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
@ Jim
You have to go to Facebook and join the AARO: Association of Americans Resident Overseas. The thread is titled, “Once Democrats Abroad posts their actions and support for Americans overseas, I will be posting that as well.”
If you don’t want to use your regular FB account, you can open a new one under a pen name.
I think the end result of Caldwell’s antics about expats (he labeled people with compliance problems as “not clean”) was the creation of some newly minted Republicans or tipping the scales of those contemplating renouncing towards going through with it.
@ pacifica777
Thanks for finding the FT article at Euro2Day. IMHO Boris has gone from hero to zero. He would have been a better person by remaining defiant but he bowed to the bully instead. So sad. 🙁
Thank you. Very helpful.
@Polly, I agree that we need professional video clips conveying simple messages. ADCS is now trying to make this happen. The success of the video may well depend on the willingness of brave people, who have been harmed, to tell their stories to the public.
@Publius, regarding U.S. political parties “just trying to use us”, it cannot really come as a surprise that both parties want our votes. At the moment one party will be initiating a FATCA lawsuit with money it has raised and the other will not. Personally I don’t worry about motivation and will reward, with my vote, the party that best helps us.
@Stephen: very clearly I too will vote for for the party that represents my interests in this matter, and I will help get out the vote for that party. Unless I relinquish before then…
Wow, there’s only the fingertip left on FATCA finger thermometer!
I find the recent development with Boris to be absolutely shameful … not so much because Boris paid the bill (a man in his position may have felt he had no choice) but shameful because the IRS took his money.
I wish Boris had been able to see his way to steering the course like the rest of us. He could have been a powerful voice and a powerful force for change. Sometimes the only reason a bully gets away with what he does is because his victims let him. *We* will not let him! The ADCS thermometer proves that!
$6,564 — nine days — we can do it!
Thanks for the update, Stephen. Thanks everyone. We can do it because we must and we will. What a shot of confidence from those whose donations are making this Canadian litigation reality.
Thanks, Petros, for helping us provide such great awareness at Brock and, Lynne/Blaze, for the same at MapleSandbox. Just think if we were trying to raise this money without an internet connecting us all.
Bravo! We’re almost there, less inches to go each day.
WOW! This is great! Thanks to all who are helping by giving. You just made my day! And I echo calgary’s thanks to Petros and Lynne. Your generosity in this regard is priceless!
Mercury Rising!
After WOW! this … 🙂 To all the ADCS donors … THANK YOU! And as others have pointed out, we could not be doing this without the opportunity to interact at Brock and the Sandbox.
Imagine having the big FATCA OMG moment and then having only two choices:
1) put your life and finances into the talons of a compliance condor or
2) try to muddle through the IRS maze and possibly the renunciation process alone.
@ Bubblebustin
I don’t visualize the FATCA finger receding as we get closer to the $100,000 goal. I see it rising triumphantly. We are all the FATCA fingers that Boris could have and should have been. As MuzzledNoMore wisely says, “Sometimes the only reason a bully gets away with what he does is because his victims let him.”
We will send 1 more donation in a couple of days here as well. Just for my two cents on the Boris Johnson issue.. I can see very clearly that his decision clearly was like ours. Just like Jim Flaherty’s decision was in the beginning. Politics took over with Boris and for POLITICAL reasons only, his options were to keep the peace and pay the extortion. for Jim Flaherty, the option was incredible stress and in the end, death. I hope Boris Johnson will live and be happy. His government certainly railroaded him and allowed extortion to be legally applied…. shameful!
I just changed the thermometer!! Holy cow!!! When you see it like that, it really shows what we all have done so far…a huge THANK YOU to all you hard working donors!
Keep up the good fight all you freedom fighters in Canada and around the world!
“Boris must resign.”
