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
Now that would be something should a Conservative MP wish to condemn Trudeau for backing off his pre-election stance on the FATCA IGA, wouldn’t it? VERY interesting turn of events, I’d say.
I wonder how worked up your MP could get over the reciprocity issue, Charl.
I sent the NDP MP who brought up FATCA in the House a thank you note about speaking out about it
here is his response
Hello Mr xxxx,
Thank you for contacting me.
We will send you the government’s response when we received it. Be sure the NDP will continue to defend the privacy protection for all Canadians.
Thank you for writing me and do not hesitate to write me again.
PIERRE-LUC DUSSEAULT
Député de Sherbrooke| Member of Parliament for Sherbrooke
New Democratic Party | Nouveau Parti démocratique
______________________________________________________
http://www.PLDusseault.ca
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Can I hijack Stephen’s most viewed post as I remember why …
Something about 65 years of living and making a huge difference for a lot of people at MapleSandbox and here …
Thanks for reminding us every day …
So now the whole world knows that as of today, I am officially a senior citizen. Thanks Calgary411!!!
Back to Stephen’s post and JT’s response to ADCS and Stephen.
So Justin has passed the communications on to Jody. Jody will likely pass on to Bill as she has with others. . Neither Jody nor Bill have responded to my communications to them. Nor have Scott, Diane, Emmanuel or Marc. The only Lib Cabinet Minister who has replied to me is Stephane–to tell me he passed my letter to Bill who has not replied. My Lib MP Kate passed my letter to her to Bill. Kate’s Assistant tells me Kate will follow this closely, but will not meet with me to discuss this until she knows what Bill will do. Bill is silent.
We’ve been here before.
Happiest of birthdays to our letter writer and publicity director extraordinaire. Everything you have done and will do is deeply appreciated by all of us here. We are thankful you are in our world and company. Long before I joined the cause, you had been here setting the stage for us who have followed.
Many happy returns Lynne our Blaze(r) of what I hope has been a great day.Listen to your elders, like moi and ignore the number and celebrate the gift to us that you are.
Lynne, you might be a senior citizen by number, however, you are still a young feisty chicky that most senior citizens could never keep up with!! Happy birthday!
@ mettleman
I just checked my e-mail and I got the same response from MP Dusseault, with one addition:
“Thank you for sharing with me this paper written by Mrs. Christians.” (I had attached a pdf of Allison’s latest paper entitled “Uncle Sam Wants … Who?”.) So many e-mails sent, so few responses … so nice to get something back like today.
@ Blaze
Happy Birthday! If it’s any consolation, after seeing you in action in front of the Finance Committee, I thought you looked like you had many more years to go before reaching pensioner status. If I could return some of the LCUs you’ve expended on our behalf I would make that a birthday gift. Sadly, none of us can get our LCUs back so we wait for the charter challenge to make it known that there has been a grave injustice inflicted and to rule against the previous government’s decision to accept FATCA as its own.
From a Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin conversation:
Since I’ve hijacked this post and in honour of all Lynne / Blaze has done for us, I won’t wait for that deposit to appear in my chequing account but will borrow from it to make my next donation to help with the payment due February 1, just a few short days away.
I heard there was another CBC radio show on FATCA earlier today. Has anyone heard it?
I think it is called “All in a Day”
@ Tim
Here it is (11 minutes long this time) …
http://www.cbc.ca/allinaday/2016/01/25/opposition-critics-weigh-in-on-fatca/
@Embee
Perhaps Stephen should put a link to this on the front page tomorrow. Unfortunately I am very busy right now and can’t listen at the moment.
Embee,
Thanks for finding this. The Conservative spokesperson’s statements were very difficult for me to listen to….
My take home message is the following: On January 20 (2016) the CBC told me that they were trying to arrange an interview with someone in the Liberal Government about FATCA and our lawsuit — and I asked the CBC to be tenacious in their efforts. Today is January 26 and our elected Liberal Government is still in hiding.
Why would they be afraid of speaking to the CBC?
Please keep sending in donations to fund our lawsuit. The Liberal Government WILL have to respond in a timely manner to Mr. Arvay’s submissions to the Federal Court.
Tim, I am posting the link on my post at the top.
Thanks EmBee.
