The U.S FATCA intergovernmental agreement negotiated and signed behind closed doors by the Canadian government; legislation for implementation buried in omnibus Budget Bill C-31; hearings and debate before the House of Commons and the Canadian Senate without media coverage on any of that process to Canadians, and now omnibus Bill C-31 given Royal Assent by Canada’s Governor General and the FATCA IGA not even mentioned in the Conservative government’s press release.
Still so few know. How is this possible in a country that calls itself a democracy?
So important that we find donors to join us to support the Challenge at http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/.
UPDATE, compliments of “Hazy”:
Royal Assent happened on June 19th. Here’s the June 20th press release from Finance:
http://www.fin.gc.ca/n14/14-085-eng.asp
No mention of FATCA in the press release. They must have forgot!
This is a post from my comment at another post here. (Some may not have seen that comment since there have been technical problems of some sort for several seeing comments on that thread).
Hansard Transcript, Canadian Senate Debates, June 18, 2014 brought interesting statements on the audacity of having to vote on so much that is in this (and other) omnibus bills, but Third Reading occurred.
And, now Bill C-31 will go to has been given Royal Assent by Canada’s Governor General. for Royal Assent. We may not know when until we read it in the Canadian media.
Too bad our media has essentially skipped the process before Royal Assent of another Canadian omnibus bill, that includes (among other things that other items therein should be separate bills on their own merit) implementation of the US FATCA intergovernmental agreement (IGA) that Canada signed with the US.
Update: The Canadian government forgot to mention implementation of the FATCA IGA in their press release. So, I guess we cannot blame the Canadian media for not reporting it — or can we?
Hon. Pierrette Ringuette expressed what most of us feel. Listen to her and her colleague, Hon. Céline Hervieux-Payette, who seconded her motion. Start at 4:27:30 (Pull the “indicator” to this point to listen.)
Also Senator Day stated earlier in this Senate Debate:
There’s another piece of legislation, still in Bill C-31, still under the rubric of privacy versus disclosure between agencies, and that relates to the Canada-U.S. agreement in Part 5 of this bill. Part 5 is what we talked about earlier on. Part 5, the Canada-United States Enhanced Tax Information Exchange Agreement, was an attempt by the government to avoid, to a degree, the oppression of earlier legislation that the United States had. We have all received many emails about having to make available — the banks have to go through a due process, and for any potential U.S. taxpayer, the information of all the accounts they have must be sent to the U.S.
Canada has entered into an agreement with the United States, and Part 5 deals exclusively with that, but this is one of those acts within an act. What really bothered me is that they want us to pass the act, at clause 99, that includes the words “as amended from time to time.” So we adopt a piece of legislation that adopts an agreement between Canada and the United States, and that agreement between Canada and the United States may, from time to time, be amended by the executive branch. We will not see that as legislators. We will not say, “That is far too oppressive on the people of Canada and Canadian citizens who might be doing business in the U.S. and therefore might become subject to U.S. tax payment requirements.”
So we adopt a piece of legislation that adopts an agreement between Canada and the United States, and that agreement between Canada and the United States may, from time to time, be amended by the executive branch.”
“Congress has spoken” becomes piffle. Now it will be “Treasury has spoken.”
Thanks, Shovel, for your comment and related:
Thank you, Julian Ross Hudson Jr., NO to FATCA and Tricia Moon for your excellent comments at the latest Cayo Vancouver Sun article.
And thank you, Calgary411 for this information. IBS has been disfunctional for days and days for me at least. Finding it hard to see any updated posts and comments . Wondering what was wrong with the site. I linked to this from the e-mail that came in regarding your post.
Say, here’s an idea for a small scale protest we Brockers could use just to tell the Gov’t of Canada what we think (I’m not sure where to post this one).
I just received my small Canadian income tax rebate cheque (NOT Check!!!) and as always, the gov’t is trying to get me to sign up for direct deposit, so they don’t have to send me these cheques in the future. Well, I for one am NOT going to opt for this, and will be happy to tell them when they ask that I have no interest in telling them about an account I have if they’re just going to give that info to a foreign government AGAINST MY HUMAN RIGHTS in my opinion. This is even more believable, in that one is supposed to be able to cash government cheques at any bank with proper ID even without accounts at that institution. Comments?
Basically… it can change at will the so called traitor agreement… Gov’t is saying they won’t collect for them… that can change tomorrow & no one will stop them from say… picking us all up…. emptying our accounts… better yet… freeze whatever means we can avail ourselves of funds? whatever they want… without ever having any gov’t approve it… Should all US persons world wide… have the US flag tagged on our persons so they can get at us faster??
This is what we have to deal with now that our protections have been erased by our government with the IGA
http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4501432/paul-ryan-questions-irs-commissioner
“Basically… it can change at will the so called traitor agreement… Gov’t is saying they won’t collect for them… that can change tomorrow & no one will stop them from say… picking us all up…. emptying our accounts… better yet… freeze whatever means we can avail ourselves of funds? whatever they want… without ever having any gov’t approve it”
And that is exactly what they are aiming for. Our govt could have done so much in the way of protecting us, yet here we all are, hung out to dry with so many caught up in this Canadian citizens , born on Canadian soil , worked, earned, paid taxes in Canada to Canada and the IRS is going to do all it’s evil best to confiscate and steal every last dime they are NOT entitled to and OUR government is helping them and the banks to do it. It is outrageous. Are there ANY Senators who actually understand this and will fight it other than the comments of the two linked to??
