For Immediate Release March 10, 2014
Today a small group of Canadians began the long legal process to prevent the Conservative government from helping the United States impose a bad law on Canada.
With the announcement of an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) for the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) on February 5, 2014, Finance Minster Jim Flaherty makes discrimination against one million innocent Canadians and their families – those the U.S deems “U.S. persons” – mandatory.
Finance Canada has requested public input on the FATCA agreement, which will override federal laws to meet demands of a foreign power to seize private financial records of Canadians.
Canadian citizens Dr. Stephen Kish of Toronto and Lynne Swanson of London Ontario responded today to that request by retaining prominent constitutional lawyer Joseph Arvay of Vancouver to provide a legal opinion on whether this legislation violates Canada’s Constitution including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and if so how a constitutional challenge might be mounted.
“It’s time for Canadians to get angry. FATCA is a threat to all Canadians and cannot be captive to party politics. MPs must NOT be required to vote along party lines – They must vote their conscience in a free vote” says Dr. Kish.
In less than one week a funding initiative, organized by Dr. Kish and Ms. Swanson, raised the money required to pay for this legal opinion.
“It is despicable the Harper government thinks so little of Canadians that they are forced to raise money from those with limited means to retain counsel to ensure their fundamental rights are protected from foreign demands,” says Ms. Swanson.
“As a Canadian citizen for 41 years, I never thought I would see the day when demands of a foreign government would take precedence over Canadian laws. The implications of this for Canada and for all Canadians are chilling.”
CONTACT: Lynne Swanson maplesandbox@yahoo.ca
Suggest send press release to:
Rex Murphy (National Post & CBC)
Margaret Wente (Globe & Mail)
I’ll write to those two journalists as well about this.
Suggest send press release to:
Rex Murphy (National Post & CBC)
Margaret Wente (Globe & Mail)
I’ll write to those two journalists as well about this.
Hamilton’s info session is listed for March 11 but still TBA.
is this accurate? Has no one said they would be coming? Has no one offered a place?
I will be back in the Hamilton area right at the end of March; could this be rescheduled?
Perhaps I can help to find a locale for late in the month….
Rock on
This is great! Thank you, Stephen and Lynne, for the work you have done on behalf of us all!
And thank you, GwEvil, for getting the word out. Could I make one suggestion if it is not too late? In your first paragraph you describe us as a “small group of Canadians”. Any chance of removing the word “small”?
Excellent!
@MuzzledNoMore
I am just the messenger. The wording is Lynne’s and Stephen’s. I can’t alter the press release.
We ARE a small band…for now. So let’s hope this rallys the troops!
A few of us have been tweeting from a list of all MP’s and news organizations about the press release. I think I just sent out 56 and see that @ @AtticusinCanada, @US_ExpatCanada and @LynneBlaze are still tweeting. Really nice effort and well planned by the organizers.
Thanks for all the work behind this, everyone, and now those with the chops to spread it around. We are a rather small rag-tag group compared to the amount of individuals and families this will affect. I so hope this will bring more people (and not just US Persons) to stand up for Canada and the rights of ALL Canadians. From the time this site started, we HAVE grown — hopefully it will be more exponential as people wake up.
It is first and foremost so important that every MP is truly educated on FATCA (we certainly know by what some are telling their US constituents — they have nothing to worry about — that is not the case). Then, they need to vote with a sense of morality for what this country stands for and to reject that “national origin” should determine the class of Canadian we are or give their names that they do not believe in that concept. We don’t need a bunch of “yes” party guys representing ALL Canadians. We do not need any US law superseding Canadian law. Please, God.
Excellent press release; well done!
I pledge to write and either email or post one personalized letter per day to a politician, journalist or other person of influence. And the press release is a great concise attachment.
Thank you to all the Brockers who worked hard on getting the Challenge started and this news release out. I am so proud to be on the Challenge bus with you.
Brockers Rock!
I honour all of you that have chosen to not go quietly into the night. Just a big thank you for being here, you are keeping me from total despair. Now I’ve got to figure out this twitter thing so I can join you.
Excellent Press Release! Thanks to all for such wonderful work!!
Great press release. Thanks be to Lynne and Stephen for getting it out with perfect timing. If anyone wants to watch our Brock tweeties in action (thanks be to them too) go here:
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23fatca&f=realtime
Can this be added to our “Press Releases” sidebar? Or does it have to be specifically from Brock for that?
Thanks be to GwEvil too! Every time I see the C3f logo my spirits rise.
Interesting little article in the Finance Post.
http://business.financialpost.com/2014/03/10/canadas-draft-legislation-undermines-fatca-agreement-with-u-s/
Thanks Em! I love it!
Great work, great beginning!
@LM
There has been no response for Hamilton but officially, it is not cancelled. I’ll pass your comments on to John.
Financial Post article is just a bit of tax lawyer make work project. IGA issue is not failure to follow FATCA closely enough; it is following it at all. Fundamental issue here is Canadian government trading Charter rights of Canadians to buy peace from unrealistic threats against banks abroad.
Alleged American Persons who deny the honour or refuse to comply with US law in Canada will find themselves subjected to systematic discrimination in Canada under this new law. Are you a Canadian going into business with a “tainted” former American as partner? Forget about it as if the putative American Person has a significant shareholding or is a signing officer, the whole company may find itself drawn into the FATCA web and spend thousands in additional compliance costs, find itself denied access to many ordinary commercial products and be treated as personna non grata at many financial institutions. How many Canadians will want tainted-Canadians as their partners? Getting married – not if your spouse is a Canadian and gets some advice as to the long-term consequences of being denied the most basic planning rights for retirement and education savings or buying a new home and realizes that their own personal financial life will be on full display for the IRS for life thanks to Canadian law. The list goes on and on.
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Has Mr Arvay provided a rough idea as to when the legal opinion may be completed?
You could also mention that contributions to fight this have come from “across the globe” (Well, at least Europe and New Zealand so far as I am aware). Although the legal challenge is currently against the Canadian Charter, this is a global problem that needs the attention of Governments everywhere.
@tdott: We hope in about a month.