[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).
Nearly all of those self appointed experts who predict the IGA will stand and FATCA will stand without changes have one thing in common. They stand to make a lot of $$$ ‘guiding’ people to ‘compliance’. In this case we have someone who completes tax forms as a “profession” opining on the Constitutional rights of Canadian citizens and residents. More than a minor conflict of interest, I would say.
@Publius: we discussed it a bit on the “articles open for comments” thread. Couldn’t really figure it out either. Theories include “Canadians are too likely to be US Persons” and “misunderstanding of confusing wording on one website”. (Also note Indian mutual funds have been refusing Canadian residents</I. for a while).
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments/comment-page-48/#comment-2891107
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments/comment-page-48/#comment-2891330
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments/comment-page-48/#comment-2892021
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments/comment-page-48/#comment-2892655
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments/comment-page-49/#comment-2893148
Pingback: The Isaac Brock Society | American emigrants: Vote Scott Brown for Senate so he can revoke our unwanted U.S. citizenship for free and get us out of the State Department’s new $2,350 renunciation cash grab
Pingback: The Isaac Brock Society | American emigrants: Vote Scott Brown for Senate so he can revoke our unwanted U.S. citizenship for free and get us out of the State Department’s new $2,350 renunciation cash grab
If we are looking for an advertising scheme, let us borrow from the early feminists who ran an ad
showing a healthy newborn baby with the text “this baby has an handicap, it was born a girl”
our version would show the young healthy children the text would read
these healthy Canadian born children have a l handicap
the US claims them as US taxable persons with lifetime taxation
and reporting obligations, with limitations on the financial planning as Canadians
Restore all their constitutional rights as Canadians
Fight the FATA IGA
Support ADCS-ADSC
@Patricia – great idea … some tweaking in the wording needed in my humble opinion … but a great concept !
Similar thing could be done showing two couples with similar appearances settled and living say in Canada …. one couple has a US tainted member and the other has a British tainted member (or Jamaican or other) …. multi racial / national is good …. one couple has privacy and the ability to plan financially and no multi-thousand dollar annual reporting costs … the other couple has neither privacy nor the ability to save for retirement and has greater costs of compliance that drain their cash flows and thus their lifestyle.
Yet another showing the kids of two sets of parents … one set of parents went to University in the US and their kid was born there before returning to Canada …. and the other set went to University in Canada or England or elsewhere where their kid was born …. the kid born in the US can be depicted as having a “monkey on its back”, in financial chains for life and with a viral disease that they in turn might pass on to their children.
This sort of thing could start as Adverts prepared by ADCS and posted inline …. including perhaps a YouTube Channel. Can the expertise to do these things be found as contributions to the effort ?
Another set could depict a scheming Uncle Sam (who “WANTS YOU”) plotting with a “Hitler” or a “Stalin” or an “ISIS” or a “FARC” to pass laws to expose US Tainted persons (perhaps even requiring exposure of the people’s religion or political associations) and their world wide assets to the “evil ones” for confiscation and persecution.
The cartoons, videos or even photograph based ads could cover many bases resulting from the FATCA nonsense. Expertise is needed however.
Who failed Canada? Canada’s elected leader Stephen Harper? Yes he did play a role. But it was first and foremost Canada’s unelected leader the Queen who granted royal assent to the UK IGA well before Harper acted. You need to hold the Queen accountable for her actions.
This is not a fully formed suggestion, but;
Still musing on the issue of those the US deems legally incompetent to renounce, yet the US deems them
legally competent to file their own FBARs ONLINE or be penalized (FINCEN is using a weird standard – applying the BSA law designed to locate criminal money launderers, drug kingpins, tax evaders, terror funders, etc.) to minors and other who cannot legally be deemed to have mature or competent intent or responsibilities. And the FATCA IGA enabled in Canada helps them to locate the accounts of minors, not just competent adults. What happens if FFIs, the CRA and the Canadian government pass information on to the US that injures a minor or someone vulnerable by virtue of being deemed legally incompetent?
FINCEN asserts re the Form 114/FBAR
“Generally, a child is responsible for filing his or her own FBAR report.” (from ‘Line Item Instructions for completing the FBAR – FinCEN’).
On another site, I saw this:
“Child Filing Requirements
•
Updated 6/11/2014 (Form 114 instructions)
•
Responsibility for Child’s FBAR
•
Generally, a child is responsible for filing his or her own FBAR report. If a child cannot file his or her own FBAR for any reason, such as age, the child’s parent, guardian, or other legally responsible person must file it for the child.
