Dear Supporters,
Many of you probably predicted that I would not be saying this today, but this message is not a dream: You came up with yet another $100,000 payment — now making a total of $400,000 provided to the Arvay team.
In the last twelve days you actually donated more than $40,000 — an amazing achievement for small donors. This accomplishment proves to all those people who want us to fail — that we are very determined.
You gave until it hurt and then you gave a lot more. It’s hard not to get teary-eyed over the generosity of our supporters, who have come through every time.
We know that the pace of your litigation is painfully slow, and this is unfortunately as expected. The Government will continue to do its best to slow down the process, but we now have the assistance of a case management judge to help keep the process moving more fairly.
We filed in August 2014 and it has taken a very long time (one year) before we are finally into a (summary) trial (August 4-5, 2015). We cannot predict the outcomes of this trial, based on only part of our arguments and, with your continued support, we will prepare for all possibilities.
[Happy birthday Gwen!]
Thank you for your trust,
Stephen Kish,
ADCS-ADSC Chair,— on behalf of Plaintiffs Ginny and Gwen, their families, and the ADCS-ADSC Directors
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Chers amis et donateurs,
Certains d’entre vous avaient probablement pensé que je ne pourrais pasvous annoncer une si bonne nouvelle aujourd’hui. Mais voilà : ensemble, nous avons réussi à ramasser un autre montant de 100 000 $, ce qui fait un total de 400 000 $ à remettre à l’équipe de MeArvay.
Dans les 12 derniers jours seulement, vous avez donné plus de 40 000 $, un exploit tout à fait extraordinaire pour des « petits donateurs ». À tous ceux qui souhaitent nous voir échouer, cette réussite prouve que nous sommes des plus déterminés. Et que nous réussirons.
Vous avez donné jusqu’à ce que ça fasse mal, puis vous avez donné encore. Difficile de rester insensible devant une si grande générosité.
Nous sommes bien conscients du fait que notre litige avance de façon péniblement lente. Malheureusement, tout ça est normal. Le gouvernement continue à ralentirle processus, mais on nous a maintenant attitré un juge responsable de la gestion de notre dossier qui veillera à ce que le processus progresse de façon plus juste.
En août 2014, nous avons engagé une poursuite contre le gouvernement canadien. Près d’un an plus tard, nous avons enfin la date pour notre procès sommaire : les 4 et 5 août 2015. Impossible de prévoir le dénouement de ce procès, basé uniquement sur une partie de nos arguments juridiques. Mais avec votre appui, nous serons prêts pour toutes les possibilités.
(Bonne fête, Gwen !)
Au nom de nos deux plaignantes, Ginny et Gwen, de leurs familles et des directeurs de l’ADCS-ADSC, je vous remercie de votre confiance.
Stephen Kish,
Président de l’ADCS-ADSC
Something to watch:
March 20, 2015 — Minister of Finance to Launch the Canadian Renminbi Clearing Centre & Trading Hub
I think solace is creeping back into Brock today. No matter what is said or not said, I know (we ALL know) that “our cause is just” (as badger puts it) so I will continue to donate to ADCS. While watching the thermometer this month I considered sending my April donation early but that kind of messes up my budgeting so just hang in there Team ADCS … it will come as early as possible in April.
@LM
I think your plea for donations is great. All you’d really need to do is remove the Christmassy “In this season of heartfelt giving” and “All best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season and New Year”. Could you add something about restoring Canada’s sovereignty … or is it more like repatriating Canada’s sovereignty from the USA?
@LM
I basically agree with EmBee. I would keep it brief.
@EmBee and NorthernShrike
Thanks for your encouragement.
I’ve changed the beginning to : In this season that celebrates the importance of freedom and the renewal of spirit……
I wrote about “long-established basic legal principles of equal treatment and non-discrimination have been scared & dismissed.
I’ve added: While we have raised $330,000.00 over 8 months, $65,000 more is needed by early May & another $100,000 needed by August before we can proceed into the courts.
And I’ve added a picture of a woman’s hands getting the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ready to be handed out.
Perhaps after listening to John Richardson for 2 hours (plus question time) this will catch their interest and their heart (I won’t mention “their wallet”, but that too).
@ LM
It sounds good to go. Good luck!
Here is another crowd funding case:
People who continue to rally around her have set up an account for donations at: gofundme.com/karessa.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Heart-patient-stranded_18608248
@nervousinvestor – We have addressed the crowdfunding sites issue numerous times before, with regard to raising funds for ADCS so I will reiterate them once again:
1. The ADCS site IS a crowdfunding site. It is a ONE issue crowdfunding site that is dedicated to our one cause, so it is not diluted by other postings and focusses on our issue only.
