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 am mailing my latest contribution to ADCS today. One way I have found to come up with the money for this contribution is to not contribute to some charities that I usually contribute to. Most of them are Canadian, but one is a US public broadcaster. My withholding of contributions may be a bit hard on those charities, but they have lots of other donors. So I see my redirection of funds as a way to have other Canadians and USers help support the ADCS court challenge indirectly.
Happy New Year to all!
I should have mentioned that I have also declined repeated email requests to make additional contributions to Canadian political parties.
I also stopped donating to a U.S. Public broadcaster 2 years ago and sent them a letter telling them why and they should look into investigating and covering FATCA properly. If enough people did this it might help. After all what seems to motivate everyone is the “pocketbook”
Great ideas for re-directing funds in our budgets to see that our lawsuit is fully funded.
I simply do not understand anyone who would expect our law firm to conduct this suit pro bono.
What on earth kind of attitude is that?
I know we are all exhausted. Emotionally, physically and financially.
However, even in that reduced state we have a job to do and it is OUR job to do it.
So , let’s get on with it.
I simply do not know how Stephen keeps his sanity with all that bombardment coming at him daily as well as the worry about the lack of funds and the necessities required of him and the rest of the ADCS team.
We have very little time and a lot of money to make up.
(Charter Challenge Fund been approved yet? THAT might provide funding if the new government is not dragging it’s feet on THAT pledge as well. But, even if it is going to honour that pledge, who knows what the process is, how to qualify and when and how funds are released. )
We don’t have time for that at this point. This is OUR commitment, OUR job to complete.
25 days! It is fast approaching.
@ Furious AC
I simply do not know how Stephen keeps his sanity with all that bombardment coming at him daily as well as the worry about the lack of funds and the necessities required of him and the rest of the ADCS team.
I don’t know either how he does it. That plus a full time job. The committee members are the greatest.
I’m worried too. It’s unthinkable that the Charter Trial might not happen if our donations fall short. I can’t stand the thought of the IRS mafia, US congress critters, banksters, compliance condors, The Powers That Should Not Be and Al celebrating because nobody produced a legal challenge to this injustice. Timing for the trial is something I leave to the experts but I will say it would be hard for me to watch and wait for more victims of FATCA/FBAR/CBT to lose their savings and countless, precious LCUs. Remember those who are compliant are victims too. They have lost and may continue to lose countless, precious LCUs and hard-earned dollars jumping through insane compliance hoops and meanwhile their financial privacy has been scattered to the four winds. Some have lost a citizenship which they valued and should have been able to keep. Stephen, Ginny and Gwen have eloquently encouraged everyone to pitch in. PLEASE don’t let the FATCA fight fizzle!
(For those new to Brock … LCUs are Life Credit Units, a phrase coined by Just Me who contributed a great deal to this cause but has now moved on with his life. We owe him a great deal for all the hours he dedicated to warning and informing us of the perils of FATCA.)
@EmBee, my Canadian friend.
The Charter Trial IS going to happen because the money is going to be raised.
I wish I could make a splash of a contribution but not being able to do that, I am just going to dig a little deeper. And you know what, everyone else will just keep donating and digging a little deeper.
Likely not going to be paid in 25 days but it is going to get paid and paid before a trial date.
Mistakes by Team ADCS? Now remember we are all flawed human beings. Were the earlier trials and appeals a mistake? No, I do not think so being a Monday morning quarterback. But the only mistake I can see is they SLIGHTLY miscalculated the time needed to raise funds. So based on that, they have done remarkably well…..though they do not rank up there with Moses in parting the Red Sea.
Well WHO does ? If our guys could part the Red Sea , we would all be happy, free and helping Bopp out right now.
Good donations today, but only 24 days left to make the February 1 2016 payment.
It certainly warmed my heart and helped undo a bit of the knot in my stomach to see the healthy jump in raised funds from our generous donors today 🙂
Thanks to everyone and keep up the good work. We will prevail!
The number needed languished 3 weeks in the 70s and now it’s in the 60s. Gwen’s got a smiley face. Ginny too I’m sure. So it is indeed a good day. Only 13 more as good as this and we can focus our attention on the trial without this worry thing in the way.
Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014
“(d) each person has a fair and equal opportunity to participate in the economic, political, social or cultural life of the State, and”
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2014/act/25/section/10/enacted/en/html
Ireland has a good website with its laws easily accessible.
If FATCA doesn’t violate that statement, I’m not sure what does.
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2013/si/33/made/en/print
Read this law on Ireland’s books, it reads more like an IRS document than an Irish law.
Ireland was asked to jump by the US and the answer was ‘how high?’
Perhaps someone in Ireland could exam these statues more closely.
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/ResultsAll.html?q=FATCA&search_type=all&button=Search
See what comes up when you search Ireland’s Statue book with FATCA or just paste it in.
Don, early on I approached a sympathetic “attorney” in Ireland (as well as attorneys in other countries) about the possibility of their citizens suing their own Governments over the local FATCA compliance laws. I don’t know if this is correct, but I was told that the odds of success and successful funding in Ireland were very low and nothing ever developed.
Despite our funding difficulties, I think that it is a real accomplishment that we have actually filed a lawsuit here in Canada — but I would say that our lawsuit is actually “international” rather than “local” because of our world-wide supporters. Today for example we had donations from a supporter in a little town in Australia and from one from England. Incredible.
@ Embee
The number needed languished 3 weeks in the 70s and now it’s in the 60s. Gwen’s got a smiley face. Ginny too I’m sure. So it is indeed a good day.
Indeed breaking that 70s blockage made my day. I tend to think in musical concepts. This is how I felt all day:
: happy happy all day.
