It worked when we all went crazy sending emails and letters to our MPs and other political representatives. The NDP, some of the Liberals, and the Green Party, not only heard our messages, but acted on them (Murray Rankin, Nathan Cullen, Charlie Angus, Ted Hsu, Scott Brison, and Elizabeth May to mention a few).
The Conservatives, although consistently toeing the party line, probably have many members who ‘get it’, only because WE kept the pressure up. Yet, regardless of all the noise we have made, the FATCA enabling legislation is being rammed through parliament, and though we may be unable to stop that, we have been successful because THEY HEARD US. There are no excuses now, for the Conservative government or the banksters. We have all their weak arguments documented in parliament and senate sessions, letters, emails, and articles. They can never claim ignorance now.
One of the things that has always been one of our biggest challenges is to educate average Canadians about the impact of FATCA on directly affected Canadians, deemed ‘US persons’, as well as on ALL Canadians. FATCA is complicated; banks and government hide the truth, and although there has been some excellent media coverage, it has been sporadic and overshadowed with an abundance of the ‘FATCA is about rich US tax cheats’ meme.
We can’t give up on getting the message out there. Canada Day, and FATCA D-DAY are fast approaching. Perhaps this is a perfect time to have a “Letter to the Editor Blitz” playing on the emotions surrounding the national pride and celebrations of this time of the year. Don’t worry about crafting the perfect letter. The point is to inundate newspapers with your personal letters about the little known US law that is about to change Canada forever. I encourage everyone to write to their local major and small newspapers now before Canada Day celebrations start. One ‘crazy’ lady, writing to a couple newspapers, will likely go unheard, but if we all do it, they will not ignore us!
Has anyone considered focusing on other parts of the story? I find in talking to people about this, if they have no US connections, they only get interested when I mention:
1. This is a US law which we as bank account holders and Canadian tax payers are paying for to enforce in Canada.
2. The US gets all the benefits and we’re stuck paying for it. It’s clear the the US will not reciprocate and our banks and the CRA will be working for the IRS.
3. This US law will supersede all Canadian laws in Canada. This point really gets folks angry.
4. A number of Canadian citizens will be discriminated against due to their national origin and the Canadian government seems to be OK with this even though it clearly violates section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
I think that if you’re concerned about using your name, you could go this route and just sound like an angry taxpayer.
Also, I think the point that you are not notified if your personal banking info was or is being sent is a hot button for many. Computer systems have been known to have bugs. Anyone in Canada could potentially have their info sent to the IRS and never know.
Could someone put together a LTTE template which briefly describes the advance of FATCA starting with its insertion into an American omnibus bill in 2010 to its insertion in the most recent Canadian omnibus bill? Going on to describe how our group has been fighting FATCA for 3 years (why and how) on behalf of ALL who will be drastically affected by it after July 1st. Ending with a plea to help the ADCS fund. I know the human interest angle is the best to catch people’s attention but some of us who can’t step into the spotlight might be willing to deliver this more generalized LTTE to our local editors, hoping it will be picked up for publication. I know we have talented writers here and at the Sandbox who could do this. The hard part of course is keeping it compact while still making it compelling. How I wish this wasn’t such a complex issue. That’s part of the problem and so is the fact that people just can’t come forward because of what they would be risking — ultimately it could be their entire life savings.
Perhaps a follow-up LTTE nearer Canada Day could be one which describes a few cases from across Canada, along the lines of a widow (no real name) in BC faces FBAR fines of such and such — not exactly something to make her want to celebrate the birth of this nation. That sort of thing.
I’ve been a mental and physical basket case the past few weeks with virtually every thought in my head stewing about what the future no longer holds for me. It got so bad the other day that I built my own rock gardenish memorial in our backyard, using rocks I’ve collected from here and there, and told my husband that it was where he could bury my ashes someday. Sounds bizarre I know but the hard work actually released some of my tension. Physical exertion really can shut down or at least dampen those mental brain loops which get us nowhere. I’m going to rework an old rock wall today and pluck a wheel barrow full of dandelion blooms before they go to seed (now that I’m sure the bumble bees have an abundance to choose from about town).
I sense how spirits are down at Brock and the Sandbox but sometimes we just have to let things take their course and come back another day to resume the battle. It does feel very good to have the ADCS fund to focus on and help build. And it was encouraging to hear some opposition members in the House of Commons essentially saying to the Cons, “Look you know you are going to lose a charter challenge so why are you forcing Canadian tax payers to go through all this ridiculous expense?”
