[We now have a NEW POST taking us up to February 1, 2015. This post will be retired from service.]
THE AUTUMN 2014 UPDATE
Dear Donors,
Together, we reached our goal of $100,000 to pay the November 1 legal bill 11 days ahead of schedule!
Thank you Canadian donors from coast to coast and our friends from around the world for your generosity, support and determination — and especially for not being afraid.
The name of our non-profit corporation is the “Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty.”
We were very deliberate in including in our name the word “sovereignty”, which forms a cornerstone of our Claims against the Government of Canada.
Canada and dozens of other countries throughout the world gave into a bully because their “leaders” were afraid of harm caused by a trading “partner” — and they gave their sovereignties away.
Help us convince by example the Leaders and Governments of all countries worldwide that they should return their sovereignties back to their Peoples.
Please continue to support our lawsuit.
“Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” (Helen Keller)
— Plaintiffs Ginny and Gwen, and the ADCS-ADSC team
Chers donateurs,
Ensemble, nous avons atteint notre but d’amasser 100 000 $ pour payer notre facture légale du 1er novembre 11 jours d’avance !
Un gros merci à vous, donateurs canadiens, et à nos amis de tous les coins du monde pour votre grande générosité, soutien et détermination. Et surtout pour votre courage.
Le nom de notre organisme sans but lucratif est « l’Alliance pour la défense de la souveraineté canadienne ».
Nous avons choisi délibérément le mot « souveraineté » puisqu’il constitue la base fondamentale de nos revendications envers le gouvernement du Canada.
Le Canada et des dizaines d’autres pays se sont pliés devant l’intimidation des États-Unis parce que leurs « leaders » ont eu peur des menaces de notre « partenaire » commercial. Ils ont donc vendu leur souveraineté à rabais.
Aidez-nous à convaincre les dirigeants et les gouvernements de tous ces pays qu’ils se doivent de remettre leur souveraineté à leurs peuples.
S’il vous plaît, continuez à soutenir notre cause.
« Seuls, nous pouvons faire si peu. Ensemble, nous pouvons faire beaucoup. » (Helen Keller)
— Ginny, Gwen et toute l’équipe de l’ADCS-ADSC
DONATE to www.adcs-adsc.ca (ADSC en français).
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@Noone, @Serfing (and all),
There will be many good questions on the lawsuit, but we have to be very careful in releasing information publicly — and we cannot respond to all questions.
You ask when the trial will happen.
This question has been discussed with Mr. Arvay. What I can say at this time is that a reasonable expectation is that the trial date will be in August-September, but we are hopeful that the date will be earlier.
You can monitor a part of the rather technical progress of the lawsuit on this link below, but there will be times when we cannot comment publicly on some specific actions mentioned in the link, until the action is resolved.
http://cas-ncr-nter03.cas-satj.gc.ca/IndexingQueries/infp_RE_info_e.php?court_no=T-1736-14
@Polly,
We already have received a lot of good positive buzz when the claims were filed, and some strong negative buzz at that time from a handful of Canadian tax professionals. My recent discussions with the media suggest that the press is now very interested in the response the Government will make to our claims. This will come in November.
@ LM
Re: Kijiji Ad: My husband posted it this morning (still waiting for it to appear) — Lethbridge area under Financial, Legal. I don’t think it’s too “in your face”but if you think it needs editing let me know.
@ Embee –
Most of this Kijiji ad seems just perfect, but a few small tweeks to suggest:
Rather than “Are you a Snowbird who meets the US substantial presence test?” – – you might want to say “Are you a snowbird who stays in the US too long?” or “…who stays long enough to get caught in their tax web” (most people won’t know what “the US substantial presence test” means…..)
“FATCA essentially makes IRS agents out of your bank and the Canadian Revenue Agency” – – FATCA also makes IRS agents out of all one’s large and small investment companies (which may or may not do any banking).
