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
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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
@Fred, @Polly, @Steven, and @Osgood,
You are perhaps all from different countries. Thank you for supporting a Canadian lawsuit,
Stephen
Stephen,
We all need to know – – Will all be lost if we do not meet the $100,000 mark by February 1?
@ Calgary 411
Re http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ndp-mp-to-challenge-chris-alexander-over-visa-data-requests-1.2898282
An opportunity? A followup message (not just a comment) should be sent to the CBC and to all NDP and Liberal MPS) by Blaze sharing her article describing the details of all the attempts she made to get info from the Cons last spring, particularly her question about whether all the MPs would be seeing all the letters that were written about FATCA prior to the vote on the IGA (the answer was “NO”). It parallels this situation exactly. This needs to go public, along with (1) Native Canadian’s most recent pleading remarks and (2) some of Charl’s great ranting about what FATCA is doing to 1 million Canadian citizens and their families. We should again be informing MPs , providing them with more fuel for their CBC-moments and rekindling the FATCA issue in their minds. This is NOT OVER YET!!!
and @calgary, this FATCA IGA effort to subvert democracy and accountability is very reminiscent of the deep contempt for Canadian citizens demonstrated by this:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nafta-scrutiny-of-oilsands-tailings-ponds-opposed-by-canada-1.2896100
“….Canada is trying to stop NAFTA’s environmental watchdog from taking a closer look at the environmental effects of the huge tailings ponds produced by Alberta’s oilsands, and it appears Mexico and the U.S. will go along with efforts to stop a formal investigation.
If that happens, it would be the third time in a year Canada has stopped North American Free Trade Agreement scrutiny of its environmental record….”
………But it’s clear that Environment Canada, the department involved, is trying to stop further investigation into the tailings ponds….”
..”….Last January, Dan McDougall, the assistant deputy minister for the department’s international affairs branch, wrote a letter to the commission telling it to “proceed no further with this submission,” claiming the issue was the subject of a court case. The rules say that if there’s a pending court case no factual report can be done.
But commission staff discovered the court case wasn’t proceeding and recommended the investigation go ahead.
McDougall wrote again, arguing the commission had no jurisdiction to check into domestic law and telling it to “cease this analysis.”..”……
…”The three countries are expected to have a final vote on the tailings ponds issue as early as this week.
They can also vote to keep the reasons for their decision secret.”
Our federal government could have challenged FATCA under NAFTA, but it chose not to. Will we find out the reasons why? Or will the reasons for that decision be kept secret from Canadians too?
The question of whether there are grounds to challenge FATCA under NAFTA and the WTO is very much open;
ex. see “” (1640)
Prof. Arthur Cockfield, FINA-34, Standing Committee on Finance
NUMBER 034, 2nd SESSION , 41st PARLIAMENT, EVIDENCE
Tuesday, May 13, 2014 http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=6597204&Language=E&Mode=1
and, Christians, Allison and Cockfield, Arthur J., Submission to Finance Department on Implementation of FATCA in Canada (March 10, 2014). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2407264 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2407264 and Cockfield, Arthur J., FATCA and the Erosion of Canadian Taxpayer Privacy (April 1, 2014). Report to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, April 2014. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2433198
Secrecy and total lack of accountability and transparency – veiling political decisions in such a way as to keep it from Canadians, without discussion, without public input, without Parliamentary scrutiny.
Conspiring with the US government to decide what will be done with the natural and financial assets that rightfully belong to Canada and Canadians.
@StephenKish
It is a human rights issue that affects all of us.
(And I can’t get over the “Congress has spoken” comment……excruciating for a sovereign country to say such a thing!)
@Stephen: this site is a precious place for information and, frankly, comfort. For all US citizens abroad. We understand how hard Canada is hit, being so close to the US. We are rooting for you. So, thank YOU.