@Em, re: being a mental and physical basket case. I know exactly how you feel. Even antidepressants and anxiety meds don’t help much anymore.
Physical exhaustion does lesson the stress somewhat. Your body aches so much from physical labour your brain doesn’t have enough resources to think about that and totally obsess about FATCA at the same time.
We live in a fairly new housing development and our grass always looks like crap because they didn’t put enough soil down first. My husband and I recently reseeded the entire lawn and covered every inch of it with new dirt … that is really exhausting when you have to do it by hand a small section at a time. I slept well for 2 nights and then my exhaustion wore off and I’m back to restlessness again.
Since I am housebound most of the time my brain has a tendency to go places it shouldn’t. I have nightmares about the weirdest things. I’ll see something on a TV show and suddenly I’m having nightmares about it. This is what happens when your psyche becomes so fragile from emotional stress brought on by things like FATCA and the horrible economy.
Someday the tide will turn and we will be on the winning side and the Conservatives will be on the losing side (well they already are but it will get uglier for them). We just have to hang on and be grateful that we all have each other to talk to.
Think of this as something akin to an abused wives club. As long as we have each other we can rebuild our spirits. We know we are not alone and sharing our feelings does help and spurs us to action.
Remember how IBS got started? A few of the original founders were posting on an Expat forum and were told they could not talk about renouncing US citizenship. Now here we are 10 million page views later. I bet that Expat forum we left didn’t get 10 million hits since IBS started.
The growth of IBS is proof that we are going to win this fight. Come July 1st and going forward more and more people will discover the nightmare that we have lived for the past few years and the donations will grow very fast. When your bank starts asking where you were born and trying to get you to sign IRS forms you bet you’re going to fight and put your money to good use.
I marvel at how quickly our battered lawn has turned a lush green with no bare patches. All it took was a small investment in dirt and new seeds. Some regular rain and watering really did the trick.
IBS’s new dirt and seeds will come in by the truck load starting shortly after July 1st. Our nightmare date will also be the date when more and more new soldiers join us in our fight. I think IBS will experience it’s fastest growth ever very soon. We are the early birds to a movement that can’t be stopped.
@ OMG
I just came in from our rock & weed minefield (we have no lawn — our property is too sloped for that) and found your very encouraging post. Thank you. A couple of glasses of fluoride-free (we filter the damn stuff out of our water), a bite to eat, and I’ll go back to work with my geologist’s pick (inherited from my American father-in-law — don’t tell the IRS or they’ll tax my axe). I love your analogy about reseeding a lawn. Now we have to get a million plus seeds planted in the Brock/Maple yard. It would have been better if they had come in before F-Day happened (maybe it wouldn’t have happened if we had had the big numbers). Unfortunately now it will be bewilderment, fear and anger which brings them in when they finally hear that FATCA wake-up alarm go off.
Em said: “Unfortunately now it will be bewilderment, fear and anger which brings them in when they finally hear that FATCA wake-up alarm go off.”
In business they call that perfect timing!
In my online business I would get frustrated that customers would wait until the very last minute to order something and then want it delivered overnight. Because I care so much about my customers I’d think if only they’d ordered it a few days sooner they could have saved so much money on shipping. But the customers don’t care about money when the thing they need is more valuable to them than the money they’re spending.
We’re selling the perfect product. A lawsuit that will (hopefully) stop the Canadian government from bankrupting people.
The fact that there’s a parallel lawsuit happening in the US will only encourage people to donate. Having a super lawyer like Jim Bopp filing the constitutional challenge to FATCA in the US will give Canadians more confidence that we really do have a winnable case.
@Kathy;
re http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/06/05/lets-have-a-canada-day-letter-to-the-editor-blitz/comment-page-2/#comment-1955131
Good points to make – and good strategy since they cannot use some of their preferred tactics against those. Keddy (and the other Conservative) remarks (in his correspondence and his remarks during the C-31 FATCA discussions this month http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Parlvu/TimeBandit/PowerBrowser_SilverLight.aspx?ContentEntityId=11725&EssenceFormatID=480&date=20140506&lang=en&taid=8&tnid=378 ) are useful as they signal the Harper government’s chosen talking points.
