Group Plans Constitutional Challenge to Budget Bill
Ottawa – Globe & Mail
Monday, JUNE 30, 2014
by Josh Wingrove
A constitutional challenge is in the offing for a Conservative government budget bill that will allow some Canadians’ bank information to be shared with American authorities.
“The thing is an unbelievable joke,” said John C. Richardson, a Toronto lawyer who serves as ADCS co-chair. “… I am very confident in our legal position … , no ifs, ands or buts about it. In fact, if [C-31] is not a violation of the Charter, then the Charter doesn’t mean anything at all.”
FATCA applies to anyone with citizenship, even those who’ve lived in Canada for decades. Kate, a 52-year-old Canadian, was born in Texas to Canadian-born parents, and was brought back to Canada at age one. She says she’s now facing penalties for a life of not filing taxes – she didn’t know she had to – in the United States.
“I’ve never worked there, I’ve never been to school there, I’ve rarely travelled there,”said Kate, who is supporting ADCS and spoke on condition her last name would not be published. She said she feels betrayed by Canada.
“I would like other Canadians to realize that their rights and freedoms aren’t any safer than my rights and freedoms are. I haven’t done anything wrong. I was just born in the wrong country. And the Canadian government is having no problems just deciding that a foreign country can have my information. So if my rights and freedoms can be thrown under the bus, then all Canadians’ can be. That’s why I think people should be concerned about it.”
Awesome to finally get some notice from one of the papers. But they risk having their bank advertisers pull ads.
A big thank you to Chears for his graphic that was sent to me. This is just the start of the needed advertising to show that Canada discriminates. As I stated over 1 year ago, what protections do Muslims, Iranians, jewish people, Polish people, chinese people etc etc actually have when their rights are under fire from their country of origin? They have NONE! The charter is being treated like a”little” agreement created to keep immigrants and other minorities “pacified” and it gives them a sense of security. Wow, that was blown out of the water now hasn’t it? At this point, this government treated it’s Canadian taxpayers like garbage, didn’t even answer our letters and questions(how god dam disgraceful) and passed a law against the advice from our constitutional experts. How big is that slap in the face to Canadians! Canada has nothing to celebrate today. My wife sang the Canadian anthem every day of her school life and what did that get her? treated like a pile of shit! Something drastic must happen here and we need to get the full attention of EVERY Canadian make all involved in these recent actions put on trial for TREASON!
NativeCanadian: we touched on that last night on the show. Why is it that thousands of messages were sent to conservative MP and they did not respond favourably to our entreaties? But on the other hand, the Canadian banks successfully lobbied them and they had the banks testify in committee hearings? Because the Conservative MPs don’t represent their constitutencies, because no matter how much we tried to inform them of how our rights were being violated, they could only spout off stupid talking points from the eunuch PM. They don’t represent their constituencies. They represent the banks. I asked last night on the Independent Nation show whether there was widespread lobbying from the grass roots in favour of FATCA. Nobody’s heard of such a thing. No it was the banks who wanted this. So the theme of the show was how the party system destroys representative democracy. I know I tried to message “my” MP. I never received a response. As far as I am concerned, Peter Kent is the dumbest man alive–for being a walking talking mimic for the PM’s office.
Fantastic to see this article today! Thank you, Josh Wingrove, for publicizing this issue on this, a very Black Canada Day, for a significant percentage of the population of this country.
@ Petros – Independent Nation? What is this show you speak of?
I’ve never received a response from “my” MP, Blaine Calkins, either.
It was announced yesterday to be on last night on That Channel live. There will be Youtube version, we hope soon.
The statement from the spokesman for Finance was misleading for several reasons. We need more Brockers commenting over there to clarify.
A couple of G&M articles to bring to the light of day:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/i-wanna-be-a-canadian-american-singer-changing-her-tune-1.2692959
and
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/the-canadian-in-me/article19391350/
How do you feel this Canada Day? I feel strange, but was glad for the above two I could relate to.
Time to bring this one to the forefront, compliments of The Animal:
@White Kat
Caught that. There is a website with a list of all the countries who received “concessions; by no means did the CONs do anything spectacular in this regard and it is dishonest for them to continue to say that they did.
http://www.groom.com/media/publication/1224_Cumulative_List_of_Non-US_Pension_Funds_Exempted_by_FATCA_Intergovernmental_Agreements__IGAs__6-14.pdf
Cumulative List of Non-US Pension Funds Exempted by FATCA Intergovernmental Agreements (IGAs)
See in particular, England, Ireland & Japan.
Good one, the Animal, thanks.
awesome pic Animal. Going to go put it as my background on Twitter pic
@TriciaMoon,
This statement is BS also: “Without an agreement in place, FATCA would have been imposed unilaterally, forcing banks to report information to the IRS, and subjecting Canadians to unnecessary taxes,” the statement said.
“We have in our power to begin the world over again” – Thomas Paine
Politics is a game, politicians have no loyalty to their constituents, they are beholden to the lobbyists.
I pulled a few paragraphs from “Democracy’s Oxygen-How Corporations Control the News” James Winter 1997
” Here then, are the roots of Le Patron, which began with his student days dabbling in backroom politics, to his role, now stretching over three decades, as the godfather of the Canadian political communities in Ottawa and Quebec. According to Peter C. Newman,
No businessman in Canadian history has ever had more intimate and more extended influence with Canadian prime ministers than Desmarais. he was a good friend of Lester Pearson, who became prime minister in 1963; he was one of the chief backers of Pierre Trudeau’s leadership bid and acted as one of his main confidants for his 16 years in office. Desmarais had meanwhile become one of Brian Mulroney’s chief mentors, and during the nine Mulroney years , no one outside the prime minister’s immediate family had as much influence on the Baie Commeau politician as Paul Desmarais.