•
Signing the child’s FBAR.
•
If the child cannot sign his or her FBAR, a parent or guardian must electronically sign the child’s FBAR. In item 45 Filer Title enter “Parent/Guardian filing for child.””
And as we know, it is mandatory to file the FBAR/Form 114 only online now – or be penalized.
Does this provide any nuance or angle for this lawsuit (and the international human rights complaint)? Re the CRA and the Canadian government providing information that could help the iRS injure a Canadian child or vulnerable person deemed legally incompetent. The recent FINCEN instructions state that a child abroad should file an FBAR online on their own behalf (ex. on their RESP – which could easily go past the 10,000. FBAR threshold over the years before they use it) ? Also issue of the constitutionality of the Harper government assisting a foreign country in any way to tax or penalize the RESP and RDSp which were created to further important Canadian government social and fiscal priorities. And are funded partly by Canadian government grants – which come from Canadian tax revenues. The Canadian IGA does not say that Canadian FFIs are forbidden to report on RESPs (and RDSPs) only that they do not have to. They can still potentially overreport, just not underreport, (as the Privacy Commissioner reported concerns about in another context) so theoretically it could happen.
I also saw this;
https://twitter.com/mdkicklighter/status/501831641338511360
“Is #FATCA / #FBAR a direct violation of the “Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act” re: data Security?”
And if the child is a minor, and the parents/legal guardians are not USPersons, then can the non-US parent even legally enter into US tax reporting on the child’s behalf and bind the child?
And I saw this;
http://www.irstaxattorney.com/offer-in-compromise/minor_child.html
Chief Counsel Advice 200220026, March 28, 2002
CCH IRS Letter Rulings Report No. 1316, 05-22-02
IRS REF : Symbol: CC:PA:CBS:Br2-GL-129835-01
If the parents/guardians are not USPersons, then they have no obligation or legal duty to the US themselves. And what does that mean if they are asked by the Canadian FFI to identify the US status of the account-owner of an RESP or RDSP – when that is their USPerson child or dependent – who may not be able to give a valid legal consent for disclosure?
Just thinking about this, but without enough knowledge to understand whether this is of significance for the challeng or not.
Badger, thank you for your thoughts on this — our children and our family who may have some kind of ‘mental incapacity’. My, admittedly slanted, take is that if a parent, a guardian or a trustee does NOT have the RIGHT to renounce U.S. citizenship on behalf of their family member who does not have requisite ‘mental capacity’ to understand the concept of “citizenship” (to say nothing of that individual never having been registered with, lived in or having had any benefit from the U.S.) then, following that logic, a parent, a guardian or a trustee must not have the right to do anything regarding “U.S. citizenship and its requirements” on behalf of such a person. Somewhere along the way, the U.S. has failed as it says says the individual without insufficient ‘mental capacity’ must do without any help or influence from anyone else in one case but with the help of those same persons in other cases. I guess that’s called having your cake and eating it too.
@patricia & nervous investor..
Great ad ideas. They could be made and put on You Tube. MORE and more people are passing on you tube videos. Good ones get many hits, which also could get revenue for the cause.
I haven’t asked people I know to support this effort financially because I live in the US and this effort hasn’t been presented in a way that will sell south of the border. Presenting the USA as an enemy–no matter how justified you may think you are–won’t sell to Americans. Dale Carnegie 101. That’s why I have repeatedly asked the people involved in the US effort–fatcalegalaction.com–for the chance to talk to formulate a message that will sell to Americans. So far I have had no response.
@Dash: I continue to badger my good friends south of the border regarding our FATCA challenge on both sides of the border to no avail. If it isn’t in the newspaper or on TV is doesn’t exist. My good friends are well educated and it surprises me that their minds are so closed as what is going on with this world wide aggression. It is too deep, too far reaching to explain the consequences. They don’t say it, but I’m sure they think I’m going senile. I’m a senior after all and so are they. Perhaps the fight is just to big, I don’t know.
@Dash and Ann,
I admit that I have not been successful in obtaining donations from my friends in the U.S., but I (and Gwen) do receive donations from some of our Canadian friends.
I think a major reason they donate is because (as Ann points out) they have read the personal stories in the newspapers (this is what they tell me), especially those in which our Plaintiffs Ginny and Gwen are mentioned. They believe what is written in these stories and just want to help.
—We have dinner guests coming tonight and I expect a donation. The amount is not important. If you never ask it won’t happen — actually that is not true — most give without asking.
