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
@refigeefroamerica
You sound so defensive? Thats fine with me – I just think it is a LOT of people! Not only that- but add the green card holders to the list- they are supposedly 13 million worldwide. In the end- those defined as “US persons” any which way (married etc) – are so very very many.
But isn’t the discrepancy between the treatment of the eritrean issue and the american issue mind-boggling?
@Refugee,
We did send the Government’s “Statement of Defence” to the press, including Patrick Cain. As I had suspected, the Government’s response was not sufficiently “newsworthy” to warrant a mention by the press (we disagree). We do keep the press updated on what is happening especially as they ask for this information.
Yes, as EmBee says, donations have tailed off in the past few weeks and I know that paying the last retainer was a real struggle. This third retainer payment comes at a difficult time, but we will be ok.
Please everyone, can you work on those Kijiji ads (LM, EmBee) and get more of the word out — and send a donation of any amount our way every now and then to keep that horrid thermometer moving?
Sorry, everyone, for being confused about the ADCS blog. Thank you for setting me straight. I have reposted my comment over there.
It is so important for everyone to contribute to ADCS, not just Canadians. Canada is the only country that has taken steps to fight this legislation in the courts. If successful in getting the Canadian govt to change the way FATCA is implemented, this will serve as a precedent for other countries.
If every US person in Canada donated $1, we’d have a million bucks.
If every US person around the globe donated $1, we’d have 6-7 million.
Include greencard holders, maybe 20 million?
I don’t know if ADCS has any corporate backing, or wealthy Canadians backing the lawsuit. That’s why it’s so important to contribute and get the word out. Money is the only thing keeping this lawsuit going. And just imagine the smiling faces in the UK, Switzerland, Singapore, Germany, or wherever “US persons” are hanging out these days, when they hear that the Canadian government made sweeping changes to the way FATCA is to be implemented!
As the unofficial score reporter …. I see that Gross Page Views are now more than 13.9 Million and rising (13.3 million here plus 0.6 million on the old site). It seems only a few days ago that I noted crossing the 13 Million mark and a few more days before that the 12 million mark. The word continues to spread.
Love the Twitter Brigade. I have just joined that forum and am watching the Anti Fatca tweets. I think that more “US Persons” need to understand that FATCA is a mortal danger to them as their data is accumulated in places like Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Ukraine, Saudi, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Columbia, Libya, Kenya and so on and so forth. The leakage of data from “FFIs”, or National databases (in or out of the US) is real and will get worse as the FATCA databases swell to include more indicia of a person’s US connections.
To me, the Tax side of FATCA is the least of it … wicked though that is … and rooted in the wrongheadedness that is CBT. The loss of Privacy creates mortal dangers everywhere. My God, we have just witnessed on the news the attack by a “lone wolf” Jihadist (alleged by the Government itself) in the Precincts of the Parliament of Canada in Ottawa which resulted in the death of a member of the Canadian Armed Forces ! If such a Jihadist (or other form of aggrieved person or terrorist) had a thing for US Persons, hacked the necessary information on indicia, they could target such US Persons directly ! This is lunacy.
People need Privacy. Governments must be Transparent.
@ refugeefromamerica
Does anyone have any contacts in the press they can call on?
I recently placed a free ad on some of my website pages. Go to sortedbybirthdate.com and check the date you were born.
State voter lists are, in many cases, open to the public, and some States impose restrictions on commercial use of them, but they can be ordered from the respective States. The voter’s address and also mailing address are given, and a decent contact list can be had by finding the ones with a mailing address in Canada. This can be useful in telling people BEFORE they go alone to the consulate about the renunciation pitfalls.
Anne Frank: I have just read your magnificent analysis of the government’s response. It should be on the Brock list of “required reading”. I am so glad that Stephen has forwarded it to Mr. Arvay’s team. We are so lucky to have your expert insight here. Thank you!
May be worth checking out
http://www.wsj.com/video/indiegogo-founder-tips-to-crowdsource-cash/DF8DF49B-DCC7-4056-959A-F4DEB0802FF0.html?mod=e2tw
I will try to get the local press interested in the governments response. Would it be OK to attach a copy of the OH Canada story. It is such a poignant example of the problem. I won’t do anything until I get the OK or not.
Polly: re: your question, “What hits me the most is the hypocrisy with Eritrea. How can one decide one way with one country and another with another country?”
Hypocrisy of this nature is strictly forbidden by the second sentence of Article 2 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights which reads as follows: “…. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, …” (The government of Canada has decided that we all “belong” to the United States.)