My MP’s office (Conservative) continues to generate facile inaccurate responses and rationales in their dismissal of my concerns about FATCA – though I provide reliable sources to back up my opinion. One of their inaccurate rationalizations is that it will not affect “Canadian citizens”, (and that registered accounts like RDSPs, TFSAs, and RESPs were “exempted” under the IGA (making no informed distinction in that reply between reporting by the FIs and US taxable status of the same, or the punitive, penalizable and complex reporting as ‘foreign trusts’ by the individual (as beneficiary, or as sponsor if USP signatory) – whether a US , or that those with RDSPs are not likely to have RDSP savings sufficient to be taxed by the US).
As you point out, ALL Canadian accountholders and taxpayers will pay for the ongoing implementation and enforcement of FATCA in Canada – whether they are US citizens or ‘US taxable persons’ or not. And it won’t be cheap. We know hey don’t care about the Charter, rights and ethics, but they dare not say out loud that they don’t care about Canadian taxpayers and accountholders. They continue to say that it doesn’t impose any ‘new’ taxes on those considered USPs in Canada – but, they have NOT addressed the ‘new’ taxes or costs or fees that implementation will certainly impose on taxpayers and accountholders in Canada. FATCA is a costly thing to implement – now and forever afterwards. It won’t come free or cheap. Let’s continue to ask how much it will cost us as taxpayers and accountholders. Their answer has always been that the cost of not signing on to FATCA was more. Well, I think we have the right to know exactly how much we’ll be paying.
A law should not be a blank check written to the US – and drawn on the accounts of Canadian taxpayers and accountholders forever and ever. And that is exactly what the FATCA IGA does.
So, if Keddy and his Conservative kin have signalled their chosen talking points in their replies – emphasizing the Conservative’s ‘respect’ for existing US extraterritorial laws binding anyone the US deems to be a ‘taxable person’, we have them by the curlies on the point that ALL Canadians who are accountholders and taxpayers will be paying via account fees and Canadian taxes for all the work that is required in order to fulfill the terms of the FATCA IGA – to US SATISFACTION. No cost analysis has been done, or, it has been done and they will not make that public.
And of course, the current terms of FATCA as a US law, are entirely the purview of the US – without any control by Canada. The US always uses the ‘last in time’ rule that means that anything they sign will be superceded by US domestic laws that are enacted afterwards. So not only does Canada have no control over the current terms of the US FATCA law, we have no control over the future changes. They don’t even have to notify Canada, much less get consent.
We must ask our MPs, and state in our letters to the media, etc. whether it is acceptable that ALL Canadian accountholders and taxpayers – the majority of whom ARE Canadian CITIZENS only – foot the bill for a US law that benefits ONLY the US – and which is in no way under Canadian control.
The FATCA IGA is a blank check written to the US by the Harper government – and drawn on the accounts of Canadian taxpayers and accountholders forever and ever.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/taxes/new-irs-amnesty-program-offers-expats-a-ray-of-hope/article19063135/#dashboard/follows/
Good opportunity for the letter to editor – re this Globe and Mail article – and commenters online can mention the ADCS Legal challenge and include the URL to direct people for donations and more information.
One approach that’s an alternative to writing a letter to the editor and revealing your name is to write a letter to a columnist at your local newspaper. Tell your story and why you are too afraid to reveal your full name. If enough people write letters to columnists at their local newspapers, it can help generate a larger column about the issue. The fact that people are too afraid to come forward publicly is all part of what makes this story so compelling. I did this with Karin Klassen at the Calgary Herald, which resulted in a column on FATCA last month, and I approached Doug Dirks at CBC Radio in Calgary, which resulted in an on-air interview about FATCA in April. Also, would a group consider approaching some of the newspapers in cities across the country and requesting an editorial board on this issue? That way, you sit down with a group of editors in a boardroom and you plead your case for why news coverage is so important around this issue. This can be a very effective approach for stories that are more complicated.
@Molly, Great idea!
@Everyone,
As soon as the IGA bill is passed (today?), ADCS-ADSC will post a press release on Brock and Sandbox.
Please send this press release to every local newspaper, radio station, TV station, FB, other organizations you can find –large and especially small. Send nationally (Canada) and internationally.
We need to communicate the problem and the solution to the people who do not know about us.