UPDATE January 24, 2015: THIRD OF FIVE LEGAL BILLS PAID
[We now have a NEW POST taking us up to May 1, 2015. This post will be retired from service.]
On August 11, 2014, Constitutional Litigator Joseph Arvay filed a FATCA IGA lawsuit in Canada Federal Court on behalf of Plaintiffs Ginny and Gwen, the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty (en français), and all peoples worldwide. Read Alliance’s Claims and comment on our Alliance blog.
Chers amis et donateurs,
Ensemble, nous avons atteint notre but : ramasser les fonds nécessaires pour payer la troisième des cinq factures légales de notre poursuite judiciaire.
Ramasser 300 000 $ provenant de petits dons est un exploit tout à fait extraordinaire et nous invitons notre gouvernement canadien, ainsi que tous les autres gouvernements qui ont piétiné les droits de leurs citoyens, à en prendre bonne note.
Chaque jour, nous nous rapprochons de notre but. Déjà, nous avons ramassé plus de la moitié des fonds nécessaires pour payer les frais légaux de notre poursuite contre le gouvernement canadien et l’entente FATCA.
Si nous avons parcouru un si grand bout de chemin, c’est grâce à nos deux courageuses plaignantes, Ginny et Gwen, à nos donateurs provenant du Canada et de partout dans le monde, ainsi qu’aux administrateurs des sites Internet Isaac Brock Society et Maple Sandbox. Ils permettent tous à nos voix d’être entendues.
Merci !
L’équipe de l’ADSC
———————————————————————————————–
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Together we have reached our goal of paying off the third of five retainer fees for our Canadian FATCA IGA lawsuit.
Raising $300,000 from small donations is a pretty amazing achievement and we ask the Government of Canada, and those other governments who have also tossed away rights of their citizens, to take notice.
It’s still a marathon, but we are more than half way to pay off the Federal Court legal costs.
We have come so far because of our brave Plaintiffs, Ginny and Gwen, our Canadian and International donor-supporters, and the administrators of the Isaac Brock and Maple Sandbox websites who make it possible for our voices to be heard.
Thank you all,
—The ADCS-ADSC team
Here are sites(& maybe some usable copy) I use for the Info Sessions; I will also list our FB, Twitter, Meetup & Eventbrite so you can get a sense of what we have out there
1)http://www.kijiji.ca/v-events/st-catharines/solving-us-citizenship-issues-information-session/1028901688?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true
have had issues with kijiji re: duplicate ads; never a problem with copy/content; you should not put an email address in the ad and can indicate when you place the ad, whether you want to receive emails directly or thru kijiji has stats
2)http://niagara.craigslist.ca/eve/4742201446.html no stats
3)http://yourclassifieds.ca/ontario/all-categories/search?ap_search_keyword=solving+us+citizenship&ap_c=166911&max_distance=25&ap_search_button=Search&search_type=normal no stats
this is a metroland site which will post the ad in all the community papers (online) which number around 115 at the moment-good for branding, logos, etc run for 30 days
4)http://www.insidetoronto.com/toronto (metroland)
5)http://www.canetads.com (has stats)
6)http://www.eclassifieds4u.com
7)http://www.free4uclassifieds.com
8)http://www.redleafads.com
9)http://toronto.backpage.com
10)https://www.facebook.com/ADCSovereignty
11)https://www.facebook.com/ADSCanadienne?skip_nax_wizard=true
12)https://www.facebook.com/USExpatsCanada
13)https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Isaac-Brock-Society/341446319218930
14)http://www.meetup.com/American-US-Expats-Toronto/
15)http://www.meetup.com/American-US-Expats-Canada
16)http://www.meetup.com/American-US-Expats-Abroad/
17)http://https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/solving-us-citizenship-issues-info-session-niagara-falls-on-tickets-13278519409
18)Twitter @ADCSovereignty
20)Twitter @ADSCanadienne
21)Twitter @USExpatsCanada
22)Twiter @nobledreamer16
Many Brockers and Sandboxers have their own FB & Twitter accounts.
We had always hoped that small groups (like we have in Toronto) would form all over the country and take responsibility for ads, posters, etc. It seems like we might be on the verge of that starting!
@ Native Canadian
Perhaps it was a compliance condor which sent a complaint to Kijiji. Anyway good luck with the London ad.
@ Tricia
That’s quite a list. I hope we are on the verge of opening up multiple FATCA fighting fronts across Canada. Cripes I hate it when I do war-speak (I’m so anti-war) but maybe I should think of it as a campaign. No, darn it, that makes me think of election (I’m so disillusioned with that process). Maybe it’s more like a PUB crawl (Pro-sovereignty Unrelenting Brockers).
@LM,
Thanks very much for sending the images. I’ll upload to them Publicity and Protest Materials page (in sidebar under Take Action!) tomorrow morning.
London ad is posted….. might have been an error yesterday? not sure…. this is so good so far….