This backroom role is in the tradition of the Rockefeller family in the US, whose rule is to “operate primarily behind the scenes…laying out the long- range policies while leaving the details to loyal spokesman of their interests in positions of public power.” The Rockefellers’ influence in the US dates from the last century, with their founding of the Standard Oil Trust, and more recently Exxon, Mobil, and the Chase Manhattan Bank among other properties. Nelson Rockefeller, who was governor of New York State and then US vice president, was an exception. The Rockefellers founded the Trilateral Commission, of which Paul Desmarais and Conrad Black are members.
As I indicated at the beginning of the chapter, the Power Corp. chairman has defended his penchant for surrounding himself with former and future politicians, and “to hell with the people who say we do it for political favours.” Nor, one must presume, does Desmarais make political contributions with the expectation of political favours. As Maude Barlow and Bruce Campbell report, the top 13 contributors to the 1993 federal election campaign were all banks and financial corporations: Scotia McLeod, Coopers and Lybrand, Wood Gundy, Richardson Greenshields, Nesbitt Thompson, Midland Walwyn, Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank, RBC Dominion Securities Inc, Toronto-Dominion Securities, Toronto Dominion Bank, and the Bank of Nova Scotia. And, note the authors, “The fourteenth was Power Corp.
I wanna be a Canadian
I posted this article and a link for donations to ADCS to this wildly anti-Harper group on Facebook, “Canadians Rallying to Unseat Stephen Harper (CRUSH)!” It has 18,681 members.
A Step by Step Guide to Fighting Harper
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/hussan/2011/05/step-step-guide-fight-harper
The 2014 Peoples’ Forum: Organizing the Fight against the Right
http://www.peoplessocialforum.org/news/2014/3/14/the-2014-peoples-social-forum-organizing-the-fight-against-the-right
“Banned on the Hill- Censorship/Blacklisting” by Franke James
http://www.frankejames.com/blacklisting/
A great article!
We should mention Isaac Brock Society in the comments as often as possible and in as many articles as possible.
The more people who visit this site, the more who will be helped in finding their own solutions to this travesty. And the more who will contribute to the Charter challenge.
Now is the time to pump up the volume!
Lots of anti-Harper vitriol today. I understand it makes people feel better to vent and Harper deserves it. But does anyone think a Michael Ignatieff government would have been any different? This fight is non-partisan. It has to be or it will fragment into nothing. The charter challenge must be front and center. Perhaps pressure could also begin in earnest on Justin Trudeau who (God help us) may just form the next government. I dislike Justin not because he’s a liberal but because he’s a clueless lightweight. Nonetheless his minders would notice if this FATCA travesty became an election issue. Members Garneau and Brison already seem sympathetic and yes c-31 has been passed but FATCA is far from implemented. Remember the two year “transition period?” And to whom exactly is the CRA accountable? Perhaps the fear of God could be put into them. I’m not sure how yet but this thing isn’t over yet. Happy Canada Day everyone!
After further thought I guess the CRA would answer to the government in power and Finance in particular. Perhaps a steady barrage aimed at Joe Oliver and his boss would slow this train wreck’s damage potential. There is no hurry to send our banking info. to the IRS if there is a two year transition period. A go slow approach is the least they owe us. Meanwhile could a judge put a stay on the implementation of the IGA since litigation is imminent?
@Lake Superior Guy,
The fact that the IGA was signed meant Canada was already compliant and that there was no reason whatever to rush the legislation. As can be seen in the May 13 & May 14 videos of the FINA meetings, both John Richardson & Arthur Cockfield pointed out that there was no need to rush and Scott Brison made very strong statements regarding a better IGA could be negotiated. Allison Christians made a case for the lack of legitimacy of the IGA, etc. The CONs simply had their own agenda for pushing it through. Truly doesn’t make any sense plus makes the banksters look like you-know-what.
How can we win against this ‘logic’? Does anyone want to argue with Tony, or does he know something we don’t?
Chris in Ottawa 1 hour ago
“Without an agreement in place, FATCA would have been imposed unilaterally, forcing banks to report information to the IRS, and subjecting Canadians to unnecessary taxes,” the statement said.
Under what law? Canadian banks, operating in Canada should not be forced to pass information to the IRS unless there is an international agreement in place or the Canadian government has given away the farm as appears to be the case here.
Maybe, what really happened was that the US Administration told the Canadian government that if it didn’t agree to FATCA it would prohibit Canadian banks from operating in the US, i.e. blackmail. That would certainly make the banks freak out, particularly TD.
Tony . 5 minutes ago
All the major Canadian banks operate in the U.S. The U.S. law basically would destroy their U.S. business, costing Canadian retirees and pension funds billions upon billions.
Yes, the U.S. is blackmailing us. Let us know how you plan on fighting them?
Tried to make comments, but only a few stuck, several more disappeared or didn’t appear at all. Problems even with different browsers. Not possible that only 22 comments were made in total on the G&M article online since this morning.
Our Constitution and Your Charter have become irrelevent to the pukes we sent to our capitals. They are a small group who have caused all our problems and they asl us to re elect them to fix what’s wrong.
We are as insane as they are. We keep sending them back. Albert Einstine said doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result is the classic difinition of insanity.