28 thoughts on “If we don’t ask (the Conservative government), we don’t get. Today, one Brocker got!”

1. See new post and letter from John Weston, Conservative MP, in *the letter* link.

   Thanks for your help, Deckard — inserting, for me, the image of John Weston’s letter front and centre so everyone can see the positive result that one persistent Brocker got.

   Perhaps others of us can do the same with our Conservative MPs and get similar positive results.

2. RE: “This is the FIRST Conservative MP to write to the Revenue Minister about the delay that I know of.”

   Congratulations on getting a reply from your Conservative MP! You have inspired me to attempt to contact my Conservative MP candidate, Diane Watts (South Surrey – White Rock, BC). Even if we don’t get a response from Conservatives, it is at least an educational experience for them.

3. Maybe Mr Weston’s not so “thrilled” about FATCA anymore.

4. Bravo! This is absolutely unreal. I had to pinch myself to make sure I was awake….LOL

5. Wow! Congratulations. Your work resulted in a Tory MP – and John Weston, no less! – recommending Canada delay the FATCA data transfer. Truly impressive!

6. For everyone who e-mailed their Con MP and got absolutely nothing in return (like me), this letter from John Weston is like a salesman’s foot in the door. You can use it to e-mail your Con MP again and tell him/her that you expect the same action. And, of course, if you happen to reside in Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s riding you have “standing” to pressure her even more to take action as a Caretaker Minister of Revenue. Same goes for Joe Oliver, Caretaker Minister of Finance and our Caretaker Prime Minister.

   Thank you Bubblebustin! You Brocked the Weston boat.

7. @PatCanadian

   You mean like….as an exercise in democracy? As in the elected representatives are expected to work for the people who are affected?

8. I have been forwarding letters from Canadian politicians requesting a delay in turnover to the Arvay team,.

   It would be helpful if some readers would forward, as EmBee suggests, the Weston letter to Conservative candidates — with a request that they too contact Minister Findlay today. .

   We now have letters from Green Party of Canada, NDP, and Conservative candidates but none so far (that I know of) from anyone in the Liberal party…

9. Suzanne: You *do* rock!!!!! This is *so* great! Thank you for everything you’ve done!!

   Yes, this does give me a reason to contact my own Conservative MP and give him one last opportunity (before he’s booted out of office) to do something right for our beleaguered community. I had determined never to cross paths with him again.

   Thank you!!!!

10. @Moderators…….suggestion that the constituents name be blacked out.

    The writer and the recipient are in the public eye, the constituent is not and deserves their privacy.

11. Thanks, George.

    The brave constituent has given permission to use this letter as it appears.

12. Which benefits our cause better, George? I think the appearance of the recipient’s name adds to the authenticity of the letter.

13. @Calgary……this is George talking and chewing the fat……

    Putting a persons name on the internet opens that person to all kinds of folks………in this case the constituent could be easily found and tracked down by possibly some wacko. There are wacked out people all over…..

    So for internet purposes, I believe that it is in the best interest of the person concerned to have his/her name blacked out.

    For distribution to other politicians, I could agree that it might add a bit more credibility to have the name as is. In that case those that wanted a printable copy could email the moderators who in a sense have provided some vetting and then receive a pdf.

    My name is George and I have no problem with that on the web. My last name and other identifiable information is known to several brockers but offline.

    But Calgary….this is George speaking and you know a whole lot of my background so you can appreciate where I am coming from.

    I bring this up as a matter of my great respect and also concern for the constituent.

14. Let me make one other comment………

    That letter, reading between the lines, was a powerful letter to have gotten.

    The constituent made a powerful politician give pause and that takes some doing.

    A very respectful tip of the hat…….

15. I sent a copy of the John Weston letter to my Con MP asking him to do the same. I also told him about Elizabeth May and Nathan Cullen’s letters. Let’s see. My MP never had anything much to say on the subject of FATCA.

16. @Marie

    Great. May I suggest you follow up will a call to his constituency office? Tell them it’s urgent!

    @George

    I take my inspiration from Gwen Deegan and Virginia Hillis. Let’s just drop the subject ok?

17. @George

    Pope Francis said it best yesterday to congress:

    “A good political leader is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to initiate processes rather than possessing spaces.”

    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/09/pope-francis-congress-best-lines-climate-abortion

18. I understand what you’re saying, George. I’ll ask for further instruction on redacting the letter. Thanks again.

19. @ George
    Last night when I sent my second urgent e-mail to my Con MP I simply excerpted part of John Weston’s letter (a part where her name does not occur). Still no reply from him. I used this part:

    “We have not had the opportunity to independently assess the possible suspension of prevailing law; however, if this is a possibility we highly recommend that the Government give full consideration to the extent that such a transfer may be delayed under the law.”

    I also wrote:

    There is still time to make that request prior to the September 30th deadline and I believe that would be the right thing to do. I hope you agree.

20. @Embee, the work that all of you are doing is amazing and wonderful.

    It will be interesting when we get more information on the stay request that Stephen Kish gave a flash update on.

21. After checking, the permission stands as (and I agree) the letter with the name is more powerful than a redaction of it.

22. I just got back from dropping off a copy of the letter to my Con MP here in St Thomas. I told his secretary that other MP’s have sent similar letters and I hope he will stand up for Canadians and do the right thing and send a letter as well.

23. With a Sep 30 deadline, are we only _assuming_ that the CRA has been waiting until Sep 29 to transfer the data? For all we know, it could have been transferred weeks or months ago?

24. @ NativeCanadian
    I am in awe of you. You advocate at the top end of the order of impact. There’s e-mails, letters, phonecalls and then best of all, face-to-face. Thank you!!! Calgary411, Bubblebustin and others who do this are awesome too.

25. WhatAmI,

    In http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2015/09/19/the-stopfatca-press-release-and-social-media-page/comment-page-4/#comment-6603738, Stephen Kish reports:

    We have now received information that the private banking data will not be transmitted by CRA earlier than September 29, 2015.

    THIS GIVES US MORE TIME and means that, as John Richardson says, everyone has to keep the pressure on.

    PLEASE keep sending letters emails tweets etc.