A recent letter published in the Squamish Chief, called “The FATCA of the Matter”, by Suzanne Herman, must have upset some people with the truth. Not to be outdone, Bill Cavanagh, former Program Manager, Capital Markets, Bank of Montreal has managed to get a counter letter published, titled “The Facts about FATCA”.
Read Mr. Cavanagh’s enlightening facts:
http://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/letters/the-facts-about-fatca-1.932064
Read Ms. Herman’s original letter:
http://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/letters/the-fatca-of-the-matter-1.933164
Update Apr 2, 2014:
MP John Weston responds: http://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/letters/safeguards-lauded-1.939921
@GwEvil, “JUST SAY NO!” (to FATCA)
@all
Brian Mahaney likes Bill Cavanagh’s letter.
@Don,
Lloyds bank and Barclays both ask first, for citizenship, THEN for country of birth for online current accounts
Brian Mahaney appears to be based in the US. One can only wonder how he found his way to an article in The Chief. Perhaps he’s a faithful IBS reader 🙂
tdott,
I see that Brian Mahany no longer exists at TaxConnections where we had several “conversations” with him. I do find that there is a blog at his lawyer site, among entries this one referring to one that he had on TaxConnections.com: http://www.mahanyertl.com/mahanyertl/2014/5805/
how the heck does an american tax lawyer from maine find his way to the squamish chief is a good question.
an even better one is why is an american tax lawyer from maine trolling the squamish chief for clients? perhaps he did not check his google maps to find out that squamish and maine are about as far a part as you can possibly get in north america.
must not be to bright of a lawyer then…… 🙂
I tweeted and e-mailed BMO and asked them if Mr. Cavanagh reflects their views. I have posted most of my e-mail and their full response at Maple Sandbox.
http://maplesandbox.ca/2014/bmo-tells-us-what-they-think-of-us/comment-page-2/#comment-16144
@blaze
Thanks for you efforts. Misinformed as he was, at least Mr Cavanagh showed a little emotion – the response from Ms Dutka was frightening it’s coldness. No apologies, just the facts. You have to wonder how this is going to affect those at the banks when they have to start turning their long term customers, friends and relatives over for processing. This is truly a nightmare come true.
Blaze wrote:
“This is one of the most offensive things I have read about FATCA in Canada. I can assure you I will never do business with BMO as a result of this.”
BMO replied:
blah, blah, blah (translation — lawyer vetted jargon)
“Thank you for choosing BMO Bank of Montreal for your everyday banking needs.
Katherine Dutka
Customer Contact Assistant Manager, BMO Bank of Montreal
Okay everyone, palm slaps to foreheads, this Katherine the Great BMObot didn’t even read Blaze’s letter did it. Doh!
Em,
That was my take on it too at Maple Sandbox:
Blaze and bubblebustin,
Not much different than the response from some of our Members of Parliament.
How would everyone feel about a group effort in writing a letter to the editor of the Squamish Chief rebutting Bill Cavanagh’s letter, from the Isaac Brock Society? You can’t buy this kind of advertising for Brock. Close knit communities love reading letters to the editor.
Please note:
The Squamish Chief had a make-over and the links are now:
http://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/letters/the-fatca-of-the-matter-1.933164
http://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/letters/the-facts-about-fatca-1.932064
In the process, the 6l comments on the Cavanagh letter disappeared. Fortunately the comments remained on the Herman letter. I sent an e-mail to the webmaster about the missing comments but I haven’t heard back yet.
One of many good comments (hopefully only temporarily lost) came from Deb. I’m going to take the liberty of posting it here. Luckily I just happened to save it but I wished I’d saved all of them now. BTW, Charl saved the James Jatras comment and reposted it at the new link.
For one of our talented Brock writers it would probably be fairly easy to do a rebuttall Brock letter using, in part, what we can salvage of the rebuttal comments.
Deb’s rebuttal to Mr. Cavanagh:
As stated before me in the well worded comments left here, Mr Cavanagh has no idea what he’s talking about.
As a Canadian born abroad – unfortunately in the Unites States – I am a Canadian. Period. I deserve and demand to be granted with the same rights and freedoms as all Canadians.
FATCA is not about tax evasion. It is an American law thrust upon the world. It’s about trying to “smoke out” the million or so people in Canada the USA deems their property. It is about data collection and financial control. And America is using it’s practise of CBT – Citizen Based Taxation to enforce it. To further understand the frightening implications and the myriad of ways America is breaking international law as well as it’s own, Mr. Cavanagh should google CBT, the Master Nationality Rule, the US Constitution, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the excellent submission to government written by Christians and Cockfield… the list is long.
But in the meantime, perhaps he can understand this example of CBT – I open a bank account at BMO. But I move, and the CIBC is now a better fit for me. But BMO believes because I had an account with them, I am still obligated to pay their monthly services fees. For life. Because an account at BMO is exceptional. And because BMO says so.
While he is truly ignorant of the facts of FATCA, he is demonstrating the attitude of the big banks in Canada. They “somewhat” tell the truth.