The message should be that current laws disadvantage all Americans on a global level. I’m sure that most Americans would be concerned about walls being built around them if it could be conveyed to them in the right way. How difficult that is depends on whether they support CBT or RBT, recognizing that anyone who says that CBT is here to stay actually supports it.
Picking up on the advertising suggestions earlier, I had an idea for a campaign some time ago. Last year, after the Snowden revelations, some privacy advocates paid for space on the outside of the public buses that operate in Washington DC. They put a massive photo of Snowden’s face with a caption along the lines of: “Thank You Edward”.
Of course that was intentionally designed to rile the hawks in DC, but I was struck by its simplicity and effectiveness. We’re not looking to upset anyone, rather to raise awareness of our circumstances among those who could make a change.
We’d need to identify a few IRS compliant and photogenic accidentals, or long term expatriates and put their photos on some DC buses with the caption: “I’m a Tax Invader, Please Read My Story. http://www.taxinvader.com“. We’d obviously need to set up an appropriate website with the same photos and a brief story of their IRS compliance issues with appropriate links to further information.
‘Tax Invader’ is a catchy term in the present climate, and likely to arouse the interest of any politicians or taxing authorities who see it. When I checked last year, the cost of such advertising seemed reasonable and taxinvader.com was still available.
@Domino – they’d have to be models. I doubt any real accidentals or long-term expatriates would agree to have their faces up on public transit! But it’s a good idea…now we just need a benefactor to fund the ad campaign 🙂
@ Domino
Tax invader? That would be Obama, wouldn’t it? You should be able to find lots of photos of him for the side of those DC buses, although I wouldn’t exactly call him photogenic.
we need to fight apathy in our own countries, a westerns style poster
Wanted
a photo of Obama
The Tax Invader
FATCA implemented to steal
from all Canadians
@ patricia
There should be a poster right next to Obama’s of Stephen Harper — his accomplice in crime.
@ EmBee
wanted has a negative connotation as in ‘dead or alive’
the poster should be headed
UNWANTED
FATCA
followed by appropriate images and texts
WANTED (Dead or Alive)
Barack Obama and Stephen Harper
Partners in Crime in the U.S. Tax and Privacy Invasion of Canada
UNWANTED (in Canada and Everywhere)
FATCA and U.S. CBT
Repeal and Reject both of these Bad Regimes
This video illustrates why we need to support this legal challenge:
The IRS is pilfering the savings and estates of people like the Canadian citizen in this news story;
http://globalnews.ca/video/1549430/canadians-paying-additional-taxes-after-gov-shares-tax-info-with-u-s/
‘Canadians paying additional taxes after gov shares tax info with U.S.’
@Bubblebustin
“The message should be that current laws disadvantage all Americans on a global level.”
I completely agree that that should be the message to interest Americans domestically.
However, I’m not going to be able to convince a stateside American to contribute to something called the “Alliance for the Defense of Canadian Sovereignty” unless they have a strong connection to Canada in particular. So my best bet to interest Americans stateside will be the fatcalegalaction.com site. And the very first line on that site is:
“FATCA is a grave danger to every American living abroad”
Although further down the page it does suggest that this may have some effect on people domestically, the primary message is clearly aimed at Americans abroad. On the ‘Real People’ page at that site, all six people/couples are living abroad.
There isn’t much to go on here to try to interest Americans domestically in this issue.
@All
Sorry–I wrote my reply to bubblebustin before reading today’s update on the main thread.
The retention of Mr. Butera seems like quite an important development, although I’m still trying to think through what it means. Will Mr. Butera be working with Mr. Bopp to make sure the two efforts support one another as much as possible? Or are we to conclude that the effort w/Mr. Bopp is fading in importance and Mr. Butera’s office will be where the action is going forward, so to speak, with a US legal challenge?
My comments in reply to bubblebustin still stand but perhaps I will rethink things a bit if the shape of the US challenge is changing.
@Stephen Kish
Did Patty Murray ever actually weigh in on this? As you know, she is one of my Senators too. Jim McDermott is from one district over from the district I live in 🙂 .
@ badger
The Global News video is great although it’s so sad and maddening to hear of dreadful stories like Sharon Jack’s … and I now cringe whenever I see and hear Roy Berg, the American extortion enabler who is habitually and exploitively abiding in Canada.
@ Stephen
Wow, that’s a backdate and an update and a half. Our gratitude goes to the anonymous donor and @Laura Secord for enabling another FATCA fight front to open up in the USA.