I just received the official invitation to appear before the Finance Committee as part of a panel. I will try to find out who the other panel members will be. I am also trying to determine if I am able to participate via video or if I need to be in Ottawa in person.
Dear Ms. Swanson,
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance would like to invite the Maple Sandbox Blog to appear before the Committee, on May 13, 2014, from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. (Ottawa time) in relation to its study of Part 5 of Bill C-31 entitled An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 11, 2014 and other measures.
Your participation, as part of a panel, consists of an opening statement of up to five minutes, followed by rounds of questions from the members of the Committee. You are invited to review the attached document entitled Guidelines for Witnesses prior to your appearance before the Committee. You could, if you choose to do so, submit a 5-page brief to the Committee. It will be translated as soon as possible, distributed to the members and published on the Finance Committee Website.
Please confirm your presence by responding to this email, by May 6 at noon. Upon confirmation, we will provide you with further details regarding your appearance.
Here is the link to Bill C-31
Cross posted from Maple Sandbox
Related (not from Maple Sandbox)
Additionally, John Richardson will testify before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, on May 14, 2014, from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. (Ottawa time) in relation to its study of Part 5 of Bill C-31 entitled An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 11, 2014 and other measures.
Thank you, Blaze for standing up for all of us, in Canada and around the world. Our privacy and rights are being taken away by an American law. I will looking forward to what you say that day.
@Blaze,
Thank you so much for doing this! You will be absolutely amazing; you know more about this subject than most of the committee members (and probably anyone else).
I know you are getting a lot of suggestions!
Here’s my 2-cents worth
Focus on:
– the human effect – the violation of privacy, discrimination based upon place of birth
– the “birthplace” issue – accidentals, border babies, long-term Canadians who’s ONLY US nexus is national origin – focus on “worst case” examples – and Canada’s unique status as the most number of people caught up in FATCA
– focus on harmful effect
– without the IGA, FATCA would violate Canadian law – it would be IMPOSSIBLE in Canada
– Canada likely has more so-called “unreported US-persons’ foreign accounts” that any other nation
– the large number of Canadians harmed
– no one has extrapolated this policy to its end effect
– avid interest many have show in advancing the Charter Challenge
Suggest co-ordinate your Q&A with your allies on the committee ahead of time; so that you make the best of your 5 minute submission knowing that other vital info will be brought out in questioning.
Good luck – you have been rehearsing for years to do this!
Thank you Lynne for taking the lead on this. You will do well we are all assured. Thanks also to Native Canadian for being there as a support. Somebody is listening!. Yes, yes, and yes. My faith has been renewed in the fact that we do have a voice and It will get louder.
Clarity…………….
The politicians keep saying this is not about new taxes and CRA will not collect for those that are Canadian Citizens….blah blah blah…….
Then why are they handing this information over and what do they expect the Americans to do with it!!!
At a MINIMUM they are going to be harrassing eighty year old grandmothers!!!
Once they get the information and process it, what is the Government going to do when the next demand comes? There is going to be a threat of another 30% withholding unless the Canadian Government signs the US/Canada Tax Assistance IGA of 2016 so the USA can collect the $50 Billion of tax that they calculate they are owed on tax cheat Canadians.
IF Canadian Citizens have “nothing to fear” then the information being handed over is useless so then why do the Americans want the information??????
The mouth of the politician is moving and logic does not come out.
It IS a human tragedy that the Conservative government will not stand up for ALL Canadians. I have every confidence that Lynne will choose the right five minutes worth of words to speak — and that she will convey the sense of morality that the Conservative government representatives lack, further evidenced by the words of Finance Minister Joe Oliver in yesterday’s Finance Committee meeting. It was clear to me that Mr. Oliver does not believe in a SOVEREIGN Canada but one led by the U.S. masters.
You’ll have each of us there with you, Lynne. I’m so glad that NativeCanadian will actually be in the same room — I don’t think you could have a more passionate ally for giving you lots of support that day.
So proud of your bravery.
I am trying to think like a Conservative MP, shudder I need a bath…….