Major aspects of this whole mess are
– the unworkability of CBT for any country, except for a bullying computerized superpower
– invasion of privacy with help peoples home countries
– a modern Berlin Wall keeping people from leaving said superpower’s reach
– second-class citizenship for life, anywhere, for those with US birthplace: restriction on travel (back to the US if you renounce, potentially), restriction on banking, restriction on investing, restriction on entrepreneurship, restriction on personal relationships involving a common bank account…
– double taxation for “little people” like myself who live by the rules in highly taxed countries for anything else than earned income per IRS definitions.
Cheers .
It is so sad to know that a single mother with two kids can’t buy her children’s freedom from US taint since the price is so out of reach. It is out of reach for most people let alone kids. The word ruthless comes to mind from this US money grab. She still sent money to fund our lawsuit and for that I thank her from the bottom of my heart. Thanks to all the rest of our group too. It’s a struggle and I know we can do it.
@Ann
Its sad that we even have to raise more money to fight the Canadian gov’t that is using our money to ensure we have rights & privacy like any other person… I have yet to see any country even attempt to stop this… I have to watch the way I invest & save… I also find it insulting when I go to the bank for cash… I am asked what the money is for… They were all nice when I put the money in… now I have to explain myself to take some out… as someone said on this site… hookers & blow… that stops the conversation & they can’t wait to get me out.. Or when I am asked… where I was born… I say the hospital & then I ask where they were born…. do they have any sexually transmitted disease… yep… I am not above embarrassing people… ask my children… lol. One & all… please donate what u can so we can to stop this… we are not criminals… we are every day people who find ourselves labelled by the US…
Even if its a few dollars… every amount will help ADCS help the 2 brave woman who are taking a stand for all of us because alot of us are still in the shadows… but realize… if this is not stopped… we will be pushed into the clutches of our home countries & the US, we won’t be able to get out without losing a chunk of our hard earned money & all our info will be in a database for all to see… why should anyone have a map of what we own or how much we are worth? So please donate….
@US_Foreign_Person,
re; “…….& all our info will be in a database for all to see… why should anyone have a map of what we own or how much we are worth? So please donate.”
Here is the latest US IRS/Treasury doublespeak – calling the FATCA database “a data exchange service”.
(ex. see http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2015/01/12/irs-launches-data-exchange-service-for-fatca-compliance/ ).
Except that there will be precious little ‘exchange’. As Allison Christians said of the IGAs – any ‘reciprocity’ is ‘aspirational’. Which I think is overly polite. FATCA never contemplated reciprocity, and Treasury has no authority to bind the US to equivalent exchange of data from US FIs and non-FIs. What Canada gets in terms of data is exactly what it had before the IGA. NO more. So, they haul out the Mythster Stack again for some more BS “…Robert Stack, Treasury deputy assistant secretary (international tax affairs) noted the tension between the requirement in FATCA that foreign financial institutions give the United States information regarding account balances and beneficial owners that banks in the U.S. are not required to give the IRS. “It’s a little awkward for the U.S. to have a standard around the world that we don’t ourselves satisfy,” he said0. However, Stack noted that the United States has committed in its FATCA intergovernmental agreements to seek supporting legislation that will allow for reciprocity of information exchange….”. Note the wording; “SEEK” to “ALLOW” for “reciprocity”.
What a crock.
Donate to the ADCS challenge and put a dent in the Mythster’s FATCAfactory branch plant in Canada – and elsewhere on the planet.
Mythster Stack was quoted from here:
http://haydonperryman.com/2015/01/12/the-irs-comments-on-fatca-the-crs-reciprocity-and-the-igas/
WOW! There has been a huge jump in the Sovereignty Thermometer today (or will be when our graphic guru updates it) — almost $7000. We may never know all of you who sent in those cheques, cash and PayPal transfers but it warms our hearts to see such generosity and today really feels like we’re having a Sovereignty Heat Wave — When upward it moves the thermometer proves that we certainly can … can … can. I think we can all imagine looks of relief and gratitude on Ginny and Gwen’s faces today (I know I can) and I’ll bet Stephen is smiling.
Thank you, today’s donors, and thank you, “single mom”, too.
Are paypal payments secure from US government monitoring?
