March 8, 2016 UPDATE: Legal fees paid — on to Federal Court for Charter trial contesting Canadian FATCA IGA legislation.
Canadians and International Supporters:
You came through once again: $594,970 for legal costs have now been donated and our outstanding legal bill is finally paid off.
Thanks especially to those who donated even though they never had any “spare” money to give, and despite this gave over and over and over again.
This last round of fundraising also shows that our Canadian lawsuit remains dependent on the kindness of our International Friends: There would be no lawsuit without their financial help.
Know that a very generous donation (today) from a supporter in the United States made it possible to pay off the remaining legal debt. Also please appreciate that there would be no lawsuit without the help of the Isaac Brock Society which has kindly let us use its website to solicit funds.
Our next step is the Constitutional-Charter trial in Federal Court.
For this we need more Canadian Witnesses, and my next post will be devoted only to a request for Witnesses willing to go public, like our Plaintiffs Ginny and Gwen.
For the future: I want a win in Federal Court — and I want the new Liberal Government not to appeal that win.
Thank you all for your support,
Stephen Kish,
for the Directors,
Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty
I don’t know any more what to do about helping to fund the Charter challenge. I have contributed several thousand dollars already, even though I have a CLN and my bank records are not subject to being reported to the US IRS. I have supported the ADCS case because I believe it was wrong for the Canadian government to agree to the FATCA IGA. However, I know several “US persons” who are (or would be if their banks find out) subject to FATCA/IGA reporting, yet I haven’t been able to get any of them to support the lawsuit. They seem to be either complacent — hoping to stay “below the radar” — or scared that supporting the lawsuit might get them into trouble, or not convinced that the lawsuit has a chance of succeeding. What to do? I’m very reluctant to contribute more of my own money to a cause that is not being supported by many people who are more directly affected.
@All @AnonAnon
https://youtu.be/CDzGOzPEBfA
In one of Ronald Reagan’s best speeches, he said that history will record that:
The truth is that only a small percentage of people will contribute to anything. The basic premise of those who don’t contribute is that somebody else might as well do it. It’s particularly astounding to me that the “covered expatriates among us” – the ones with the most to lose are not contributing.
Remember this: if you govern your standard of behavior by what everybody else does, you will achieve what everybody else achieves – namely nothing!
December is a very tough month for people financially. Just take a few weeks off and come back in January:
Refreshed, rejuvenated and raring to donate!
Also, really now, are we going to let a “little intellectual” elite in “far off capital” control our lives? More wisdom from Ronald Reagan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QghTt1AeRFA
I wonder what Reagan would have thought of Obama. The answer may be here:
Regan warned us about Obama:
@ AnonAnon
Whenever the doubts you express creep into my head I think of the ADCS lawsuit and the U.S. lawsuits as being the ONLY things holding back the IRS (appealing to politicians hasn’t been productive). They are smuggly waiting for we, the pesky ones who insist on fair and sane treatment, to fade and go away. If we did, then they would feel free to increase the intensity of their hunt … and so the worldwide extortion would begin. It’s hard to understand why anyone would not do everything possible to support those who are doing their best to keep the hounds at bay. Maybe it demonstrates a failure of imagination on their part. Perhaps they are unable to grasp how much worse their situation would be (and sooner) if we didn’t have this courageous group of people who are dedicated to fending off the actions of the IRS in the law courts. So I hope we do not fade and do not go away, despite not being able to convince others to enter the fray with us.
@AnonAnon, let me chime in with my two Euro cents.
I had not donated in awhile but there is an envelope with Christmas Joy enroute to Toronto. Might show up today…..
There is a unique spirit amongst the good people at Brock and I dare say its the spirit that did make America great at one time, a long time ago, far far away…..
I find it unique that at Brock we often quote Ronald Reagan.
I relinquished a decade ago, do not have a CLN but do have formal documentation from the government that I relinquished. In retrospect if I had known about CLNs then I would have gotten one but today I have become like Blaze and say NO, I do not want or need one.
