to my M.P. a month ago. No response. I guess he’s figured out I’ll not vote for him.

    The department of Finance has labored mightily and brought forth….not much.

    In a previous letter to me you stated that.

    The agreement under negotiation would recognize the principle our Government has consistently advanced that in seeking to meet the objectives of FATCA, greater reliance can be placed on the procedures that already exist under our bilateral Income Tax Convention for the exchange of tax information. We are pleased that the U.S. has accepted this principle.

    In as much as the IGA announced yesterday is substantially the same as the US Treasury regulations and previously signed IGAs, the US doesn’t appear to have accepted anything new.

    We do note the exceptions for registered accounts. Other than that, there is no change in the due diligence required and in the bogus way of getting around privacy rules.

    Several things need saying. What if China or India (both with large numbers of dual citizens) had proposed to apply the same extraterritorial illegal laws on Canada? We know the answer.

    What if Canadians were discriminated upon based on their religion, race or gender instead of on their place of birth? Imagine a Canadian bank asking, on account opening, are you Jewish?, Hindu? Are you of African descent? Are you gay or lesbian? Why then single out those with U.S indicia? Why indeed?

    The idea of ‘reciprocity’ is a canard. It is obvious that because we have resident based taxation and they have citizen (and green card) as well as resident based taxation, that reciprocity is asymmetrical. Actually, since the US is unlikely to be able to supply any information, perhaps Canada won’t have to either. Perhaps this whole exercise is a make work project for civil servants and accountants and lawyers. An expensive one at that.

    It is too bad Canada caved. We understand why they did but standing up to the bully would have been so much better.

    Sincerely,