“PayPal is an American, international digital wallet based e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal
@EmBee
This is the best gift one can give… its the gift that keeps on giving as we all raise the fatca finger or fingers (Thanks Charl for that one) to the US & our gov’t. Since its after the holidays… lets all go on a fatca diet… what money u would use for a meal… donate that amount… u will be amaze what can be done with simple gestures… Thank u all for donating…
I like the image of “the gift that keeps on giving as we all raise the fatca finger or fingers”…” to the US & our gov’t.” ala Charl.
I am enjoying visualizing the thermometer as funds to raise the FATCA Finger to those who seek to use our own Canadian taxpayer revenues against us in collusion with US extraterritorial domination/discrimination.
I hope the CBC and other Canadian and American news rooms take a long hard look at the “People’s fight” . I hope they do a news story on the this from start to finish just to show how people find the strength to stand up and make themselves heard. This year, I’ve had enough. T-shirts showing second class Canadian status are coming and I will not hide from the cameras. I will not back down from this crooked government that is trying to make MY country a dictatorship! The people are speaking and I sure as hell hope Mr. Harper starts to pay attention soon as this story is about to go the next step.
@ US_Foreign_Person
I don’t think I can go on a “fatca diet” because I’ve already lost too much weight in the past 3 years. BUT I can do finger exercises to strengthen my “fatca finger” so I can hold it ever so much more firmly in the upright position as I write more cheques to ADCS. Actually I’ve been doing money orders lately and when the teller asked me what do those initials stand for I just said a very important alliance. It’s certainly important to me and at least 7.6 million others too.
@ EmBee
RE: Actually I’ve been doing money orders lately and when the teller asked me what do those initials stand for I just said a very important alliance. It’s certainly important to me and at least 7.6 million others too.
I just heard a bell ring: This sounds like a “GIVE THIS PERSON A FLYER” opportunity………
Hubby and I are heading back to the airport later this week; I’ve asked him to print more flyers so I can walk around again with my file folder that reads (while I stay silent and just walk around) “Are you or anyone else you know a US Person living in Canada????” Last time our plane was delayed an hour so I had more time to walk around…. Bit by bit! Anyone out there got ideas on other venues where this might work? 😉 😉 😉
Funding is still needed for the FATCA Legal Challenge. All donations are welcomed even as little as USD 10.00. Reince Priebus, Chairman – Republican National Committee has asked if FATCA is such a hot issue for Americans overseas, why has Republicans Overseas had no small donors from expats. This could hurt the legislative repeal effort because if he is asking then certainly GOP lawmakers would ask the same question. I have attached the FATCA Legal Challenge site. Also, you can contact Reince Priebus directly at reince.priebus@rnchq.org or Solomon Yue, Vice Chairman & CEO – Republicans Overseas at ultrasealglove@msn.com in order to explain, enquire, etc. https://fatcalegalaction.com/
@ LM
I’ve found coffee shops and grocery stores a good place. They are easy places to talk to people. I wind up spoiling breakfast but it’s better than loosing their hard earned money to the IRS at a later date. I’ve found professors from University especially at coffee shops. I’m always sorry for the initial shock and I say that to them. They can move on from there but they get the IBS website always before I leave.
Maybe the thermometer should resemble a finger more…
@ Ann – thanks for the good idea. We live near a University, and certainly there are a number of coffee shops. I have hearing difficulties so tend to avoid such normally crowded/noisy eateries but I will try it! 🙂
@ Bubblebustin (RE the thermometer looking like a middle finger)
LOVE IT!!!!! 🙂
@Bubble
OK that would be FUNNY! We need our thermometer to be a FATCA finger! Yup, I love it.
CFIB was in today to get their annual fees. I did rant about FATCA to them (again! – I emailed them last year on this too). I think by having a real conversation with someone, as opposed to an volley of emails, should (hopefully) light some fire with the CFIB. I did point them to this site, so that they can get a more thorough understanding of what is going on out there wrt to FATCA.
Just tried to donate but recEived the following message, PayPal is not set up to allow donations from Japan. Tried with my credit card and that was not allowed. Going to post office for money order.