We in the U.S. have the same problem. We had Comprehensive Tax Reform in 1986. It is hard to make a Marxist Income Tax fair because so many evade it that even if they had left it alone it would have been awful, but to make it worse than awful our esteemed legislators have a trick they call “Earmarks”. They take a bill that has been debated and amended to everyone’s satisfaction and put it up for a vote “first thing Tomorrow”, but over night staff and legislators burn the midnight oil and slip in clauses that have no relation to the bill as originally constituted. The earmarking process is used to ”pork up” a bill with spending, never intended except for the legislator and the beneficiary.
Tax clauses benefitting a group or a company or a rich individual. It has been done to the tax code 8,000 times since 1986. That is 4 for each day they were actually in session. All together the tax code is around 80,000 pages and if they actually had good intentions, and they don’t, nobody could explain it to another person, not even an expert.
That is the reason the fairTax movement started 15 years plus ago. Now we not only have the legislative reason, but the agency who administers the tax system has been found to be an on going criminal enterprise, used by both republican and Democrat administrations to punish their political enemies and reward their friends. The most recent was punish Conservatives and reward Liberals, but it was used before to do the opposite and each one uses the excuse themselves that they aren’t the first one to do it, We fairTaxers want the IRS abolished, the 16nth amendment repealed, the fairTax Bill HR25 passes and leave us alone to live our lives without being molested by The Brown Shirted, Jack Booted, National Socialist, from both parties. The FairTax would solve all our problems and leave the legislators without a way to extort Political Campaign Contributions.
@FuriousAC
I am 100% canadian… my butt was born on canadian soil… we are over 2 generations in this country… Majority of us were cons… we have become an issue family right now… never questioned gov’t because we all thought they were there for our best interest… what a crock of crap… this has opened our eyes to the nonsense these traitors are willing to do… Lets see how this will come back to bite them in the butt… There is no way there is no US taint in their families… no way at all. May they go through the fear… anxiety… & all the wonderful feelings we have been going on with. Traitors… everyone who voted for this… will never be forgotten… pack your crap & hit the road…
@US_Person_foreigner
Aside from later immigrants (Asia etc) and the french and british at the beginning – isn’t perhaps about 50% of the Canadian population somehow american if we go back a few generations? Like great great grandparents etc? (It feels so much like looking for “tainted” blood.)
@Polly
Could be… in my hometown… there is at least 50% or more taint because we are a 1/2 hr from the US border… we use to go back & forth… not that big of a deal… marriage between canucks & americans very common since my town is a blink… u blink… u missed it… lol.. But I am sure there is more then a million US taint… there is no way a canadian family has not one person tainted… worse are the ones who crossed the border cause that was the closest hospital to have their kids… no one thought nothing about that then.. big mistake in present times
It’s time for the world to show the US how grateful it is for everything the US has done to make the world a better place, will soon say the homelander – while Iraq burns.
Royal Assent happened on June 19th. Here’s the June 20th press release from Finance:
http://www.fin.gc.ca/n14/14-085-eng.asp
No mention of FATCA in the press release. They must have forgot!
Wow, thanks, Hazy. We are now among the invisible of Canada’s population.
The U.S FATCA intergovernmental agreement signed behind closed doors; legislation for implementation buried in the omnibus Budget Bill C-31; before the House of Commons and the Canadian Senate without leaking any of the process to Canada’s people, and now omnibus Bill C-31 given Royal Assent — but still so few know. How is this possible in a country that calls itself a democracy?
How many so-called *US Persons* in Canada still don’t have the memo that they will be deemed second-class in Canada come Canada Day, July 1st?
Hey, can’t be any big thing — the media hasn’t said anything!
See Updated Post: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/06/20/implementation-of-the-us-fatca-iga-has-been-given-royal-assent/.
Pingback: It’s Done. FATCA Has Royal Assent in Canada. We Are Second Class Canadian Citizens | Maple Sandbox
@Hazy
Nah… its a surprise on Canada day… its the gift from the canadian gov’t… Canada now works for the US gov’t for free… cool deal huh? We got a new class of people also… 2nd class… of course.. they think there is only a hand full of people with the US taint… Canada will hand over the country to the US… cause they said… Congress has spoken… US flags will replace the maple leaf… PM is getting a case of Molson together for his new boss… Don’t forget to make sure u get the large poutine with it
Calgary: I finally got the audio working. Wow, what powerful speeches on our behalf from those two senators! I will be writing to both of them with my thanks for their eloquent defense of our position.
I’m so glad your persisted and were finally able to hear those Senators speak on our behalf, MuzzledNoMore. Thanks for letting me know. Yes, I hope there is a lot of thanks given to them. There were other Senators in that meeting that agreed said the applause! But, here we are — and still it is not covered in the media.
In passing this to my personal contacts, as I thank them for messages back to me and for listening:
One person (an immigrant physician in the US) replied to my email:
I’ll continue to try from this side of our border – are you in touch with others on your side (your location, and unfortunately your “status” making for you a much more tenuous situation in speaking out)? Journalism isn’t what it once was as so many journalists have huge corporation policy as their masters. Where are the investigative journalists? There is one such that has stood up many times to speak for others in attempt to be heard: Chris Hedges – he gets a lot right. http://www.canadianprogressiveworld.com/2012/01/31/chris-hedges-what-happened-to-canada/#.U6bnQEBQNzI .
And from another country we’ve been wondering about:
Russian lawmakers pass FATCA compliance law — and it is more newsworthy in Russia than in Canada.
Also: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/06/19/canada-eritrea-bad-america-good/comment-page-1/#comment-2052632
Pingback: The Isaac Brock Society | Patrick Cain, Global News, among Canadian journalists covering the *US Person in Canada* as second-class citizens of Canada, compliments of the stealth of Conservatives in omnibus Bill C-31
Pingback: The Isaac Brock Society | Patrick Cain, Global News, among Canadian journalists covering the *US Person in Canada* as second-class citizen, compliments of the stealth of Conservatives in omnibus Bill C-31