91 thoughts on “The Woes of Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Why this Election is NOT a Single Issue Vote”

1. Please join in a new power block we should call ACCRU The American-Canadian Civil Rights Union which we will develop for the purpose of first destroying ALL Conservative party members careers in revenge for what they have done to us. We have been wimps and passive law abiding citizens for way too long in the face of these American IGA Bluffs. Civil Resistance is the ONLY way.

2. @Patricia Moon, your Op Ed is excellent. You got it all down in a concise fairly short email. I am sending out to everyone I know. Let’s vote those Harperites out. Let’s repeat 1993.

3. The assembly of first nations chiefs has asked the aboriginals to vote anything but Conservative. Go Natives go! Get this liar out!

4. @NativeCanadian – Even from my remote location, I love your energy and determination. Please Thank the Assembly of First Nations Chiefs for their excellent recommendation grounded in wisdom. I can only repeat your call – Go Natives go! Get this liar (Harper & his Hoodlums) out!

5. Up until a couple of days ago I thought that the Conservatives would still do ok if they only got rid of their lightning rod of a leader, but not so much now after peegate.

   Here are a couple more laughs, but more in the satirical vs reality side of Harper party antics:

   Harper tells unemployed that they only ‘technically’ lost their jobs:

   http://www.thebeaverton.com/national/item/2060-harper-tells-unemployed-that-they-only-technically-lost-their-jobs

   Chris Alexander asks Syrian refugees to wait six more weeks until Conservatives re-elected:

   http://www.thebeaverton.com/canada-votes-2015/item/2066-chris-alexander-asks-syrian-refugees-to-wait-six-more-weeks-until-conservatives-re-elected

6. This party is long past the expiration date.

7. And then there’s Tim
   http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-tim-dutaud-conservative-candidate-unicaller-1.3218162

8. Thanks Sid. I should have put in a link for Tim….but I think I remember a twitpic…

9.  

   Canadian banks helping clients bend rules to move money out of China
   KATHY TOMLINSON
   03:00 EST Tuesday, Sep 08, 2015

   http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadian-banks-helping-clients-bend-rules-to-move-money-out-of-china/article26246404/?click=sf_globefb

   VANCOUVER — Some Canadian banks allow wealthy Asian investors to skirt Chinese law by helping them bring in large amounts of money that is often used to buy real estate in Vancouver.

   Financial institutions in the area have flagged more than 8,200 suspicious transactions since January, 2012, the year China began cracking down on citizens they suspect of corruption.

   Ninety-six per cent of those transactions were also facilitated by the banks, however, even though the vast majority of that business involved suspected money laundering, according to FinTRAC, the federal agency responsible for tracking money laundering.

   These findings, obtained by The Globe and Mail through an Access To Information Request, come as a debate rages over the source of foreign investment and Vancouver’s soaring luxury housing markets. A recent study by Macdonald Realty said 70 per cent of clients who paid more than $3-million for Vancouver houses last year were from China.

   It is illegal for Chinese citizens to remove more than $50,000 (U.S.) a year from China without government permission, partly to stop corrupt millionaires from fleeing with their money. But a review of B.C. court cases by The Globe found they have worked around this restriction by sending millions of dollars into Vancouver-area banks through multiple wire transactions of smaller amounts by family and friends.

   Banks are legally obligated to report transactions they deem suspicious to FinTRAC, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, but do not have to stop them or shut down accounts. The agency’s mandate is to gather and analyze those reports. It will not say what percentage involve this type of foreign investment, but said almost none that do are passed on to police. More here

10. @Sid

    I’ve added a link to a YouTube video of one of Dutaud’s fake calls. The other one was simply disgusting. I cannot find the Tweet I remember from Sat night. :’-(

11. If anyone is still searching for reasons to vote ABC (or ABH if you’re a Conservative and not a Reformacon), check out this excellent compilation of Stephen Harper’s “serial abuses of power” as characterized in the article, assaults against democracy and the law. Sadly, the FATCA IGA isn’t in the list, or if it is, I missed it somehow …

    http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/08/10/Harper-Abuses-of-Power-Final/

    And see also this recent Tyee article on refugees and how Harper’s stance on the environment is probably contributing to the problem:

    http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/09/07/Harper-Refugee-Offense-Climate/