CBC says “We’re still waiting for a response from the Liberals.” Join the club. So are we.
Jean-Luc Dusseault says the NDP is “eager to know what the new Liberal Minister will do.” Join the club. So are we.
Mr. Dusseault points out that many Liberals were critical of FATCA, but concedes “it will be difficult to get out.”
Lisa Raitt insists the Cons didn’t have a choice. She admits most of us are hard-working Canadian citizens, but golly gee whiz, they did everything they could to protect us, but protecting the banks was the prime motivator. Then she makes reference to “those evading taxes.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Sigh.
Again the illusion that those RDSP, RESP, TFSA accounts the Conservatives managed to so heroically exempt from FATCA reporting would be exempt from US taxation.
The Conservatives are still recommending US tax evasion as a way of coping with FATCA. And as I believe badger pointed out, those exempt accounts will one day need to leave those shelters where they WILL be reportable. The carve outs she speaks of are really a red herring to distract from the fact that the FATCA IGA still set us up for the fish mill.
@ Bubblebustin
Could you post your comment at CBC? I know the moderation is cumbersome but the listeners/readers have to be told the reality of the Conservative “negotiations”.
Listening to this makes me think that money is the only factor here and to hell with human beings. My wife cannot be happy any more. My family is torn from this and nobody in the governmentcares in any way about our families. When the USA threatens your country, you better give them exactly what they want or you are in trouble! The whole world is cowering to the USA, now, human rights and human beings are worthless.
That *exempt* illusion is exactly what any others than those of us experiencing this will hear — just like the words *going after tax evaders*, *pay your fair share*, *the law is the law*, *US “duals” need to come clean*. Perhaps the Conservatives even believe their own words that Canadian registered accounts are exempt. It feels like, with the new government, we have lost ground and have to climb a steep hill of educating once again. Is it *A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian* in this country with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms for ALL Canadians or is it *Congress has spoken*?
…and what is the reference to the G8 and the G20 initiating this FATCA (OECD – CRS?)? Lisa Raitt, Finance Critic knows nothing of the CRA transfer of information to the IRS that has already taken place? And the Conservatives are all ears?
Done, EmBee!
When I listened to Lisa Raitt on the CBC interview it made me sick to my stomach. My goodness what kind of country are we living in. I am so angry right now!!!!
Do these people have no soul. Let us not forget Denmark stood up against the Nazi’s….citizens including the king wore the yellow star and we can’t even stand up to the threat of stealing money from the banks. SHAME!
Perhaps someone with graphics ability should draw or diagram the “passing on of communications” like Blaze-Lynne described above. Thinking about all the emails and letters that got passed on to someone else, and visualizing all the lines and arrows, made me dizzy!
And, since the answer from the Crown attorneys that (in spite of the pre-election statements made by the Liberals) instructions to them from the new Attorney General have not changed regarding defence of the lawsuit — the question then goes to Prime Minister Trudeau: WHY haven’t the instructions changed? What has changed in his mind on this topic, since the Liberals’ time in opposition, that now aligns them with the previous Conservative government?
I had 3 emails sent to Morneau’s as well. One I sent to JT and two I sent to JRW. What’s the minister of finance got to do with this? This should be to justice???
@Cheryl,
Denmark may have stood up to Hitler, but they sure didn’t stand up to Obama. I suppose that they see the USA as a bigger threat than the Nazis.
Demark-USA IGA: http://fatca.thomsonreuters.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/FATCA-Agreement-Denmark.pdf
Could someone please save the CBC radio interview above as a permanent file?
When EmBee writes up the history of Brock I want to make sure that she will have access to Lisa Raitt’s thoughts on why it was necessary to turn over family members to FATCA.
Repeating what Cheryl said:
“Do these people have no soul?”.
I, too, am steaming mad re: Lisa Raitt’s comments. The Conservative government *did* have a choice. They could have been courageous and put a stop to the aggression of a foreign power. They did not. Their *choice* was to sacrifice the rights of a sizeable segment of their own population.
But I am *thrilled* that this issue is *finally* getting some serious air-time at the CBC. FATCA has now been discussed *at length* three times in just a few days. *That* is progress.
Cheryl: If the recent and current governments of the world had been in power during the Hitler era he would have won.