Do keep us all updated on the success of the Lethbridge (and other Alberta?) ads; I posted a number of new ads late this morning and already have gotten 17 visits on the ThunderBay site! 🙂
@ LM
Thanks. I was kind of hoping a Snowbird might get curious and just google “substantial presence test”. I’ll keep my husband busy with further tweeks and placements because there seems to be a shelf-life for kijiji ads and it’s probably best to make slight changes when doing a new one. I see it has been posted now (only 3 hits, one mine because I peeked). I wonder if some of our hits are compliance condors? Hope ADCS donations and new Brockers spring up from Kijiji. 🙂
@ EmBee
Yes, you’re right that these ads/announcements have a “shelf-life”- – I’d say about 2-3 weeks which is why I posted a lot of new ones today. Surprisingly, ThunderBay is leading the pack at (now, 6 hours later) has had 21 visits – – who knew there were so many “US Persons” (or their friends/family) in Thunder Bay!!!!! It is, however, a university and major teaching-hospital town so that may make a difference. We will keep chugging along, plugging along. Tomorrow, hopefully a glorious fall day, I’m going to get my exercise by walking around all the buildings at the local university posting fliers (with tear-off tabs showing http://www.stopfatca.ca) on all the billboards….. Anyone else out there near one of Canada’s universities want to do the same?
@Stephen Kish, thanks for your answer.
Wow, with an expected trial date of August-September 2015, my concern is that regardless of the lawsuit’s outcome, much damage will have already been done: the IRS web site lists March 31 for the first data transfer for Model 2 IGA jurisdictions (which I think Canada is).
http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Corporations/Summary-of-FATCA-Timelines
Is there anything the lawyer could do to prevent that from happening until the lawsuit is settled and before the first data transfer. Otherwise, many will have already been exposed.
@LM
“Thunder Bay”
My home town–my REAL home town that is. But I haven’t visited there in decades so I don’t know what current dynamic might contribute to opposition to FATCA. When I was there it was more a blue collar town (paper mills, grain elevators, etc)–Lakehead University was, I think, smaller then so less of a “university town” feel then.
@noone
Would definitely be good to get an injunction. That’s another reason why I feel we have to be limited in our courtesy to the government when it comes to agreeing to delays.
You need to display a new thermometer announcing you need to raise $100,000 by 1 February 2015. Then some people stumbling upon your site will donate now.
In June 2013, one month after completing his third trip to space, Chris Hadfield announced his retirement from the Canadian Space Agency, effective 3 July 2013.[15] Hadfield stated that after living primarily in the United States since the 1980s for his career, he would be moving back to Canada, “making good on a promise I made my wife nearly 30 years ago — that yes, eventually, we would be moving back to Canada.”
He must be ensnared in the snowbird laws. Now that he is back in Canada [I think], the cause would benefit from his descriptions of being treated as a financial criminal by the US for his Canadian financial accounts, just as he so descriptively portrayed life in space. Am I dreaming of this possibility?
Perhaps he is well advised and prepared for the US laws. However, as he is a Canadian national ( he sang the Canadian National Anthem during the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens game on 18 January 2014), he may be much more sympathetic to the Canadian side of this. He only has 1.16 million Twitter followers.
@JC
I wonder if they would count it as time spent in the U.S.A. if he is on board a NASA spacecraft in space.
@ Dash1729
I don’t know if the high number of visits to the Thunder Bay Kijiji ad means “opposition to FATCA”; rather, it may mean less familiarity with the issue, and knowing people (there or elsewhere) who might be effected. Lakehead has expanded with the Medical School, and some of those blue collar workers (or their offspring) may have gone to work in the US for a while. Anyway, now about 12 hours after posting, this Thunder Bay posting has had almost 30 visits (more than I have seen in other larger Ontario communities) so something is happening there…..
@noone Canada is a Model 1 IGA country.
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/treaties/Pages/FATCA-Archive.aspx
An injunction would be excellent and might be easier to obtain if it is to stop the one-way transfer until USA is ready to reciprocate which is never.
@JC – If you or anyone else in IBS have any connection with (or way of contacting) Chris Hadfield, I urge you to do so. There are other “famous folk” who have been contacted (some of them twice) but, sadly, my understanding is that these contacts did not bear any fruit. I wish it were not so. But, again , if you know how or who to contact to be in touch with Mr. Hadfield (or other famous US-born/US-employed-but-back-in-Canada folks who might be interested in the charter challenge), we all will praise and appreciate your courage in making this effort.