    And, lest some folks get too starry-eyed about Elizabeth May and the Greens, please note this rather disturbing column critizing the Greens for trying to unseat Murray Rankin (our champion on the House of Commons Finance Committee hearings over FATCA) instead of focusing on a Tory incumbent somewhere else

    http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/09/08/Green-Party-Mercenaries/

12. A followup to my last paragraph about the Greens trying to unseat Rankin:

    whenever there is a Liberal or an NDP incumbent in a riding, I think it outrageous if either of the other of those two parties (or the Greens) try to unseat the incumbent, unless the incumbent has done something outrageous (“Bancing” on-hidden-camera into someone’s coffee mug would be a good example for starters) or has clearly failed the residents of the riding in some important way. The only way to defeat Harper’s majority government is for concerned voters in currently-Conservative ridings to concentrate on unseating the incumbent Tory, and for voters in non-Conservative ridings to hold their noses if necessary and keep the incumbent unless (s)he is really unsupportable. Opposition parties’ going after each others’ incumbents is going to be like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It can only help Harper sink what’s left of Canada if they do that.

13. @ACCRU

    Well it’s infuriating to realize that the Canadian government will turn a blind eye to Chinese tax evasion and money laundering yet be willing to round up Canadians for the IRS, and for taxes on money earned wholly in Canada.

14. I met some people who supported the Conservatives and said they might vote for the Cons in this election. I explained Fatca to them and let them know that any immigrant to Canada was actually a “dual” without protection from their country of birth and that furthermore, Canada will furnish their country of birth with all their financial details, name address phone number etc. top prosecute them with. They did not believe me so I told them to go to ANY bank in Canada and they will be asked where they were born. I told them to answer that question with the question “why do you need to know that” and once they get an answer, they will vote ABC!! Canada has become a broken country and will soon be a “troubled” country if the current government and their laws continue!

15. @Bubblebustin: Neither the Canadian banks nor the Canadian government have any obligation to enforce US or Chinese law in Canada. The US threat of 30% sanctions is why our government “agreed” to enforce US law. So far the Chinese haven’t threatened any such sanctions. While such structuring in 50k increments may be illegal in China, to the best of my knowledge no Canadian laws have been violated. Not even the US prohibits moving large amounts out of the country (yet). The Canadian banks have done their job by reporting the suspicious activity; for whatever reason the Canadian government has chosen not to pursue it.

    Perhaps the Chinese government is so corrupt that the very officials who are charged with cracking down on such structuring overlook it because they believe that they themselves could possibly have a need to move large amounts out of China at some future date. Whatever the reason, it is the Chinese government and the Chinese banks who have to take action if they want to stop the practice. Not our problem. (Just like US citizens living in Canada not filing US returns wasn’t our problem until FATCA.)

16. Get a load of these comments in BNA article about Bopp Trial: http://bit.ly/1QmXbls

    DOJ atty:
    “The harm definitely has to be imposed specifically on you,” Murphy said. “This is a decision made by a foreign financial institution, not by the U.S. government . An indirect chain of causation isn’t enough.” BAWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHAAA

    “He noted that FATCA’s 30 percent withholding tax hasn’t affected any of the plaintiffs, and rejected Bopp’s assertion that those are “draconian penalties” that amount to excessive fines under the Constitution. “They’re taxes, not penalties,” Murphy said.”

    “One issue, Jackel said, is that the plaintiffs have a tough challenge to show that the IGAs aren’t within the president’s authority, since the administration has negotiated tax exchange information agreements with a number of jurisdictions without the need for Senate action.”

    “Whatever relief the court does provide will be temporary, Jackel said, given the bigger picture of growing global tax transparency. He pointed to common reporting standards being developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development—looming on the horizon—which will lead to tax authorities all over the world exchanging information on foreign financial accounts.”

    On another issue, Jackel said he believes the plaintiffs’ assertion that FATCA’s 30 percent withholding tax is an unconstitutional excessive fine doesn’t carry much weight.
    “Thirty percent is not that high compared with other penalties associated with failure to report foreign financial accounts,” he said. “It doesn’t seem all that close to the constitutional line.”

    Seems to me these lawyers DO NOT understand the FATCA IGAs at all………..

