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.
@NervousInvestor, It’s good to see you back! . The FATCA/CBT fight takes its toll on one’s health particularly if we are older or have other health issues already to deal with. Take care.
@WhiteKat – Oh dear …. the slogan is great … but sounds so like former PM of Jamaica Michael Manley who in 1980 during a public political campaign meeting in Montego Bay which seemed to have a HUGE politically organized and bussed in crowd, pronounced that 100,000 strong cant be wrong …. he was then voted out of office in a landslide win for the opposition.
@WhitKat Thank you.
Re the slogan – in our case the difference is that we are not a bussed in political crowd but a genuine constituency … not a myth but a genuine integral part of the fabric of the community.
@Blaze,
I just want to add in my deepest appreciation for your taking on this challenge; I have no doubt you will be totally prepared not only for your 5 minutes but also for the questions that will be lobbed your way.
The only thing I can add to the many suggestions above (especially the wonderful points made by Anne Frank) is that it should be stressed that FATCA effects not only the thousands and thousands US-born and US-descent individuals here in Canada (many who may not even realize that they have an invisible USA tattoos on their forearms). Rather, FATCA effects (affects?) a massively broader swath of individuals here in our (supposed to be) sovereign borders – – their spouses, their children, their businesses/business partners (as AF pointed out). Further, the cost of CRA performing this externally imposed task (which all Canadians will pay for in higher taxes) and the massive cost to each FFI performing this extorted effort (which all Canadians will pay for in highter banking and investment fees), the decline of monies available to Canadian charities, churches/synagogues/mosques as there will be less “extra” funds to share with them, the increase in resentment/hate-speech against one group of Canadians (US “Persons”) for foisting this expensive problem on the Canadian public as a whole), etc, etc, etc. While not broadly known YET, the effect (affect) of FATCA will touch a VERY LARGE proportion of Canadians.
That’s my 2.5 cents. Again, thank you for your courage in this effort. We will all look forward to seeing/reading about your presentation and finding out what impact this has on their thinking and approach to the US’s FATCA demands.
Adding on to @Anne Frank……………..
Looking into Pandora’s box five years from now……
The USA would have had five years to analyze all these data submissions. Some members of Congress will calculate out the maximum FBAR penalties due, income tax due, penalties on late payment of income tax plus three and six year interest calculations as applicable.
The total amount due the United States will be huge. It will be largely than the Switzerland estimate solely because there are more Canadian “fish” in the frying pan. The financial accounts of one million will have lots of FBAR penalty exposure.
The US Congress will then agree to pass FATCA Collect 2019. This will naturally be a reciprocal agreement in which the IRS will help CRA collect and the CRA will help the IRS collect, subject to an IGA otherwise there will be a 30% cross border financial penalty for non-co-operation.
The Liberal Government now in charge in Canada will agree to sign the 2019 IGA because they will claim their hands were tied once the Conservatives signed the first IGA in 2014.
That is the future if we do not win.
Blaze,
Thank you for representing everyone who is confronting this nightmare, and for standing up for Canadian sovereignty.
Perhaps you could fit in a comment about closure of financial accounts.
Anne Frank said:
“anti-discrimination laws prohibit Banks from closing client accounts because of national origin (as is happening to thousands of Europeans already).” I think that the Access to Basic Banking Services Act protects BASIC banking services in Canadian banks – chequing and basic savings accounts – but does it also protect investments, mortgages, insurance policies, etc., from being closed or frozen by Canadian institutions? Many retired people depend on investment income from funds invested over decades to maintain reasonable financial health, and may also have a mortgage or receive dividends from an insurance policy. Harper says that, with an IGA, Canadian financial institutions will not be REQUIRED to close or freeze accounts of “U.S. Persons”. According to some of the posts I’ve seen here, some Canadians are already being questioned about their American status by certain financial institutions.
If I lived in a country in which men were allowed to beat their wives, because religious law instructed them to punish disobedient women, and the government then proclaimed a law that men were no longer REQUIRED to beat their wives, I would NOT be reassured.
All Canadian chartered financial institutions – all Canadian chartered institutions – should be prohibited from discrimination based on birthplace or “nationality ” (U. S. Personhood)…
Thanks again, Blaze, and good luck!
Remember that FATCA enforces FBAR, which requires US persons to spy upon their Canadian corporations and soccer clubs by demanding them to report the assets of the company for which they work for (if they are treasurer, accounts payable responsible, business manager, CFO, CEO). So, Canada requires enforcement that US persons spy upon Canada and report upon Canadian financial activity.
I’m feeling more and more honored to be able to accompany Blaze and be there to support her in this. There will be two of us there, myself and Lynne’s mother. She will be watching from up high………..
Cool, NativeCanadian! And, she will be proud of that daughter of hers.
Somebody should ask the Conservative government what they are going to do when they are sued by corporations that are Canadian only. These corporations may have a signing officer who is US tainted and because of that they will have their private financial information sent to a foreign government.
These corporations can’t win. If they fire the US tainted employee or demote them they will be sued for discrimination.
How could the Canadian government justify putting innocent Canadian corporations that employ Canadians of all backgrounds in such an impossible position?
Hold on Native Canadian. I just learned from the Clerk at the Finance Committee you will not be permitted to be in the room where I will be testifying via video tape. The facility where it is being taped said you are welcome to wait in their lounge area.