I have traveled to the US as a former US person with no issues. I will stop traveling there when I have issues.
I have been asking others to support ADCS.
Some have sent money and continue to send money, every bit helps.
Some are saving every cent to become citizens where they live and cite that as an excuse.
Some do not believe that the USA would harm them ever as they only remember the USA under Ronald Reagan.
You have a CLN and think you are now done? I say this not to shock or compel you to do anything but do you really think the USA is done with you because you have a CLN? I do not have a CLN but go back and forth that I may be better off having relinquished without a CLN. To be honest I think a piece of paper from a timeshare company is more solid or at least equal than something from the USG.
Sadly there is nothing between you that prevents the US Courts from determining that all those CLNs were invalid having been made under “duress.” Remember that while you prize the CLN, the USA thinks the CLN is a sign of punishment. The Courts could easily rule in favor of reinstating citizenship and have a history of doing so.
I assume you live in Canada, I do not. But you vitally need your Government to protect you with your Charter no matter the USG does in the future.
The only “safe persons” are those that do not have indica. That was true seventy five years ago and remains so today.
And yes, I did go through a spell of wondering why is their not more outrage.
Government of the people, by the people and FOR the people.
It used to exist.
Now that governments are run by corporations who pay politicians to get the laws passed THEY find useful, the people are no longer ‘useful’ for the machinery of ‘democracy’ .
Manipulated electoral processes wherein elections can be determined by money, pandering, fraud , outright bribery and questionable ballot results make ‘the people’ unnecessary in attaining electoral victory for a party or for particular candidates.
Once election victory is achieved the arrangements are made for the newly or renewed elected to pay fealty to their masters and the trips of honour are made to the UN. Whereupon, their instructions neatly pocketed and committed to memory, they make their way back to their home parliament or congress and immediately set about making laws that ensure ‘the people’ have no say, will never have a say in their governing , the only exception the ‘illusion’ of ‘representation’.
Even that illusion is soon to be permanently evaporated for the masses of those dwelling in the so called ‘democracies’ of the West.
For those who have been ‘Watchers on the Wall’ to protect those precious tenants of government of by and for the people the clarity of the danger is alarming.
It cannot be overstated that litigation in the face of the overwhelming Tsunami heading for all of us is the only finger in the dike.
For now the dike is high enough but has cracks in it that may not withstand the full impact.
The Bopp lawsuit was determined to ‘have no standing’ by the judge.
This has been a favourite of Obama judges for years and continues to thwart justice.
Yet now, after fighting for years and years, many suits are finding their way to rulings that restore the justice denied, yet appeals still seek to thwart.
Injunctions have been used to forestall tyranny with success on a limited basis.
Treachery knows no bounds nor ever gives an inch in it’s quest for total control of all lives.
And yet , as these judicial frays play out, the absolute right to undertake litigation is under assault.
What we all living in the West, and all around the world, MUST recognize and undertake to thwart with all our being is the destruction of Sovereignty.
THIS is the ultimate danger of FATCA and all it’s offshoot efforts at the UN and at the machinations for the TPP.
The end of Sovereignty.
FATCA is destructive beyond belief but the end of Sovereignty will seal the fate of all mankind for decades and perhaps forever.
The practical effect of FATCA is sovereignty ending. A country no longer has a say about how they will pass and implement their own laws for their own people. DATCA bypasses parliament and congress within borders empowering the UN to do as they wish with taxes raised in individual countries. NO longer to be used for the implementation of social and structural benefit for any country but gathered unto unknown and unelected entities at the UN to disperse as THEY wish for their own or their cronies benefit.
TPP absolutely ensures the end of sovereignty for every country including the United States.
TPP sounds the death knell of redress by litigation. Three panel judges at the UN under TPP treaty will determine justice and fairness depending on the impact of a corporation’s profit margin.
This is the reality we all face. It is why our litigation is all important.
Success means relief for not only for those impacted by FATCA but for ALL Canadians who cherish SOVEREIGNTY of our nation!