2. the money we raise on our crowdfunding site goes directly to us and has no fees other than what is required by the bank and PayPal. The other crowdfunding sites take an ADDITIONAL 4%-9% ON TOP of the fees that are charged for PayPal and banking fees.
3. Most of the crowdfunding sites are managed in the US which was objectionable.
4. I have done extensive research on the crowdfunding sites that are available and the issues that garner the most money are: Cute animals. Sick Children. Sick Adults. People raising money for their education or a disaster that has befallen them. Innovative products. What Does NOT raise money: Political causes. (Specifically our cause would NOT raise any money due to the fact that it is 1. a boring tax issue in the minds of most people and 2. We deserve our fates because we are tax cheats anyway. No one but the ones affected by this issue give a rat’s ass about it.)
5. As an experiment to put this continuing suggestion to rest, I decided to launch a campaign on the one Canadian site called Greedy Giver for the Christmas season with the added enticement of coupons that people could buy for presents, and at the same time give to our cause. While we appreciated the two donations we received, the campaign was a self-limited campaign and thus, did not continue.
6. Stephen Kish and I picked the brain of a career fundraiser who said that what we have done with our site at http://www.adcs-adsc.ca is remarkable and to be commended. She said that the level of donations that we have achieved to date would be the envy of many a cause.
We are NOT failing in any way, and for people to be lamenting that we aren’t doing what we need to be doing is just plain wrong. For a group of small pocket donators to have achieved this much in this small an amount of time is just remarkable.
People seem to think also that on crowd funding sites that you just launch your cause and it all magically happens, but it does not. You have to promote the link on Facebook and Twitter and to your friends and relatives just as we do with our site now. So remember everyone, our ADCS site IS a crowd funding site where, other than the fees that we cannot escape, ALL the money goes directly to our fight. So instead of trying to find alternatives out there that seem to be better, please just continue to PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE our very own crowdfunding ADCS site.
Thank you.
GwEvil
Thank you, GwEvil for this analysis that will help us all better understand all you’ve researched regarding the donation site for Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty.
We must keep on keeping on and spreading the word to lead to donations specific to the implementation of the IGA signed by this Canadian government that places FATCA law above Canadian laws: http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/.
@ GwEvil and those associated with the ADCS-ADSC site.
I am appreciative of the information available on the ADCS-ADSC site especially after visiting the fatcalegalaction site. It is impressive. Promotion is hard, many do not see it as their issue. Someone recently complained to me that their banking fees were all going up, I responded that they had to fund FATCA somehow. I feel we are ahead of the learning curve, we are asking for funding on an issue that people do not yet understand and have no idea how it will affect them.
Thank you GwEvil for explaining how the crowd funding sites work.
@GwEvil – Thank you for your detailed explanation. I appreciate it. I also appreciate that you have done the research that you detailed.
@heartsick – the imposition of FATCA is one of the drivers for increased Bank Fees. I seem to remember that the 4 or 5 major banks in Toronto have stated (some time ago now) that they had already expended something like $750 MILLION just getting into a position to comply with FATCA. Then there will be the increased costs of vetting every customer every years on an ongoing basis.
Pingback: The funding of the @ADCSovereignty #FATCA lawsuit explained | Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty
When I was a little girl I loved putting my finger on the bulb of our house thermometer to watch the red liquid rise up the glass tube. I was told more than a few times to not do that but I did it anyway. It just tickled my fancy that the heat from my pudgy little finger could actually affect something. (I was always easily amused.) Despite the insignificance and impotency of childhood I could make that red line move upwards. Now I look at our Sovereignty Thermometer and wish I still had that “power”. Although I can make our thermometer rise an almost imperceptible amount, it will take the donation power of many to get that red line to the top.
I’d like to suggest that if anyone has ever been tempted to raise a middle finger to the U.S. tax tyrant that they flip it the bird in a much more powerful way by placing their finger on the bulb of our Sovereignty Thermometer and in combination with other like-minded contributors we’ll push that red line to the top AGAIN! There’s power in our middle fingers if we just push together in the right place.
All,
Even though @GwEvil responded to the question about “crowdfunding”, this question is going to continue to come up again and again on this site in part because her comment will be lost in this thread.