@LM Chris Hadfield’s Twitter timeline gets filled up in about 12 hours – not much opportunity to get noticed. I’ll give it a try.
George: You’re right. The Expatriation Act of 1868 (15 Stat. 223) is still on the U.S. law books. It is now included as the final note to 8 U.S.C. 1481.
Re: Hadfield
I notice that he is now a professor at the University of Waterloo, my alma mater, a school with which I am in close touch, so perhaps there is a way for me to contact him.
However I wonder whether any of Hadfield and his wife’s children are trapped in an unwanted US citizenship–it isn’t clear when or where his children were born. That would likely be the bigger concern for someone like Hadfield–not so much bank accounts in Canada. He and his wife moved back to Canada after a successful US career and before FATCA came into full effect–so I’m sure they had financial planners able to guide their return to Canada and they would never have borne the full brunt.
IMHO it isn’t the people who moved back to Canada before 2014 who ADCS should be trying to find. It is the people who are still stateside, who still have plans to eventually return, but for whom FATCA is making it very hard for them to plan for a return to Canada, who are most affected. I need to be doing more myself to educate such people.
Hadfield and his wife got out in time unless they have kids still stuck with an unwanted US citizenship.
@Tom Alciere
“I wonder if they would count it as time spent in the U.S.A. if he is on board a NASA spacecraft in space.”
The precedent is that Jack Swigert was given an extension of his 1969 taxes due to being out of the USA on the Apollo 13 mission from April 11-17, 1970–getting an extension from April 15 to June 15.
This despite the fact that Swigert did not and did not intend to ever touch land outside the USA. He was the command module pilot and was never intended to set foot on the Moon.
But Hadfield wants to live on the Moon for generations:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2796937/forget-mars-live-moon-chris-hadfield-says-red-planet-big-leap-nasa-moment.html
I think Hadfield should wait until the USA opens a consulate on the Moon to accept relinquishments and renunciations.
I wonder if there are any readers/lurkers here who would be considered ‘American’ professionals owning Canadian corporations here in Canada – and who would be willing to spread the word about FATCA and help generate donations for the ADCS challenge.
I read a quote from a CPA who said that many professionals (doctors, dentists, lawyers, etc.) who live in Canada are also US citizens or green-card holders.
So in addition to trying to notify academics and university faculty associations in Canada, professional associations like lawyers, dentists, engineers, etc. need to know how FATCA will affect them and their businesses and corporations. The CMA had understood some of this and sent a letter to its members re FATCA https://www.cma.ca/Assets/assets-library/document/en/advocacy/CMA-letter-Flaherty-Nov21.pdf and the answer from then Finance Minster Flaherty https://www.cma.ca/Assets/assets-library/document/en/advocacy/FinanceMinister-reply-Jan2012.pdf
I remember speaking to a dual status doctor about FATCA back when we first started to talk about it here http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/04/23/canadian-medical-association-position-on-fatca-and-fbarmust-read/ . They knew about CBT and were compliant, but had no clue about FATCA.
@ badger – Your point about physicians, dentists, high-level business professionals is absolutely well taken; they, too, need to know about FATCA and ADCS.
Doing a mass emailing is no longer a good idea as it will be perceived as SPAM, which is against the law here in Canada as of this past summer. Doing a mass snail-mailing is possible but, as a dragnet, expensive. Maybe BCDoc or others know how best to reach out to these medical folks?
Perhaps there are professional magazines where one could place an op-ed? Would such magazines accept such a non-professional submission from non-professionals? Maybe someone with a bit of free time could find out when the next medical/dental/business conference being held in their city is going to occur and come down to the hotel or conference center and hand out fliers?
Maybe we all could print fliers and just take them around to all the local physicians and dentists? Maybe anyone working near major centres of business could take lunch-break walks to various business offices to circulate fliers?
What do other Brockers think would work? What are Brockers out there willing to do?
@ All – – what are your ideas towards positive promotional action – – something that can realistically be done and what do you think you, personally, would be willing to do /will plan to do?