As sent to one of NDP MP Charalie Angus’ constituents, “northernstar”:
In NDP Letter to Acting Privacy Commissioner, March 24, 2014, MPs Charlie Angus and Murray Rankin ask Acting Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Chantal Bernier, if the IGA negotiated and signed with the US adequately respect the privacy rights of Canadian-US dual citizens. They also ask what modifications to the Canadian Privacy Act are required to better protect the privacy rights of Canadians affected by aggressive FATCA reporting requirements.
Press Release, March 25, 2014: CANADIANS DESERVE ANSWERS ON FATCA
Angus says the problem facing Canadians of American origin is that the Privacy Act is woefully out of date especially when it comes to sharing cross-border information.
“There are serious concerns that Canadians privacy rights are not going to be respected by the negotiations over FACTA.”
Angus says he doesn’t have faith in the Conservative government’s negotiations on the FACTA file.
“The Conservative government says that private information will be handled by CRA and covered by the Privacy Act, but, several audits by the Privacy Commissioner have pointed out consistent deficiencies in CRA’s handling of Canadians private information, and several reports by the Privacy Commissioner have argued that the Privacy Act is in need of urgent reform.”
Thanks for your persistence in communications with you MP, northernstar. Your NDP MP response and action compared to that of my Conservative MP, is outstanding. He is to be congratulated.
A law is only as strong as those who defend it, and if it fails to do what it’s intended to do, it should either be strengthened or scrapped.
The answer to Mr. Angus can be found in the brief filed by Christians & Cockfield. There are, for all intents and purposes, no protections whatsoever. The whole point of the IGA is to violate the privacy rights of Canadians – that is exactly what the IRS wants and Canada has apparently agreed to give them. The basic right to keep one’s financial data secure from a fishing expedition by a malevolent foreign power is violated at the outset. It is not for the government to pick and choose which malevolent foreign power they will protect my privacy from. No protection from the US. What about France? What about Russia or Chad or Somalia? How about Cuba or North Korea? What criteria apply to the government deciding when my fundamental rights can be traded away for someone else’s material benefit and when they must protect them? It is a slippery slope they are engaged upon. They don’t have the right to make my privacy decisions for me.
To the extent it matters, Prof. Christians and Cockfield point out that thereafter (after disclosure to the IRS) there is no protection whatsoever. The IRS is bound by no Canadian law as to what use, if any, they make of the data they sweep up and US law offers no protections for data swept in from abroad.
@ Anne Frank
Well put. All the IGA does is double down on an individual’s loss of financial privacy and security. It introduces yet another government agency, this time our own CRA, into the chain of agencies which have access to this risky (for the individual, that is) FATCA/FBAR asset inventory. What’s worse it separates individuals in Canada into two groups regarding financial privacy and security — the haves and the have nots. They really can’t think we’re stupid enough to believe that making the banks send our sensitive financial data to the CRA makes the privacy and security problem go away. NO! It makes the problem even bigger. The only way for a person to retain privacy and security regarding his financial information is to have as few people as possible with their eyes on the prize. I don’t for a minute think the CRA would keep this data any more secure than any agency in the USA would. The CRA will simply dump a copy of the data into its own computer system and then pass it along. The IGA is just an attempt to save our little piggy financial institutions from the big bad FATCA wolf’s sanctions. The clients of the little piggies were just tossed aside and told, “Shut up, we got you a good deal.”
Thank you @northernstar for your determination and persistance. We have all benefited as a result.
I hope this lifts your spirits as it confirms that your efforts have not been in vain.
I just found out that there was a possible heart attack due to someone finding out about Fatca. I’ll write more about this later tonight when I am home. 2 brothers just found out because I told my neighbor about Fatca, who then told her friends about it and they looked into it. Successful farmers and business owners that came here from the USA as toddlers in the late 50’s. they found out now, that they will not have much left to leave to their children once the CRA/IRS is done with them. We need a thread to post some victim’s stories on this for our government officials to read…..terrible!
Someone should get Ted Cruz’s opinion on the IRS sending his banking information to Revenue Canada.
I wonder if he will think it is a good thing?
Everyone look at Phil Hodgen’s website (67 Days Of No New Business).
Basically Phil is closing his doors until June 1st to handle people sorting out their positions regarding FATCA. Another bumper renunciation quarter ahead for the USG? People will always vote with their feet.
It made me laugh when a video on Russia Today first mentioned immigration reform and oops then the conversation went to renunciations and about how to keep Americans in. What a joke!
I’m sure Putin is waiting to sign that IGA any day soon.
@NativeCanadian – That is terrible news NativeCanadian. Please God help that family.
Another attempt at humour, I feel ‘US persons’ are the audience in the Student Court in this Animal House Clip and Dean Wormer is the USG / IRS. It’s non-sense.