@Tricia,
Thanks very much for the list of sites people can post to. I copied it to the Publicity and Protest Materials page.
The Kingston Kijiji ad (EmBee’s) I posted yesterday is still there, looks fine. It has had 8 visits, 0 replies.
@pacifica
You’re welcome and thanks for posting them.
I have some new(er) images. Shall I email them to you to put up as well?
@ Tricia,
Sure. That would be great.
I recently discovered the National Class Action Database, created and maintained by the Canadian Bar Association. So far as I can tell, our case is not listed. I don’t know whether the effort to do so is worthwhile or not. In any case, here is the website:
https://www.cba.org/ClassActions/main/gate/index/default.aspx
@NorthernShrike,
Our lawsuit is not a Class Action lawsuit and so could not be listed in the database.
When I was posting on Kijiji, I was able to do the text via Foxfire but had trouble with posting images. No problem with either when I used Safari. I think it has something to do with compatibility issues, that’s all.
Great news! In what city did you post your kijiji ad?
So glad it worked out okay this time, Native Canadian. I, too, think we’ve got a movement going! Bit by bit…..
@ Northernshrike: Does your Kijiji ad say:
The Government of Canada has signed a ‘FATCA IGA’ (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act Intergovernmental Agreement) with the United States to allow that country acquire assets of those Canadians the US deems to be ‘U.S. persons’. ?????
The IGA allows banks to transmit LOTS OF INFORMATION about accounts of “US Persons” to the IRS (which is bad enough) but not “acquire assets” and Canada has said it will not help collect US taxes if the person was a Canadian citizen when the tax was incurred.
It’s easy to edit this ad’s text without taking it down.
Also, there are some visuals that Pacifica will be posting in the TAKE ACTION (publicity materials) IBS page (there is a link to this page in the right column here) – – feel free to incorporate!
I just checked out another site mentioned by Tricia (also newly listed in these publicity materials) – there is contact opportunities there too. +++++ Thanks Tricia, great list of opportunities to pursue!!!
Sorry I wasn’t clear: my message above stating “Great news! In what city did you post your kijiji ad?” was directed to LivingToRenounce (who said she/he posted a Kijiji ad in French). Merci Merci !!!
@LM
I posted it under Greater Montreal > South Shore Longueuil. I had also posted under Montreal but they removed it since we are only allowed to post in our immediate area (they check with our postal code). 13 hits.
I suppose one would need multiple email accounts and postal codes to post in different areas.
@LM
RE “acquire assets” in my Kijiji ad: I took this wording from the ADCS website. My intent here is to adhere as closely as possible to the “official” ADCS message. I am happy to adjust it to whatever ADCS wants to say.
I changed the title from “Class Action Suit” to “Lawsuit” because, as Stephen pointed out above, it is not a class action suit.
@ LivingToRenounce
Thanks for the update RE where you posted on Kijiji; so glad there is now something up in Montreal. Yes, for better or worse, only one local post per person per item (for sale) offered at Kijiji; maybe you know others who can post in the other Montreal areas (in French or English)….
Trisha has (bless her heart and energy) listed a lot of other venue options for information posting or finding others via social media (see, on the right banner here, TAKE ACTION: Anti-FATCA Publicity and Protest Materials) that we all could start just exploring/using to spread the word. There you can also find fliers with pull-tags that can be posted around town and a flier that I have printed and taken with me in my purse to hand out casually to be passed along whenever someone mentions (e.g. over a friendly lunch) that they happen to know someone with “US connection”. Bit by bit……..
Again, MERCI (and every few weeks re-post this ad to keep it up near the top of the page)
The one question I have is….. Where are the politicians who were there when the IGA was being considered? They stood up for Canada then, what about now? Are these people willing to step up and be involved in something they believe in along with us? Are they willing to go out on a limb to protect Canadian sovereignty or are they worried it will affect their careers in politics. We know they have people behind them that are skilled at fundraising and planning etc. We need to put out a call for these people to step out in public and show their support. Do they really support us? When can we expect their help?
Thank you, Stephen, for relating your phone conversation with “a mother, a U.S. citizen living in Canada, who left the United States to live in Canada” in your update for today! Her questions surely needs a direct answer.
And who are his Conservative MPs who vote in concert with their Dear Leader and don’t even mention in newsletters to their constituents the Canadian IGA that implements USA FATCA in Canada? Are the only heralders of the news to the affected *US Persons* (fathers, mothers, children in this once sovereign country) the local Canadian “foreign financial institutions” (say what? FFI?)?
Re the mother’s dilemma;
“… Can you imagine a mother actually having to worry whether her children are citizens of a supposedly civilized country..?”
I wholeheartedly relate to the dilemma. My initial series of OMG moments – was one hard blow after another as I learned about ALL the many pitfalls of CBT – each with its own form-crime penalty in units of 10,000. and in layers of incomprehensible demands, draconian, confiscatory and unjust penalty structures – even in the absolute absence of any US tax which could be assessed.