17. @American-Canadian Civil Rights Union

    So what is the big deal. ALL North American and European Banks have been involved over time (maybe a couple or more centuries in the case of North America and much longer in the case of Europe) in aiding people to move money out of countries in which the people do not feel safe and into countries where the people feel safer. Try being stuck in a dangerous country and see whether you yourself might not try to find ways and means to circumvent UNJUST Laws and to move some of your assets out to a safer environment in preparation for moving family and yourself.

    Historically the receiving country would keep their mouths shut and say Thank You.

18. Lots of issues for which to criticize Harper, but I wouldn’t be too quick to use the Syrian refugee crisis. There is much misery, to be sure, but the well clothed, physically fit, twenty-something males with cell phones don’t scream “refugee” to me, and there are plenty of those mixed in with the hapless families. Great caution needs to be taken here lest we “act in haste and repent at leisure.” Case in point would be Minneapolis,MN which welcomed hundreds of Somalians over the last decade. They did not assimilate or take pains to learn English. Welfare participation is well above average and crime in “little Mogadishu” is sky high. This story is repeated in Paris, Stockholm and anywhere large amounts of third world peoples are plunked down with good intentions. Disagree if you will but do the research on this. Yes, the Vietnamese boat people largely succeeded, but today’s savvy refugee is not the refugee of the seventies. Canada has every right to say how many (or how few) people will be allowed to settle here. Developing social policy based upon one gut wrenching picture would be unwise. Hungary is the smart country here…Germany will rue the day it made decisions based on emotions alone. Perhaps they are trying to atone for their actions of the ’30s and ’40’s of the last century, or trying to replace the population of their own country, which Germans don’t seem to want to do.

19. RE DOJ atty:
    “The harm definitely has to be imposed specifically on you,” Murphy said. “This is a decision made by a foreign financial institution, not by the U.S. government . An indirect chain of causation isn’t enough.”

    Sure, blame the foreign financial institution–the ones directly doing the “search and seizure of assets” and “excessive penalties, and cruel and unusual punishment” that is against the American Constitution. I hope the judge understand that this amounts to Murphy admitting that FATCA means the US is aiding and abetting the FIs to violate the American Constitution with all American clients. How come? Because the foreign banks ONLY do this to “US persons”–not to anyone else–they ONLY began doing this in order to implement FATCA constraints.

    As for the lawyers claiming that the 30% withholding tax is not “excessive”, why else are global banks spending gargantuan amounts of money to implement FATCAs and IGAs? They didn’t used to have any threat at all, and now, boom, there’s a 30% penalty against their ENTIRE business every time they fail to report some stupid account. How is that NOT excessive? Would THEY like to put their money in a global bank that is annually paying 30% not-too-excessive penalties? How long do they think that bank will stay afloat?

    Obviously, not only do these lawyers not get FATCA, but moreover, they don’t get the basic idea of how any organization with employees stays in business. They must live in a parallel world because they sure don’t have any sense of the real world!

20. The whole argument that the US Government is not causing ‘harm’ is a non-sense. So a bank can choose to an ‘opted out’ and suffer no harm? What on earth does a 30% withholding amount to?

21. We now have a situation where if someone – anyone – doesn’t certify they aren’t a USP upon accounting opening the IRS commands that the account not be opened for that customer. Is that direct enough, DOJ?

22. @All. Seems to this little uneducated country boy that the DOJ is doing a “Hillary eMail thing” on the Judge … bamboozling and dissembling. The US Gov seems to have lost all sense of Honor and Truth … or at least now lost a lot more than they had lost in decades past … the stuff seems to be draining out of their reservoir at an increasing pace.

23. @bubblebustin, good point! Yes, the IRS determines who can and who cannot open bank accounts in Canada or elsewhere. Obviously, the IRS isn’t directly opening or closing accounts because they are not the financial institution but the FI is expected to follow IRS policy, or get punished.

24. ‘the DOJ is doing a “Hillary eMail thing” on the Judge … bamboozling and dissembling.’

    Yes, they’re doing their job. There’s a reason why “lawyer” and “liar” sound alike, and that goes triple when they’re also government employees.

25. @Norman Diamond – Shame that those weasels are said to be representing the Department of JUSTICE.