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
A colleague of mine at McGill University was sitting on the fence but he said last week… (I’ll ask him to donate too)… (I answered his questions about exit tax)…
> Hi Kermitzii,
>
> I hope you are well.
>
> We are taking the next move (hopefully final move) to renounce our US citizenship. We are a bit concerned that one of us could be liable to the exit tax, depending upon how they look at our assets. Do you recall whether you needed to prove the value of your assets as part of the process, or was there simply a statement that your assets were below the value at which the exit tax must be paid.
>
> All this seems to be getting more and more complicated. The fee for simply processing the paperwork is now $2500 per person, so $12,500 for the family! We should have moved faster.
>
> Regards,
> Dan
How about a contest for the best renunciation story? The prize, the $2350 USD renunciation fee, a cheque payable to the U.S. Consulate. All entries must be original and the author surrenders any copyright, so it all gets published on line.
Sharing my Kijiji Ottawa experience:
Posted ad under “financial and legal services” on November 9.
I paid extra:
$19.75 for “top ad”
$5.00 to add URL
$39.50 have it in the Homepage gallery
(I have paid these from my own pocket, of course.)
After 48 hours, there have been some 108 views.
I share this for whatever value it might have. I am thinking it might be better to place the add under “community” (as was suggested by somebody here). Once the ad expires, I may try again under that category.
“How about a contest for the best renunciation story? The prize, the $2350 USD renunciation fee, a cheque payable to the U.S. Consulate.”
Instead of a green card lottery, expats can have a renunciation lottery. The winner gets a gift certificate for $2,350 redeemable at any US embassy or consulate worldwide.
Maybe we can start booking and selling renunciation appointment slots and use the money to support the ongoing lawsuits.
@NorthernShrike, LM and all others posting kijiji ads – just a comment regarding the following wording I noticed in Ottawa kijiji:
“Are you a US citizen living in Canada?
Was one of your parents born in the US?
Are you US/Canadian dual? Maybe an Accidental American?
Are you married to – – or a business partner of – – a “US Person”?
Are you a Snowbird who might be staying in the US too long?
Do you have a US Greencard that you no longer use but haven’t fully renounced?
If any of the above, you may be a “US person” in the eyes of the Government of the United States”
I cringe whenever I hear the term ‘US citizen living in Canada’. To me it suggests that one is NOT Canadian and merely living in Canada on a short term stint. People who are glancing at this ad will see that question first since it is the first line in the ad, and quickly decide they are NOT a ‘US citizen living in Canada’, and perhaps not bother to read the rest of the ad thinking it does not apply to them. Say for example they were born in US but left as a child, and are Canadian, so do not think of themselves as a US citizen.
Perhaps the question could be reworded to: ‘Are you a US-born Canadian?’
Also, we want to get SYMPATHY from fellow Canadians, so as much as possible should present ourselves as Canadians first and foremost, and not refer to ourselves as US citizens. The CONS refer to us as ‘Americans residing in Canada’, but we should not be.
@ NorthernShrike: 108 visits already? Great going!
I was the one that had posted the initial Kijiji ads and my decision was to put it into Community/Discussions. The reasoning was that I wasn’t selling any “thing” or “service”, just trying to make people aware/to raise the discussion. Perhaps having a “top ad” brought more interest; even after a week or two my “Discussions” ads were still on page 1 (since there weren’t too many ads there) but yours certainly got +++++ visitors (I never got more than 60 in any one city.
So hugs and congrats to you and we should all consider your approach/maybe follow in your footsteps!
@ Samuel Adams – LOL!!!!!!!!
@Whitecat
Good point. I cribbed the wording from a Kijiji ad posted by someone else and copied here. But I changed the wording to “Are you a US-born Canadian?”
The fact is that US citizens who have been living innocent lives here in Canada are also very much at risk, but it is probably best to not get overly complicated or subtle.
Good point, WhiteKat. Editing the text of an ad is easy to do; I will change mine.
@ WhiteKat
I don’t know if what I wrote is any better. I’ll look for guidance when my husband replaces the ads we have up right now.
I personally cringe whenever I see “greencard” now but I know the tale must be told.
@LM
Thanks for your comments. I suggest we share information as to what works best and learn from each other.
@ All Kijiji Adventurers
Who’d a thunk 2 years ago that we would have to know how to place a Kijiji ad which passes their moderator’s muster and is as precisely worded as a top performer at an ad agency could create?
Thanks to all you Kijiji folks (and may there be many more very soon)!
I just posted this at the top of the thread:
[Please read last few pages of this thread and keep those Kijiji ads going to get the word out.]
Initiative to contact Chris Hadfield to hopefully interest him in getting the word out.
How best now to improve the odds of this Mission Impossible ?
Posted here – but may be moved: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments/
JC,
Your requested post: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/11/12/attempt-to-contact-commander-chris-hadfield-with-u-s-defined-u-s-personhood-by-snowbird-rules/
@ EmBee – – We’ve come a LOOOOOOOng way! And we’re still going strong!!!!
11:50 pm EST, and no access to ADCS website due to server error. Hope this is only temporary.
@ NorthernShrike
Same with Maple Sandbox.
I made an enquiry to the host and shortly after that it was up again. Not sure if my query did it or if it was just a coincidence.
I posted this on the Col Cmdr “Chris Hadfield” page comments as well:
May I suggest trying to contact Dave Carroll, @DaveCarroll, https://twitter.com/DaveCarroll CANADIAN Singer-Songwriter | Author of “United Breaks Guitars” which can be found on YouTube. Mr Carroll tours in the US. According to his write up on http://www.speakers.ca/speakers/dave-carroll/ “Within days, the video had millions of views (it has since been seen by 150 million people worldwide), and caused a storm of bad PR for United, causing their stock to plunge and costing shareholders $180 million. In his insightful and entertaining presentations, Dave recounts his story while also delving into the importance of customer service, social media, branding, and the power of one voice to make a difference.” He may possibly have some sympathy for the IBS position given a) that he was born and lived in the Maritimes and b) does performance and speaking tours including in the USA. Interesting http://t.co/MQ4YspxWh2
Perhaps Mr Carroll might be persuaded to sing us a song to aid us.
Follow up post re Mr Carroll:
Another thought – we are probably going to cross the 14 Million page view number later today …. presently about 13.934 million (13.334 million plus 0.6 million on the old site). Although I am not a fan of advertising … might this be an attribute in attracting some tasteful paying advertiser to aid the fund raising – Tablet type Ad posted recognising donations to ADCS …
Sure and it’s a good idea to collect some more money even if you don’t like adds (I don’t either but…).
You could just chose to ad à google adsense banner on the sidebar for example.
@nervousinvestor
There’s https://www.pixfuture.com/ (don’t forget the s) which is based in Toronto, but I don’t know how well they pay. There’s also media.net which pays me pretty well. For a cause website, some of the commercial ad companies are worried that the supporters will inflate the click-through by clicking on the ads just to raise money for the cause.