I don’t understand the repeatedly hostile attitude that IBS has taken to politicians–first it was Chrystia Freeland and now Boris Johnson–who are suffering through some of the same problems as “US persons” that many “ordinary” Brockers are and would therefore seem to be our natural allies. Why are we attacking the very people best suited to be our allies? Boris seems to be taking the same steps as many Brockers are–for example, becoming tax compliant but only grudgingly so–so it is very hard for me to understand this assault by IBS on Boris Johnson. As far as I can tell his comment that US citizenship is “very difficult to give up” is based not on any emotional connection to the US but based on his experience–which many on here can relate to–that the hoop jumping needed to give up US citizenship is orders of magnitude more Byzantine than what could possibly be considered reasonable.
In other words, he wants to give up US citizenship, has grudgingly taken the first step to doing so even at personal expense, and seems set to take the next steps in due course. He’s just like many people on here? Why is IBS assaulting one of its own?
@Dash1729. I agree wholeheartedly.
just added “another brick in the wall”
it certainly looks like we will hit the goal at least a couple of days early 🙂
not sure if many look at the page views at the bottom. when i first came here i belive it was around 4 million in november 2013. now it is over 15 million views.
this site is like the snowball rolling down the hill it just keeps getting bigger and bigger until it can not be ignored any more.
i so look forward to the day when none of us will ever have to come here again.
like jerry garcia and robert hunter wrote
“We will get by we will get by we will get by we will survive
We will get by we will get by we will get by we will survive”
@ Dash 1729 … Well said…whether we choose to relinquish or renounce, not everyone’s circumstances are the same and at the end of the day, they need to do what’s right for them, for their families…we are all in this together. I have often wondered about Mr. Flaherty’s sudden step down and if the stress played a major role in his death. I have personally felt overwhelmed at times and greatly appreciated a fellow Brocker reaching out to me several times. If Boris renounces, he is still taking a stand.
@Mettleman – I do look at the page views frequently … to these must be added the 600,000 that Petros once reported had been accumulated at the prior site. Then of course there are the Maple Sandbox and the adcs-adsc sites.
Just to clarify. I was not calling Boris Johnson shameful, I was calling his country’s government shameful for signing a deal with the devil and making him decide. His life is another that was in turmoil because of the USA’s forced extortion. We are all Brockers fighting for justice.
I agree
Boris Johnson has taken the first step of compling with the IRS to later give up his citizenship.
Meaning lots of loss in taxes for the IRS in the long run.
I know everyone wants to stay on topic of meeting the retainer target, but I would like to know if there is any person, group, or lawyer that is thinking about launching a CBT lawsuit in the States? I know this FACTA challenge is the main goal of this site, but I think it is wise to not put all your eggs in one basket. It would make sense to open more then one front for this battle in case one or more are not successful. In addition, FACTA is the secondary problem, FACTA would be irrelevant to us if there was no CBT. If someone who is smarter then I am were to launch at CBT court action, I think expats around the world could raise the money needed for that lawyer almost overnight………
@Phil
I agree. One approach I have been trying is to challenge/goad/guilt Michael DeBlis over at FATCA Tracker to launch an appeal of Cook v. Tait. (He hasn’t responded which I will take as he is mulling it over…right, I can be delusional). Another is trying to get the DA to do the same via reminding them the RO is the only group actually DOING something. If they launched an appeal of Cook that would show active participation in aiding the problem rather than their ignored chin wags with the DNC.
I’m not even certain asking the Supreme Court to revisit Cook would take all that much as: The Supreme Court has the ability to overrule itself when an earlier case is reviewed and deemed no longer applicable because of changing social and political situations. The more time that has passed, the more likely a decision may be overturned. I would think a century is sufficient time!!!!!
Maybe more mass urgings could help? (I promised Mr. DeBlis a bronze statue next to Lady Liberty if he took this on and won. Can IBS could help fundraise for that?)
@EmBee
Welcome to our world 3 years ago, eh?
@Charl: Michael DeBlis could be considering challenging CBT with his article Is The Justification for The United States’ System of Worldwide Taxation A Hoax? – Part I
http://www.taxconnections.com/taxblog/is-the-justification-for-the-united-states-system-of-worldwide-taxation-a-hoax-part-i/#.VL_3hItN38s
I look forward to Part Two.