In negotiating the IGA, they should have insisted that the data file handed over to the Americans included a line for Citizenship so anyone with “Polygamous Citizenship” (hat tip to Blaze) could have ensured Canadian was listed on the data file and then the IGA should have stated that any follow up correspondence between a Canadian Citizen and the Americans had to be directed through and approved by the Canadian Government which would include no further co-operation.
The whole crux of this for Brockers is that you are Canadian!!
@calgary411, If I try to be charitable to the Conservatives………..
I think a lot of people do not have a clue beyond being a citizen as to where you were born. And that is not even correct in most of the world!!
The term dual citizenship evokes envy and has a nice ring to it. It sounds like you are getting something for free that someone less lucky does not have.
Thats why henceforth I shall now use Polygamous Citizenship partly coined from an earlier comment by Blaze.
Yippee!! We are finally going to have our say!! Lynne, you are a marvelous choice for our representative and you need no advise from me on what to say or how to say it. I simply wish you a heartfelt “Good Luck and Godspeed”. Know that the entire beleaguered community of American-born Canadian souls is pulling for you in spirit.
@Mr. A. This is also an excellent quote from Martin Luther King Jr. :
@lynne
you are so right 5 minutes is such a short time to tell a 3 year story.
whatever you are going to say i am sure it will be from the heart which is where it should be from as you have been living, eating, breathing this FATCA thing for oh so long.
take a deep breath and begin. please know you have over 1 million people behind you on this so you will not be speaking alone!
@Blaze
George’s point is most excellent, and if you haven’t already perhaps you might consider working that into your presentation. The government’s excuse for agreeing to FATCA is to avoid the 30% ‘withholding’, yet it tries to pacify us by saying ‘don’t worry we won’t actually collect any penalties”.
Well, what happens after USA gets our private financial data, assess penalties based on account balances, and demands collection under further threat of ‘withholdings’?
Is our government, going to say to USA, ‘Oh, we didn’t really think you were serious about confiscating assets from Canadian citizens. Sorry, cannot we can’t help you this time.’ ?
@Blaze – a great opportunity and, given the clear lack of comprehension exhibited so far by some Ministers and Committee members, one well worth taking. You know your time will be short and the key is going to be paring your comments to the bare minimum while conveying points they need to get. I won’t try to repeat the advice all and sundry will send your way. All of it is well worth considering, digesting and seeing if and how you might incorporate it into your brief presentation in a way that will also become infused with your own authentic personal stamp.
I’ll toss in a couple of my own thoughts, knowing in advance that you may not find the time or opportunity to use them, but just adding to the menu of things you might look to when making your final selections.
Overall, I believe the MP’s need to understand that this is not “Opposition scare mongering” as Mr. Keddy has suggested. IBS and Maple Sandbox are grass roots and totally non-partisan. Privacy and protecting Canadian sovereignty are not partisan issues. The opposition and the government have all been getting inundated with messages because there are a million Canadians who are horrified to learn that their citizenship offers them no protection against the application of unjust foreign laws that threaten to DESTROY their lives in Canada. They need to get that this is not just a simple question of “send in a tax return or return the passport”. If their RRSP’s have mutual funds, they will almost certainly be subject to 100% tax since almost none are US qualified. If they have any bank accounts, they will be subject to fines and penalties that can literally be hundreds of times the maximum balance ever recorded in those accounts for failing to disclose them for the past decade. If they have sold their house in the past they will be taxed on any gains made plus penalties and interest. If they want to renounce, they will be subject to a further tax. The cumulative effect of all of this would be ruin for literally hundreds of thousands of Canadians. The US has no idea who they are today and they have a right to be protected from these unjust and unreasonable demands. They (the MP’s) have no conception of the scope of the stranglehold US law would seek to place on the everyday working lives of Canadians with an American stamp on their forearm. There are a million Canadians whose lives are at risk of being turned upside down and being turned into refugees in their own country by their own government’s action – real people who are losing sleep and living with a great deal of stress. They have a right to live in peace in Canada secure from the demands of a foreign power. Canada can’t change the US’s laws, but we NEVER have to enforce them within our own borders. The idea that US law applies here without our consent is offensive nonsense This is the overall concept that needs to sink in.