“It is somewhat true that the Canadian financial institutions — banks, trust companies, broker dealers, credit unions, insurance companies, and investment advisors — have spent funds to upgrade their systems but that is true with all regulatory changes that are required for both Canadian and other foreign country requirements to comply with domestic and global laws.”
It is VERY true, that Canadian financial institutions have spent millions preparing for FATCA. Mr Waugh, former CEO of Scotia Bank is on record (http://business.financialpost…. stating he estimated they have spent $100 million SO FAR. And that is just ONE BANK. There will billions spent to get FATCA is up and running.
The bottom line – most important to Mr. Cavanagh – is that he and the big banks would prefer to protect their dollars instead of the rights of ALL their clients. Period.
MY bottom line – I would prefer to close my accounts with a bank that has no respect for me as a Canadian. I’m guessing a million or so of my friends will do the same.
Would Deb mind if we use her comment as part of the Brock letter to the editor?
We really SHOULD get going on a rebuff letter. The comments have been great, but I bet that a lot of the readers of Squamish Chief read paper copy, so don’t see them, and John Weston has just responded with a letter of his own, so now Suzanne has been rebuffed by both Cavanagh and Weston.
What do you all think? Should we create a letter from IBS?
Here is Weston’s letter to the editor: http://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/letters/safeguards-lauded-1.939921
You know I’m on board, WhiteKat. I would write a personal response, but a letter from The Isaac Brock Society would be so much more effective at driving people to Brock’s site. If one of our word crafters, such as yourself, could provide the framework and editing skills, we could all jump in to provide the rebuttals. We need to strike while the iron’s hot!
I feel another Squamish Skirmish coming on. Hope our comments don’t go POOF! like the ones responding to Mr. C. did. (I e-mailed the webmaster and the editor about that.)
@Em
Squamish Skirmish, I like that! I hope your request to restore the comments works, thanks for doing that.
WhiteKat is right, I’m afraid – most readers would only see the print, I imagine.
Hi all,
Please use any or all of my comment if it helps. Em, thanks for saving it, it didn’t! : (
A letter of our own is definitely in order.
@ Deb
I took the liberty of posting your whole comment in this thread (April 1, 2014 at 5:00 pm). Grab it and repost it at the Chief, PLEASE.
Thanks, Deb. Now for the more immediate venting of spleen…
@ bubblebustin
Got an e-mail from the Chief’s editor. He says they are going to try to restore the comments lost on Mr. C.’s letter to the editor. Nothing so far but hopefully they will appear later.
Thank you, Em. I hate to see the lost in the ether…
I sent the following letter to the Squamish Chief Editor this morning. Thanks to Canadian Cop, whose letter to his MP Scott Armstrong served as the basis for my letter. I could not acknowledge Canadian Cop since letters to the editor can only be up to 400 words. Hopefully it will actually get published, as both Mr. Weston and Mr. Cavanagh deserve a rebuff to their hopelessly lame responses to Suzanne’s original letter.
Will The Real FATCA Please Stand Up!
Re: “Safeguards Lauded”, by MP John Weston, Apr 2/14
Editor,
I was born in the USA while my Canadian parents lived there temporarily, and returned to Canada at age one. I have the following 10 questions for MP John Weston regarding FATCA.
1. Do you consider me a Canadian who was born in the US, or a “US person” living in Canada?
2. Based on the fact I am Canadian, have worked only in Canada, and do all my banking in Canada, do you consider my bank accounts “offshore” and the business of any foreign government?
3. According to the Master Nationality Rule, a Canadian living in Canada is only Canadian. Do you believe this, or do you believe that a Canadian living in Canada can also be American or Eritrean, and thus be subject to the laws of those nations while in Canada?
4. Do you believe that might makes right (i.e. the US can do what it wants inside Canada, because of its might, but Eritrea cannot) or that Canada should stand against all foreign marauders?
5. Do you support the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and its guarantees to protect people from unlawful search and seizure and to not be discriminated against based on national origin?
6. Do you support the FATCA IGA, which assists the IRS in a fishing expedition which, while allegedly aimed at tax cheats, will actually result in a massive by-catch of honest, law-abiding Canadians (and we know what becomes of the by-catch on a fishing expedition)?
7. If you answered “yes” to 5 and 6 above, how do you reconcile that, considering the IGA violates the protections guaranteed in the Charter?
8. Do you honestly believe there will ever be reciprocity, when all the US is promising to do is “pursue legislation to provide reciprocity” or do you accept that Canada will get nothing from this except to maintain the status quo (i.e. avoid economic sanctions)?
9. Do you believe Canada is a sovereign country, and should not acquiesce to the extortionist demands of foreign powers?
10. Would the Conservative government be so quick to sign an IGA that violated the Charter rights of any other group except “US persons”, or is the political calculus that Americans are unpopular enough that trampling on their rights will have little political fallout?
Kathleen from Ottawa
Excellent WhiteKat.