The violation of this provision of the Declaration is addressed in our Complaint to the UN Human Rights Commission. That Complaint has been received and is hopefully being considered “as we speak”.
Speaking of Twitter, have any other people on Twitter been hit by the @endtaxationbot? End Taxation Bot : “I’m a bot that replies to 10 tweets mentioning taxation every hour. My creator reads your responses occasionally and will respond if so moved.”
Should someone tech-savvy create our own roving anti-FATCA bot?
Heard a great term today for the media – presstitutes.
Cheryl: You’re right. Canadian Cop’s story would really resonate with the Canadian public. Great idea! If you post this idea on that thread I’m sure Canadian Cop will see it and post a response to your request for permission.
@Bubblebustin
Should someone tech-savvy create our own roving anti-FATCA bot?
Yep, definetely a good idea
@Steven
Do you know how to do this?
Stephen, thanks for letting us all know that “the Government’s “Statement of Defence” [was sent] to the press, including Patrick Cain [but] As I had suspected, the Government’s response was not sufficiently “newsworthy” to warrant a mention by the press (we disagree).”
Perhaps their interest would be peaked a bit by sending them some of the amazing points that have been brought up by the articulate Brockers over the past few days, the logical and thorough reviews and analysis posted here. Realistically, journalists who are not as educated about and entwined in these aspects and legalities as we have been probably need some educated guidance on interpretation and looking more carefully at what IS BEING SAID there, not just the legalese from Arvey and the Gov’t legal team. Your/other’s thoughts?
@Polly, I fully agree that contrasting the US with “Eritrea” shows blatant hypocrisy and is indefensible. They claim it’s a different scenario because it’s not about money; it’s about catching criminals. The U.S. is primarily targeting its “own” rich tax evaders as well as criminals who make $$$ through dealing in illegal drugs, arms, etc. I doubt Eritrea ever set up something akin to FinCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcements Network) that “US persons” are supposed to report to.
@Cheryl and Muzzled “Canadian Cop’s story would really resonate with the Canadian public.” AMEN!
@LM, I agree. I thought a brief note amd link to the ADCS Site and Anne Franks excellent assessment might work. I was hoping permission to attach Canadian Cop’s story with might also have an impact.
@ refugeefromamerica
Does anyone have any contacts in the press they can call on?
At http://www.freetalklive.com/ you can submit show prep (ideas) and you can also call in during the shows hours or get them to interview somebody on the air. You can listen anywhere on line. The show is on from 0:00 to 03:00 UTC (19:00-22:00 Eastern / 16:00-19:00 Pacific)
Marie’s comment resonated: If every US person in Canada donated $1, we’d have a million bucks.
Does anyone know how to set a website where it’s easy to donate $1 on that site, say, to view a humorous video that is copy-right owned and not otherwise available? It could be a simple way to collect a bunch of loonies around the country for our cause from people who would be glad to contribute a buck or two, but would feel too silly and cheap to write a cheque for that amount. Then all of us could use our own contacts or social media (e.g. Facebook) to point our friends to that site to chip in.
@ Tom Alciere: RE “State voter lists are, in many cases, open to the public, and some States impose restrictions on commercial use of them, but they can be ordered from the respective States”
OMG, who would have thought about this option!?!?!?! It’s a very interesting idea (cost? How to determine which lists might be available) but would this not also an invasion of privacy if we utilized this list to contact these expats? It’s not like the FamousFolks we found via the internet and found their contact info there as well.
We need to discuss this further……
@MuzzledNoMore and Anne Frank,
We also should be sending this analysis to some of the better journalists on our list, to help them unravel the importance of certain points made by the Gov’t/ of what they are really saying to us (and the Cdn public in general).
“If every US person around the globe donated $1, we’d have 6-7 million.”
Uhhh…no. Last time I checked the US was part of the globe and US residents are US persons. If every US person around the globe donated $1 ADCS would have $320+ million.
Well, there are 2751 entries of Florida voters with mailing addresses in Canada, on the latest edition of the Florida voter list. I extracted them:
http://flvoters.com/canada.txt
It is all public information. Voter lists in Canada are only available to candidates and political groups and these must destroy the lists after the election, under Canadian law, but the Florida list is unrestricted, public information.
The States provide these and the costs vary enormously. Or you can go through an information service.
@LM
If you use the voter lists, (and I can provide plenty of info and advice about these) just be careful not to sound as if you presume anything about the person. The tone of the ADCS-ADSC.CA website is fine, but some persons can be offended you would suggest they would ever renounce U.S. citizenship, just because they have Canadian Person indicia.