The Minister has said that without the IGA, Banks would be turning over the information directly and withholding money from the bank accounts of Canadians to hand over to the US. He knows – or his official know – that that is simply not true. Canadian law applies to Canadian banks in Canada, not US law. Canadian banks can’t seize deposits at the behest of a foreign government – our Supreme Court of Canada ruled on that decades ago. Privacy laws prohibit the banks from turning over the information the IRS demands and our access to banking and anti-discrimination laws prohibit Banks from closing client accounts because of national origin (as is happening to thousands of Europeans already). The IGA is nothing but a cynical calculation that the privacy rights of one million average Canadians are less important than the desire of six banks to make more money out of their US branches. We have no desire to see Canadian banks forcibly shut down in New York or elsewhere. They would, however, have the ability to withhold payments to the US to recoup any payments withheld from them or they would have the ability to leave the US if it has become too hostile a place to carry on business. Canadians living in Canada have no such option – this is their home.
The idea that this is just a “simple exchange of information” is simply offensive. Every breach of privacy is an “exchange of information”. Why would Canada “exchange” information whose sole purpose is to enable demands which Canada says in advance it won’t enforce? The IRS wants this information because it doesn’t have it now. This is nothing like the existing treaty because it is a fishing expedition which Finance knows perfectly well the treaty doesn’t allow. It’s a fishing expedition where Canada is expected to pay for the boat! The IRS has no idea who among 33 million Canadians they could make these demands of. They don’t wear signs or lapel pins, only a handful carry passports or have filed returns every year (an obligation that few had ever heard of). Would we “exchange” information with Cuba, China or North Korea about the financial affairs of Canadians coming from those places to enable THEM to make demands of their diaspora? Why are Canadians of American descent second-class citizens, apparently below all other “hyphenated” Canadians?
Here is one inconvenient fact I don’t think even the relatively well-informed Mr. Ernewein knows:
The fact is that being “outed” by CRA to the IRS as a Canadian of American descent will put thousands of Canadians at risk of losing their jobs. Treasurers, Comptrollers, CFO’s or similar people who have simple signing authority over their company’s bank accounts will have their names turned over to the IRS by CRA. Lawyers who are partners in law firms with signing authority over client trust accounts will have their names turned over to the IRS. The IRS expects all of them – and the treasurer of the finance committee at your local church, mosque or synagogue who has signing authority over the parish bingo fund to provide full financial statements to the IRS. Their organizations will not stand for it and many if not all would lose their jobs. Note – the IGA doesn’t have to “turn over” those accounts. The IGA merely turns over their names, address and all private particulars to enable the IRS to terrorize these people with threats of jail, massive fines and worse. None of this would be possible and none of this would happpen without the CRA providing the IRS with the data necessary to do so. Neither the IRS nor the US Government have any way of knowing the names, addresses and telephone numbers of one million Canadians if the CRA does not tell them.
@Blaze, Anne Frank has MANY good points. This stood out when I read her above comment:
” The opposition and the government have all been getting inundated with messages because there are a million Canadians who are horrified to learn that their citizenship offers them no protection against the application of unjust foreign laws that threaten to DESTROY their lives in Canada. They need to get that this is not just a simple question of “send in a tax return or return the passport”. If their RRSP’s have mutual funds, they will almost certainly be subject to 100% tax since almost none are US qualified. If they have any bank accounts, they will be subject to fines and penalties that can literally be hundreds of times the maximum balance ever recorded in those accounts for failing to disclose them for the past decade. If they have sold their house in the past they will be taxed on any gains made plus penalties and interest. If they want to renounce, they will be subject to a further tax. The cumulative effect of all of this would be ruin for literally hundreds of thousands of Canadians.”
Maybe work this in with the ‘How will govt respond when USA demands to collect’?
Bravo, Anne Frank. Your analysis is always right on point. I look forward to each of your well thought-out and written comments. More food for thought for Lynne — and all of us.
Wow!!!!!!