@Stephen Kish
I could send you the whole $66,897 tomorrow if your co-plaintiff Rand Paul would have the courage of his convictions and make a very public, visible statement supporting this effort. But if the man you’ve chosen to link yourself to–Senator Paul–is at heart a coward I don’t want to be involved. The Republican caucuses here in Washington state are coming up soon–Feb 20. Hold Senator Paul’s feet to the fire and insist that he go very public with his support for this effort in a way that will make me proud to support him on Feb 20. But if the man you’ve chosen as a co-plaintiff is too much of a coward to do this then get the eff out of my life.
@Stephen Kish
Also I must confess that as the Republican PCO in my precinct, I do have access to voting records in King County. I noticed that you are still a registered voter in King County but that you didn’t exercise your right to vote at any point in 2015. I was curious why you–as a politically active US citizen–didn’t choose to vote in 2015. In any event, I trust that you–as a still active King County voter–will be making the trip out to King County to vote in the Republican caucuses on Feb 20. Participation is required and can only be achieved in person! If money is an issue–which it sounds like it might be given that such a piddly sum as $66,897 seems to be a problem–I can certainly pay for your airfare and let Lori sleep on my couch and you sleep on my floor (I live quite modestly). I would be happy to host you and Lori as my guests on Feb 20 and we can discuss in person whatever is holding Rand Paul back from enthusiastically supporting this effort despite being before a judge as a co-plaintiff.
@Stephen Kish – In the EU someone should do research which countries may provide legal aid to fund the lawsuit outright. Sometimes European Governments will fund European of Justice challenges within the legal aid system because it affects the rights of more than just the litigates.
For example, some cases that come to mind, in the UK equalising the retirement ages, a women in Germany suing about her dead husband’s holiday pay, and more recently the Facebook case.
Some of these might have been funded by legal aid. If something is set up for Europe, after putting together to the talent, this would be one avenue to explore.
http://www.hiil.org/data/sitemanagement/media/Report_legal_aid_in_Europe.pdf
This link may provide contacts for someone to investigate legal European style.
@Dash1729:
I have been lurking on this site a long, long time, since its inception, and I found Isaac Brock only after months spent scouring the Internet for practical information and like-minded people who might also, unfortunately, be affected by the overreach of the U.S. Isaac Brock has been a godsend to me and countless others, and I owe all who are actively involved in its efforts a huge debt of gratitude.
I have donated to this cause, and I shall continue to donate to this cause, as in my eyes it is almost the only legal case that might make waves and cause other countries around the world to reconsider their apathetic stance towards FATCA and the damage it is doing to so many U.S. expats, accidental Americans and green-card holders. The European country I reside in seems to be apathetic to our plight, and has only responded with a reaction of “how high?” when told by the U.S. to jump.
As my moniker suggests, a lot of aspects—no, virtually all aspects–of this situation makes me see red.
However, your remarks to Stephen Kish today made me see red again. Perhaps you were writing tongue-in-cheek about $66,897 being a “piddly sum”. If it’s so piddly, then why not donate it NOW, sweetheart? A lot of us would be very relieved, and greatly thankful to you, for wiping out the current balance outstanding.
I live in a completely different world from you, because (a) $66,897 is NOT a piddly amount for me and (b) my donations are not going to be contingent upon Stephen Kish’s getting Sen. Paul to do what you want him to do. Yes, I’d like to see happen exactly what you’d like to see happen, but I won’t hold any future donations hostage to that stipulation. I have put my faith behind ADCS, but I cannot and will not make stipulations to them that they possibly cannot fulfill, since magic wands seem to be in short supply these days.
The other bone I have to pick with you is publicly stating Stephen Kish’s 2015 voting record here on this website. Seems to me that someone like you who is privy to such voting information would also be circumspect enough not to publicly flaunt it on here. Doing so, IMHO, is highly inappropriate. I could care less what Stephen’s voting record is. I only know what hed has done and continues to do for this cause, and for that I am so grateful.
So, Dash1729, why don’t you make a donation TODAY and help bring down the $66,897 so that we can all breathe a little easier…..and make me see a little less red!
@Seeing Red
Well said, thank you.
@Seeing Red, Dash1729 and Stephen Kish
People’s privacy should be respected. We all have different approaches to the very large FATCA problem which reflect our personal situation. I agree with Seeing Red that personal voting records need to be private. The important uniting factor is to support the lawsuit. Wish I could afford a large sum but I’ll put another small donation in the mail today.
Welcome to Brock Seeing Red!
You are definitely in the right place. 😉
I know I have seen, in the past, searchable county/state sites regarding voting. I have even seen my own voting record online. I can’t find it now but think it’s not quite as private as we might expect. I am not commenting one way or the other on the appropriateness, just that I was surprised to see such information appears to be public.
One of the reasons I am here is my loss of privacy as a (former) USC in Canada.
In hindsight, the very action of my first vote in a US election after becoming a Canadian citizen in 1975 in the 2008 election after my encounter at the US border telling the I could cross this time but the next time it must be with a US passport was one of my biggest mistakes. What in the heck was I thinking at that time and why in the heck did I ever bow to that threat and apply for my first and only US passport (that I used once and now has holes punched into it from the Department of State)? It was temporary insanity as I had always believed that my vote should be in the country of my citizenship, the country from which I and my family received its benefits (and especially since I was
toldwarned that by becoming a Canadian citizen I would lose my US citizenship). It occurs to me over and over and over that in my mind there is no way a person can have such a thing as *dual citizenship* if one of those citizenships is US and you live, by choice, in a country outside its borders. It truly is, for my family, something nasty that (as George so often reminds me) clung to my shoe. That USC should now only be by choice and knowledge of its consequences for you and your family of US taxation based on citizenship.Regarding the comment, it just makes me very sad on a couple of levels.