Even if we have only $5.00 to donate to the lawsuit can we deny that to ensure our own freedom, safety and security and that of our families and generations to come?
What greater gift can we give to our loved ones at Christmas time than a donation to a cause that has a very real opportunity to secure our future?
@George, it’s not that I think a CLN necessarily saves me from future actions of the US government, just that I could use it to persuade the Canadian financial institutions that I deal with to omit me from FATCA reporting, if they suspected I were a “US person”.
I do plan to contribute some more money to the ADCS Charter challenge to the FATCA/IGA before February, but I resent carrying the can for people who are directly threatened by the IGA but aren’t supporting the Charter challenge.
I don’t expect Trudeau’s new government to raise any confrontational issues with the US, at least until the state dinner in his honour has been held in Washington. But I do hope that, after that, the Liberal government will use some of its good will with the US to address FATCA and the IGA in a way that defends Canadian sovereignty and protects the privacy rights of Canadian citizens. We need to continue to put pressure on Liberal MPs and cabinet ministers about that. As part of that it would be helpful to have a clear draft alternative IGA that we are proposing to replace the one that the Harper Conservatives accepted and adopted. I know we would all like to have the Liberals simply repeal the current IGA and have the US repeal FATCA and adopt CBT, but I doubt that all of those things are going to happen soon. I think the most we in Canada can hope for in the short term is to get either a court decision or a Canadian Government bill passed that would exempt Canadian citizens from FATCA reporting by Canadian financial institutions and the Canada Revenue Agency.
@AnonAnon, “but I resent carrying the can for people who are directly threatened by the IGA but aren’t supporting the Charter challenge.”
I resent it too.
But if it is some consolation the IGA in Canada is no threat to me and my family as we live thousands of miles from Canada, yet I am standing shoulder to shoulder with you and others in Canada.
Calgary411 –
Protest suggestion wanted? OK. One free consultation.
Time: Noon on Tuesday 5 July 2016
Place: Public sidewalks in front of (improvise as necessary – next door, at corner, across street) US consulates in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver
Action: One-hour horizontal repose on sidewalks, leaving passage space for traffic
Dress: According to taste (I’d go for fake blood, a never-removed cloth bag over my head with eye and mouth holes, and a big toe-tag reading something like: RIP – former US person – collaterally damaged in Canada)
Participants: Five per location is plenty. More is delightful. A mere three could pre-plan, promote, and sustain each location. Minimum of one named person (not me) at each location prepared to speak to media.
Signage: Big banner making point of simultaneous actions across Canada (World OK too)
Leaflet: Good big colorful graphic. Basic point clear in one short paragraph. Link to full statement on web of no more than two pages.
Media: Advisory sent out 8 am on Monday July 4 to solid contact list (get to know a local agitator)
Sound: Loop recording of parody of Star-Spangled banner?
Aspects: No permit needed for exercise of Charter right. Nothing is illegal. No identification of most participants is necessary.
Million plus? Can’t even come up with 6 x 3 = 18? Snicker.
I am contributing small amounts to each of the 3 lawsuit funds each month. I may contribute less often to ACDS because I am not in Canada, but we should all support the Canadian charter challenge not only because it is a potential template for legal action elsewhere and sets an example, but also out of solidarity with those afflicted by FATBARDT around the world.
Come on folks, how hard is it to print an address on a piece of paper, stick it in a window envelope with some currency, put postage on it, and put it in a post box? If everybody lurking around here would do that every month we would be making better progress.
Don’t leave Ginny and Gwen high and dry. Come to their reinforcement. If we don’t fight this battle with them, we will never win the war against the FATBARDT pig.
If you’re in the US, I was quite fond of the idea to get some people to hand out leaflets at a US citizen swearing in ceremony conducted by a federal judge.
Let those poor souls be aware if they go back to their home countries (or their children) they face having to pay $2350 plus the last 5 years of tax forms to get out of the US tax system.
It might also create some local publicity as well.
Based on tried call for protest in Calgary and based on *all of us coming forward to fund this important litigation*, sadly, I can’t disagree with you, usx.