I saw this this morning: probably has been shared already but I think the Tory response is smug and completely wrong headed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOhHwMPABOg
As a 61 year old “Canadian”, who has resided here for 60+ yrs. please accept my upmost gratitude for speaking up on behalf of us Canadian’s! It’s obvious that Harper and his cronies have no interest in protecting our rights and freedoms as per our Charter, “Go Get Em” !
@Petros – watching that video, someone needs to correct the record. No Canadian, of American descent or otherwise, would be subject to having their data turned over or being denied basic banking services in Canada without the IGA. It is simply wrong to claim otherwise. No Canadian would have been subject to withholding because the US would not have any way of identifying their victims. The ONLY parties that would have been subject to withholding in fact are the banks. The banks at least have a choice – they can arrange their affairs so as not to be subject to the withholding – perhaps at the cost of business opportunities or they could withhold on their own (or with government assistance) an equal amount from payments to the US. Ordinary Canadians, on the other hand, have nowhere to turn but to their government who, apparently, proposes to turn them over to the IRS for flaying with a “simple information sharing” agreement.
@Blaze
Best of luck! Thank u so much for doing this. Know that we all appreciate everything u have done
@WhiteKat
**Maybe work this in with the ‘How will govt respond when USA demands to collect’?**
US don’t have to demand… with all the details they will have… they can help themselves to all we own… then worry about the problems later.. Canada will be like… Sir… Sir… u shouldn’t do that… its not nice… blah… blah… Then they will say its not their problem… its ours… So work it out with your master…
That is another thing I fear… well… since I found out about this nonsense… I got me a whole boat load of stress because of this
I’m just getting rolling, I’m so steamed about that video!
It’s time Canada amended the privacy law to make it unlawful for ANYONE to turn over data regarding financial accounts that they have signing authority over, whether because joint or otherwise, to ANY foreign government for any purpose whatsoever without the express written consent of all other persons having ANY interest in the account. The effrontery of the IRS imagining that they can demand every Canadian bingo fund, law firm trust account or small business payroll account data for their private amusement and perusal just because a signing authority happens to be of US descent is just offensive in the extreme. Canada needs to stand up for Canada and tell the US plainly and simply that their tax policies are contrary to public policy in Canada and will not be enforced against citizens OR permanent residents, directly or indirectly. Period. We love you, we wish you well, but please show some respect for the sovereignty of your neighbours. If you want to talk about your own resident tax cheats and have any reason to believe they are hiding in our high tax jurisdiction, we can have a coffee at the embassy and see how we can help. We already provide T5’s for their bank accounts to you and give you reports on dividends paid from public companies and income trusts, so the room for leakage is pretty slight. However, if you have a concern, tell us about it but leave our tax base alone!
Congrats Blaze ! I have total confidence that you will do absolutely fabulously well in representing our entire constituency albeit in limited time.
I apologize for my absence from the Brock site for a month or so … health reasons caused me to scale back (but NOT eliminate) my on line life … saying goodbye to middle age really does not have a whole lot to recommend it other than knowing that one will not have to live one’s whole life in the new surveillance State. I hope to be back and kicking soon if this afternoon’s med check is ok.
Thank you Lynne on behalf of all of us. From my short time on the brocksters site I have heard your wisdom and your passion. There is a collective behind you and we applaud your effort to help the government understand the truth about this unspeakable law. Facts are important but a victim impact statement needs to be in the summation.
Looking forward to reading your submission and hoping that you will have a sense of the reaction when you report back to us.
A million strong we cannot be wrong
@Anne Frank,
I’m feeling your anger, and it should be obvious to anyone with half a brain and of average moral IQ that this is wrong, wrong, wrong.
I wonder, if there was more than just fear at play when our government made the decision way back when to cave. Surely, there were some intelligent enough players that had thought of possible reactions other than to capitulate (as in JustMe’s list of ten). What else is going on here that we don’t know about? Is our government really that stupid and spineless? Or is something more evil going on?
@TangoGirl,
I think you just created an excellent slogan to use either on protest signs or websites or letters:
A MILLION STRONG CANNOT BE WRONG!