When the crowdfunding question comes up (it will) could people just direct the commenter to this new standalone post on our ADCS blog?:
https://adcsovereignty.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/the-funding-of-the-adcsovereignty-fatca-lawsuit-explained/
@Embee,as an aside, I want to give proper credit to the inspiring phrase “our cause is just” that I reflect on myself and repeat in posts. I believe that it originated with Stephen. I quote it again and again because it is so very true. It is justice that we seek, not merely remedy. At one point, I think some might have settled for remedy. Some may still. Before, we hardly dared to envision IBS as it stands strong today, the creation of the ADCS legal challenge to the FATCA IGA in Canada, and the other offshoots in opposition to USextraterritorial serfdom that came from the community gathered here. But the intransigence of the US government, and their by now obviously ‘willful’ and unjust treatment of those living outside the US, who they claim as citizen-property goes beyond mere tweaking. We see that in their attitudes, their platitudes and very very clearly in their actions.
So, I propose a toast to the author of the rallying cry;
“our cause is just”!
Keep heating up that funding thermometer and let our commitment push it to the top once again.
Happy vernal equinox.
Best wishes, and “Brock On!”
@ badger
Hear, here! To Stephen Kish for sounding the phrase “our cause is just” and to you for echoing it. CLINK. We all need to keep these words foremost in our minds.
P.S. Our vernal equinox is a very white one I’m afraid but probably by the end of the week everything will be brown and we’ll be back to anticipating the green to come.
@ Badger
“Brock on!!!”
I LOVE IT !!!!!
@LM,
another phrase I borrowed from IBS, proper attribution goes to ……?
Very sorry author of that clever slogan, I’m having trouble remembering who exactly coined what.
So many clever turns of phrase and inspiring posts here.
With our world-wide following, we often Brock around the clock.
I think that ‘Sovereignty Thermometer’ is gold!
Wonder if Stephen could show the thermometer with that heading as EmBee has dubbed it.
And as we ‘brock’ the themometer and ‘brock on’ to the next level of contribution once we make this one on May 1st we do so knowing that we are on the leading edge of the most important effort in our lives and the lives of our children, grandchildren and all fellow Canadians and Americans. AND it seems to me that our efforts are examples to those south of the 49th,as well as encouragement, as they now join a similar effort.
First instance of *Brock On* that I find is: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/02/02/internal-revenue-code-severely-punishes-countries-which-impose-extraterritorial-taxation/comment-page-1/#comment-170856
EmBee (with quick wit and her memory like an absorbent sponge) brings it forward and it carries on … http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/03/31/more-on-feds-bury-fatca-law-in-budget-bill-w-no-mention-in-press-release/comment-page-2/#comment-1345385
@Furious,
I lack the expertise to make the slightest change in the thermometer. However, I have passed on your suggestion to use @EmBee’s caption to @GwEvil who is the expert.
I don’t think the thermometer needs a label at all. We all know what it symbolizes. We all know that what is needed, and SOON, is MORE support for Ginny and Gwen; MORE middle fingers pushing back against U.S. financial hegemony; MORE determination to act, not just speak, against the degradation of Canada’s sovereignty; MORE concern about the loss of of our essential financial security and privacy; and all of this translates into MORE donations to the ADCS legal fund. It’s all about one word — MORE … and another word — SOON. Please!
Music … a marvelous thing …. and lyrics …. what a story they tell ….. Here is a song Matchbox as sung by Carl Perkins:
Well I’m sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes
Yeah I’m sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes
I ain’t got no matches, but I got a long way to go
I’m an ol’ poor boy and a long way from home
I’m an ol’ poor boy and a long way from home
Guess I’ll never be happy, eveything I do is wrong, yeah
Well let me be your little dog, ’till your big dog comes
Let me be your little dog, ’till your big dog comes
When the big dog gets here, tell him what this little puppy done
Yeah I’m sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes
Yeah I’m sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes
I got no matches, got a long way to go
Let ‘er go boy, go-go
and then there is an old Chuck Berry tune Roll Over Beethoven …. that I massacre a bit below:
Well gonna write a little letter
Gonna mail it to our Joeseph Arvay.
It’s a rockin’ little law suit
We want our lawyer to play
Roll over Mr Harper
We gonna slam u again today
You know the People are risin’
And the Charter’s blowin’ a fuse
Our lives are on hold ‘n
Canada’s wailin’ the blues
Roll over now Harper
And tell Obama the news
Hope you all have a laugh.
Another donation on its way via paypal. Next one end of April. Brock on!
Waiting for tax refund and then donation coming in
April.