Farming is one of the worst professions to be in & caught unaware of US tax & information filings. And I’m sure there are many farm families that will have serious issues & worries upon finding out. Think high balances with lots of cash flow in and out. If they were to actually file income tax &/or renounce- high net worth, huge capital gains if they sold land – exempt in Canada but not in the US. Farmers often have partnerships or even worse are incorporated which would be an expensive filing proposition. One hapless family member with US origins tied into the land ownership and the family farm means that all the farm information gets sent to the IRS and that poor “US tainted” person is a huge financial & privacy liability for the family. There is no easy out and no winning solution.
Farming is already a high risk occupation, adding the IRS into the mix is potentially devastating.
It makes me ill to think about how so many people are going to suffer because of the IRS and FATCA.
@northof49 – why tell anyone? If you sell your property open up accounts at a different credit unions and demand payment in different checks under $50K each or even CASH.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as against FATCA as anyone else in the world even more so, but in the short term let’s look at work arounds until the courts decide including paying for high quality fake documents.
The US does not control all the identifying documents in the world and that’s the weakness of FATCA. Don’t get on the database to start, once confirmed as a ‘ Real Canadian’ the banks will roll it on for years.
@NativeCanadian – I just posted the following at TheBlaze http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/25/is-this-glenn-becks-most-alarming-prediction-yet/comment-page-3/#comment-7091136
“The Blaze and Glen Beck STILL wont cover and show the American people what the FATCA law due to come into effect in July will mean over the medium term to long term for the US. It might even provoke China, Russia, India and others beyond tolerance. With FATCA the US threatens the entire world with sanctions (PR says to catch a few tax evading whales) and in fact cause increases in the cost of living for every single person on earth while destroying millions of Americans living their lives in countries around the world, their spouses, their children and persons associated with them in business or charities or otherwise as designated “US Persons”. Rand Paul is fighting the fight in the Senate with very little visible support from anyone else. The Republican party has adopted a resolution to repeal FATCA but will it get energy from wimps like McCain and Boenher? Go check out the research, dont depend on me to keep trying to wake you up. Go and review the wealth of information on the Isaacbrocksociety.ca and the repealfatca.com web sites. Last night I heard for the first time of a person suffering what appears to be a heart attack following his OMG moment learning that FATCA was going to wipe out his family savings and business. As I understand it, the only crime that the man was guilty of was having been born to his Canadian parents in an institution south of the border in the US before being returned to his home in Canada where he grew up and has lived his life. SIC”
I am afraid that he last letter “K” was dropped and so changed the meaning of the last word … ah welll …. maybe some of you folk would care to comment down on The Blaze as well to see what happens. I really want to see those folk wake up.
@Don, I agree with you. Most long-term dual citizens don’t have really strong US “indicia”. For every account, bank, credit union or brokerage, when asked “citizenship” (which was not often, I think only the brokerage application) I reflexively entered “Canada”: why would I think to put in anything else? There were certainly no fields for “place of birth” in any form I ever filled out. So I don’t feel like FATCA is going to be a short-term or even medium-term issue for me.
It MAY be a short-term problem for lots of long-term Permanent Residents though, and they will serve as the canary in the coal mine for whether the IRS is going to use this data to go for mass round-ups of non-filing minnows. The Permanent Residents will have obvious US indicia, and we’ll see whether the IRS starts sending out big batches of scary “you have not been filing, we are going to ruin you” mails to them over the next few years.
@Don … Good idea. do cash transactions … but … the US has been pressuring countries around the world to make cash transactions illegal. THEY call that fighting money laundering and tax evasion. In Jamaica it is now illegal to do a cash transaction of around the equivalent of US$9,000. Not only that … if a “course of action” results is multiple cash transactions aggregating more than that amount then that can earn you 10 years in prison. Jaw dropping yet ?
Thanks NorthernStar for your amazing perseverance. Isn’t it nice to get some positive feedback for a change?
@nervousinvestor
U are correct about the cash situation. My aunt in the US was going to deposit $20 cash in each of the kids’ account & the bank… I think its called Chase… required ID for the deposit… she was told… all cash transaction… no matter the amount.. requires ID because of fraud… if she wanted to do it without ID… if she had an account… she could transfer the money into their account or write a check… so my take of it is that they want a trail funds… what a waste of time… if it was $$ then I would understand… a few bucks… waste everyone’s time with this nonsense… U think a criminal is going to slip $20 in someone’s account… they get busted for money laundering??? Come on…
I was listening to the radio this morning, to an interview with Charlie Angus(Timmins MP, NDP). Amongst other things, he talked about one of the books he wrote called: “Unlikely Radicals – The story of the Adam Mines Dump War”, which he says was his inspiration to get into politics, and a must read for average people who want to fight big government and corporations. Angus also mentioned Pierre Poilievre (my MP in Nepean-Carleton, PC) during the interview. He did not have nice things to say about him. I wasn’t able to listen to the entire interview – I wonder if FATCA came up.
http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2014/02/unlikely-radicals-exposes-toxic-adams-mine-dump-war