The wisdom of Stephen …
Seems to me as long as we ALL will not go this far or even a little far, our litigation is the only means to the justice we want — able to be subject to the same Canadian laws and have the same Canadian Charter rights as ALL others than us in Canada. If the ALL of us cannot come together with voices and reasonable donations from the so many of us to fund this Canadian litigation, we effectively condone the abuse.
From Michael Campbell at MoneyTalks.net
http://moneytalks.net/article-and-commentary/michael-campbell/mikes-interview-of-the-week/16412-mikes-editorial-a-interview-of-the-week.html
Listen to the first audio. It is only six minutes and explains EVERYTHING!
( THE reason our fundraising for litigation struggles in Canada in particular and worldwide in general)
Titled: The Price of Disagreeing With David Suzuki
DEC 12TH EDITORIAL
“The herd mentality is evident in so many areas, but I think we’ve taken it a step further with the agressive assaults on free speech and the attacks on anyone who questions the prevailing agenda”
Ask yourselves why there is little to NO response from newly elected MPs who were VERY vocal when they sat in opposition about the evils of FATCA.
The audio deals with the issue of green energy and ‘climate change’ but the points made are prominent in society today regarding ANYTHING the ruling class elite want under the rug and out of sight of citizens.
In the case of the IGA and the way it was implemented can anyone disagree that our own government CHANGED laws that protected Canadians and residents within her borders to suit a foreign power?
Did that have the proper hearing for all in the country to learn about and discuss before the implementation of the IGA?
Were not these same MPs who are for all intents and purposes now silent , openly disagreeing with the government and warning about Charter violations, with good cause I might add.
My guess is that many Canadians who are directly affected by FATCA do not know at all about any of it. Nor do they know just how betrayed they are by their own government.
NOW out of power. The new government seems, at least up to this point , to be headed in the same direction. FEAR of sanctions by a bully foreign power will freeze them into complicity and silence. IF they restore the Court Challenges initiative there might be some funds but I doubt it will go very far as the challenges are many.
IF they fund it and IF they put in 5 million as is rumoured it may be the very best the new government can and will do.
Always optimistic , one hopes at the very least the restoration of the Court Challenges funding.
Whether our litigation would be in line to garner funds remains to be seen.
In the meantime, we have litigation engaged and ongoing and THE ONLY ONE to proceed to the stage it has IN THE WORLD.
We are under assault in so many ways not the least financial.
Many of us have little to no extra funds to donate to anything with the demands of life as they are but all of us CAN give something, anything at all.
Like a lottery ticket. The cost is small but the rewards have the promise to be life changing and positive beyond all proportions.
Think of it as a lottery ticket for life. It costs two dollars. Two loonies! A Toonie!
A chance at a jackpot for two Canadian bucks!
Here’s an interesting suggestion.
Arrange a LED laser show projecting anti-FATCA messages on the US Embassy in Ottawa.
There’s a park on one side and a main street with light coloured stone on the other.
Pre-plan it and see if you can get the CBC or CTV over around the time.
Check into the legal position about projecting on a building. It’s doubtful the law has caught up with the newish technology.
If not in Canada, perhaps it could be done somewhere else.
Thanks, FuriousAC.
I have the same gut feeling that so many do not yet know how FATCA will affect them and their families — in Canada and other countries around the world.
Education is so important. It was not provided by the US itself and it is not provided in Canada regarding what should be a very important and newsworthy intergovernmental agreement signed with *our closest trading partner* (as is so often said). Should the media have or have had a part in properly informing the masses? Or should the media be complicit in covering up for the good of our relationship with that power, the USA?
http://www.journalism.org/2005/02/01/a-new-journalism-for-democracy-in-a-new-age/
@Calgary411:
IF journalists actually ask themselves these questions and vow to cover pertinent issues it appears , at least from reports in the US and UK that corporate makes the decisions as to what stories will and will not be covered.
Early on we saw stories published in The National Post and Financial Post.
AND elsewhere on the issue of FATCA.