For people in the Ottawa area, you are able to attend the meeting in the Ottawa area.
Thanks for your suggestions everyone. I worked madly today on my brief and on my presentation. Unfortunately, I wasn`t able to include everything.
Lynne (aka Blaze)
GOOD LUCK BLAZE!!!!!
Native Canadian: Also, the media will not be allowed at the facility. However, they may watch on ParlVu. It will also be televised (don’t know what channel, so the local CTV station could somehow pick it up from that if they are interested.
@Blaze
Look them in the eye.
@George Re: FATCA Collect 2019
Harper is setting Canada up for another treaty override. The US has learned who’s a pushover.
Blaze and All – – What can be done ahead of time to make the media more interested in these presentations?
Thats ok Lynne. I’ll be there in the lounge, thats fine. You’ll know I’m there, thats all that counts if that is the way they want it…
WhiteKat – yes that is another good MLK Jr quote. Here are a few more:
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
(I’m having trouble living up to this one when it comes to Canada’s Conservatives & the US Democrats)
Mr A. You bring in the greatest comments. And northernstar and a couple others congrats on CLN. I am in this funny situation that I renounced last year but my son goes to Seattle from here in Vancouver tomorrow to work for four months (for facebook, he is supposed to navigate traffic of some type). He calls himself a US citizen on this dept of “homeland insecurity” application for work permit. He does have a SSN which I stupidly got 15 years ago. No USA passport, just CAN passport with birth in Toronto at -20C.
@George
Re: May 7 at 11:48 a.m., your FATCA Collect 2019 prediction…..
“…treaty override is not a new behaviour by the United States, but it is an aggressive move that puts the international tax law system, and its implicit need for “commitment projection” through credible international agreement, at grave risk. It demonstrates that promises undertaken by the United States in its tax treaties are fundamentally weak as they are vulnerable to unilateral nullification by internal political whims. The now apparently habitual U.S. practice of treaty override should make Canada wary about making any deals with the U.S. on tax, whether FATCA-related or otherwise. There is little or no redress in law for a unilateral U.S. treaty override, so each acceptance serves as the basis for further overrides to occur.”
From Christians & Cockfield submission to Finance Mar. 10, p. 47
Thank you, Blaze and NativeCanadian for offering support to Blaze.
I’ll imagine you in that British army uniform, Blaze.
Thanks, Mr. A, for Dr. Martin Luther King’s quotations. One really struck me:
You can get pretty far if you crawl. This brings back memories of crawling through a burning building 30 years ago, and when I got close to out, the air was getting thinner, you could breathe, and straightening up, I kind of burst out of that building, involuntarily threw my arms up like OMG, I won the Olympics. And quickly scurried to the safety of the sidewalk.
I wrote on Brock in February 2012 about how being trapped a fire in 1984 was “a picnic in the park” compared to being trapped in alleged US citizenship in 2012.
In January 2012, a consulate tried to prevent me from getting a correctly dated CLN. I had no ties to the US; not even the most innocuous connection to the US, family (they’re all in Canada), and the consulate had the bloody nerve to tell me they were concerned about a possible tax dodge (I was making minimum wage at the time of my 1979 relinquishment and had made $20,000 in 2011).
None of us in Jan 2012 knew anything about DoS or what to do. I ended up writing a letter about it and within 48 hours of couriering it, my problem was dealt with and I didn’t have a problem anymore. (My conclusion: Don’t put up with s*#t. Fire has to follow the laws of physics. You can make a consulate follow the laws of the United States.)
In the Croydon fire, 30 years ago last week, we knocked and kicked sideways on the bottoms of doors to awake neighbours whilst crawling in thick black smoke on the way out. Once out, we told the firemen who was missing and what apartment to find them in. The firemen, absolutely super people, were dragging people out and shoving them into the ambulances that were lined up like a taxi stand, shove in a person, it would peel off, the next moved up, open its door, shove in a person, peel off ….
Neighbours from other buildings were welcoming those not needing medical attention with blankets and coffee – rather surreally, they’d set up an ironing board with coffee pots on a series of extension cords. We had 22 fire engines, a taxi line of ambulances, numerous tv trucks, firemen dragging limp bodies into the ambulances, cameramen filming, reporters poking microphones, and in the middle of it, people from other buildings got coffee pots on an ironing board, handing out mugs with a blanket and a hug.
I see our Brock community as I saw my Croydon community. Some of us Brockers are still inside the building. We are knocking and kicking on doors whilst crawling through thick black smoke on the way out. Some of us Brockers have already made it to the sidewalk. We know what it’s like choking in that building with your mouth one inch from the floor and we are metaphorically reaching our arms into the building to pull you out.
@ Mr. A & Lynne and All –
I especiaily like/think apt this one:
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere
Go for it – – be a Blaze!!!
@ Pacifica – great analogy!!
and
@ Aussie Jones – Welcome!
Pacifica, thank you for sharing that – the help provided by you and the other Isaac Brock/Maple Sandbox regulars has been incredible for many of us who would be so lost without it. I never cease to be amazed how a group of supposedly “ordinary” people can come together in a time of need and do extraordinary things.
@Pacifica, Wow! Having found Brock in fall 2012, I missed reading your post about the Croydon fire. What an amazing analogy to what is going on here now. Thanks for sharing this.