Then, I found out about the treatment of RESPs – and I felt incredibly panicked, and even more overwhelmed and guilty when I thought I had not only burdened my Canadian only family with my US status, but might have passed on the UStaxableperson burden, which would have compromised the RESP that a Canadian-citizen-only grandparent had created for my Canadian-citizen-Canadian-born child. In the end only random luck saved us – I was not signatory on the RESP or on a birthday savings account, the grandparent was Canadiancitizen-only, and I did not in the end satisfy the requisite criteria to pass on the US burden to my child. Despite knowing exactly what extraterritorial US confiscatory tax treatment would have done to destroy and eat into that RESP and create additional fees and liabilities if my child had qualified to be a USP, the lawyer who ‘assisted’ me tried to argue for all the ‘advantages’ that inherited US status might theoretically provide. And that was despite knowing that I did not have enough time in the US to qualify to pass on the US status – for which I was and am eternally thankful.
The US would force parents abroad into contortions and actively deprive the children abroad that it ironically claims as members of the US ‘community’ with an iron fist as UStaxablecitizenserfs of their legitimate local legal education savings – despite having the parallel equivalent available and IRS blessed (and advertised) as tax advantaged for residents of the US. Yet, the US official position on RESPs and the equivalent in any other country of the globe is that they are US taxable and penalizable as ‘taxable foreign trusts’ and also subject to the tender mercies of FINCEN via the FBAR – whose online instructions state that minors should file on their own behalf – a regime designed for criminals and terrorists – to be applied to the education savings of children.
The US IRS and Treasury will actively urge US residents to save and educate their children, but will consciously continue to deprive US status children outside the US of the very same social good. And neither the US or the Canadian government will lift a finger to remedy that egregious and obvious wrong.
A small saving grace in all the rest of the despair and torment was that although I burdened my Canadian citizen family with my compliance costs (despite having only a small pittance of intermittent part-time low wage work for years), and owing no US taxes, solely because of an accident of birth, at least I had not burdened my child.
I thank Providence that I did not have to make a difficult choice in this respect, but I do not think it unethical for a parent to protect their child in this situation from the unethical and unjust depredations of a foreign power’s overreach into Canada if they can. That this is the situation that the Harper government has enabled and collaborated with is an unforgivable travesty – and a conscious act of treachery towards Canadian children and families. That we have had to raise our own funds, to take our own government to court to force them to do their duty – to protect the Canadian children and citizens they are sworn to serve is beyond the pale – and they are using our own tax money and our government resources to assist a foreign government.
Disgusting and unforgivable to put us and our children and families in such a position and to assist the US in destroying RESPs and TFSAs and RDSPs.
@All
Very exciting to see everyone getting involved!
Northern Shrike has mentioned something important on two fronts.
Firstly, ad work is more effective when it is consistent across-the-board. Things like graphics and phrases are what people remember. I am not suggesting every listing should be exactly the same. However, maybe we could choose one particular image to always include (many online listings allow several free images) and have a few standard phrases to use. Here I am referring to general ads/listings where the idea is focused on general
information.
Secondly, if your listing is primarily to draw people’s attention to the lawsuit and could be seen as representative of ADCS-ADSC, please use one of the logos (English or French) and model your copy on what is on our actual website. Anything that goes out to the public reflects on the organization; please be professional. One would not write in the same way as in a blog or message board.If you have any questions please direct to GwEvil or me at information at adcs-adsc dot ca.
Thanks to LM for getting this moving and esp for persistence! You do not give up!
@Tricia Moon
Suggest ADCS put together and have a link to an “electronic PR kit” that anyone can dnload.
This can be a single folder (zipped) that contains:
– EPS logos
– JPG logo
– colors used in brand
– news releases to date
– standard “boilerplate” text (likely similar to text on website already)
– a document with links to on-line press coverage (such as the Tim Harper articles)
– Optional: statement of claim and lawyers’ letters
@Tricia Moon
I certainly want to ensure anything I send out is consistent with the corporate message. May I add another note: I made a point of drawing attention to the ADCS site, not IBS. The latter is a free-ranging, sometimes a bit crazy, free-for-all. ADCS has a simple, straight-forward message, making it the preferred entry point for persons new to the issue, in my opinion.
On graphics: I used the official ADCS logo, which I am afraid does not reproduce well on the Kijiji site. No suggestions here, just an observation.
I installed the note under “financial and legal services”, and paid to have it given extra prominence. Will see whether that pays off. Many postings under this Kijiji category have very few views. (Personally, I am not going to use Kijiji to find a lawyer!) So far, after less than 24 hours there have been some 29. If that rate continues for a week or so, it might add up to a dozen committed new comers to the campaign, and that makes it worthwhile. All speculation…
@Wondering
Excellent! Will speak to the webmistress ASAP! Thanks for the great suggestion!