Now seriously, WHO but policy wonks and investment gurus, reads these pages.
We know WE ALL read them but the coverage was limited and obscure for the general population.
And it MUST be recognized that many who become aware have a huge hurdle to overcome:
Their own families.
YES. Our OWN families. Every reaction is akin to this: THAT is IMPOSSIBLE!!! Canada would not do that! ( From a Canadian born and bred husband OR wife on learning how their own investments, mortgages, bank accounts would be targeted and TAKEN by IRS machinations and criminal theft called FBARS , etc.
NO tax cupability in US, no tax owed, but FINED like a criminal nonetheless. Canadian. Canadian’s money. NO US investments, nothing, BUT the husband or the wife has some sort of obscure “US indicia” , definition of determined by the extortionists entirely!
They ARE incredulous and disbelieving and when they learn it is so, they RUSH to find an accountant or lawyer to FIX it so they can go on with their lives, learning after many thousands of dollars in lawyer and accountant fees that they are not free, nor ever will be, EVER.
Once in the IRS maze one NEVER gets out. Not with one’s financial skin.
THIS is the most outrageous fleecing of a country’s economy known to the planet.
Yet our politicians RUSHED to sign on to the robbery while the banks held the gun to the politicians head, all the while whining that the banks could not sustain the 30% sanctions.
Yet, the reality of FATCA IS that the banks have spent hundreds of millions to do FATCA bidding and the citizens of Canada and countries around the world are finding out that their lives are as slaves to Rome.
Shackled forever to the Roman Centurion with a whip called FATCA.
Where does all this Canadian wealth go? Not to Ottawa and revenue coffers but to the United States IRS coffers where staffers owe over 25 BILLION in unpaid taxes and THEY live there!!
It won’t stop there. US intends to take US Retirement Funds entire.
Criminals do what they can bully people into, using whatever fear and means they can to get what they want.
But nobody will talk about it and nobody will debate it in public.
Not in Canada. Not in the US. Nowhere in the world.
When you are drowning and someone throws you a life preserver you GRAB it and you do not ask how much it costs. You GRAB it.
ADCS litigation IS that life preserver. GRAB IT!!
Alliance for the DEFENSE of Canadian SOVEREIGNTY.
Don,
That’s a great kind of innovative thinking for anyone with any knowledge of legalities, etc. What would be the difference than hanging advertising banners on our overpasses, etc. in our Canadian cities (at least in Calgary)?
US ramification of messages on their Embassy in Canada? Who owns the building they reside in — the US?
IMHO all Canadians, especially those with no US investments or income, should refuse to fill out FATCA paperwork. Even if Canadian banks decided to send all related account information to the IRS, where will it go with no SSN’s??? How will the irs begin to piece together the information on tens of thousands of accounts, like mine whose sirname on the account is not the name as on my US birth certificate?
@All
This is not just about FATCA/IGA it is about people being treated equally and fairly. If governments are allowed to do what ever they want then we have lost our democracy.
Governments should treat everyone equally and fairly.
This law suit is showing the government that we want to be treated fairly and equally.
@Marie
The problem with that, is that without submitting a SSN, the bank may very well close the account, and you’ll be screwed, anyway.
The main problem with justice in Canada is……. exactly WHO is judging the law? Well, a “Judge” who will be told to base his/her “judgement” on how badly the USA will destroy Canada financially if he/she rules in our favor. We cannot ever get justice without prejudice. the “judge” in this case needs to be from the general public without fear of what the USA will do to Canada. Otherwise, we should just all shut up and let the USA rule the world. The USA has lost ALL allies in the world anyways…..
Don: I *love* your very visible protest idea! Any way we could actually pull that off? Anybody with the required technical skills plus legal knowledge out there?
@FuriousAC, Right on brother, I am in the same boat with you…….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS_ieYpLXQE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWlJAWzrz7M
Someone may want to listen to this recent posting on YouTube. The sound quality is crap.
Democrats Abroad are trying to communicate the virtues of complying with US tax law abroad.