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 just saw the initial witness list “Ginny, Gwen, Carol, Cheryl, John Canuck, Dash, Lynne, and Tricia”
Thank you to all of you.
You have served as a model to the extent that litigation comes to the EU whilst my serving as a plaintiff would not likely be helpful for reasons obvious to some of you, I will volunteer to serve as a witness in the EU Courts.
There is nothing like being a total asshole on Brock, especially when you barely remember it. Just wanted to apologize for the comments last night. Badger, sorry that my ‘shoe fit’ comment upset you and for the other stupid comment that made no sense whatsoever. My alcohol intake since discovering over 3 years ago that I am a US slave dramatically increased. I made a New Year’s resolution to quit drinking, and I did, until yesterday…that was a mistake.
I sure do NOT think anyone involved in this mess is a coward. But I do fear that if the right witnesses with the right ‘harms’ are not found soon, we won’t win this war. And if we think we are all stressed out now, it’s going to get worse.
Back on the wagon today. If you see any more F’d up comments from WK, you’ll know I failed again. Wish me luck.
Thanks for the explanation, WK. I wish you every success.
Perhaps we are not seeing the forest for the trees.
Our organization name says a great deal. DEFENSE of Sovereignty.
In defending sovereignty with the IGA Charter Suit, the defense of every Canadian makes every Canadian in peril of losing the sovereignty of their country. There is the harm and it is country wide.
Losing sovereignty means the country is lost to the control of another. Can any of us say that the control of Canada has been effected by the implementation of the IGA which permits an outside entity entry into the country and enables the theft and bondage of every citizen and resident within. This is a class action lawsuit like no other.
Can any deny that the assault of FATCA on so called ‘US Persons’, as enabled by the Canadian IGA ( let us not forget that FATCA is ILLEGAL and cannot be enforced in ANY country without enabling legislation, the IGA. )has both the effect and potential to adversely affect every person in this country. If not directly, then most definitely indirectly.
To allow an illegal entity to perpetrate crimes against citizens and residents , makes the enabler an accessory to the crime. That it is our own government, using taxpayer funds ( our money) makes every person in the country harmed by the entire disgusting process. Some harmed more than others but the harm to the entire country is without question. Even those who have no idea about it all continue to be harmed by the drain on resources the country could otherwise use for the furthering of Canadian interests.
This is just ONE of the harms to every Canadian citizen and resident.
We all pay , with bank fees. We all pay with taxes paid toward the effort of the government to defend the indefensible. Not just in this case but in other litigation against the government for the very same reasons: initiating legislation against Canadians for the interests of either banking or corporations. The lawsuit against the Bank of Canada is another , and connected, prime example of the harm done to Canadians and Canadian Sovereignty.
In the case of the ADCS it is DIRECTLY defending Canadian Sovereignty. Against the Canadian Government and behind that foreign interests. Banking interests. IMF. BIS.
ANY Canadian and Canadian Resident is harmed and most fundamentally so.
A husband of a US wife (or vice versa)who has been targeted must allow the IRS, a foreign entity to not only know of his assets but to FINE them once their existence is known. Which means to confiscate them for some put up charge made by criminals who seek to rob and pillage. And I DO mean rob and pillage!! Once their assets are known they can , do and will take everything these people have spent a lifetime earning and they have no compunction taking it all and more!!
And IF they want out of so called ‘US Person’ designation the price went up , way up and the exit tax is a fine on one’s entire assets “as assessed on the day of” !
Any of these fines against people who do not live or work in the US is a criminal outrage against innocent and law abiding citizens and residents and the implementation of the IGA is a crime against those innocents as well, for without it the criminals could do NOTHING!
( NOT JUST for US citizens , let us make clear. For ‘designated’ and defined by the IRS ‘US Persons’ and the definitions are in the power of the IRS to change at will and they have made very clear they intend to do just that: Snowbirds beware and prolific cross border day trippers beware)
This point has been made many times here and elsewhere but the actual impact is that those assets, the investments, retirement benefits, home and everything that makes up a life lived and saved for, everything that a free people strive for against all odds is now going to be confiscated by a criminal enterprise masquerading as a government entity and the effect of THAT is like a stone rippling in a lake .. it can and will take from their targets, their children, their grandchildren to the ruination of a nation.
So witnesses for showing ‘Harm’ ? They are legion!
@Bad kitty…kitty……been there done that, its a deep hole. My body chemistry at my GP was saying that enough was enough, had to stop when I did.
Google the Serenity Prayer and read it everyday. AA has incorporated it.
PS. You are not an a__hole.
@ WhiteKat
That was an impressive admission on a public forum and I applaud you for that. You were one of the first line public protestors about this issue and I remember very well when I first came across your radio interview w/ CBC and how articulate you were. You impressed me then before I became a plaintiff, as you do now.
Be gentle with yourself, but also careful. We have all seen so much collateral damage to many from trying to cope with this nightmare. This “harm” to others that I read about both motivates me and frankly, depresses me. Not a word I use lightly. I will admit this weekend was a terrible time for me after reading about Mr. J.
I am not interested in debating whether his suicide was compounded by a pre existing depression, nor whether he didn’t avail himself of finding this website or others, nor whether his suicide advances or harms our cause. I will take his father’s word for it that he was overwhelmed by our mutual nightmare and that his family has suffered a tremendous loss.
I am not in any position to judge others. We may all have a breaking point, some get to it faster than others. All I know is the toll keeps mounting. That is what is intolerable to me.
If this makes no sense, blame it on the fact that I paced my kitchen floor all Saturday night as I could not sleep after reading what his father wrote. What happens to me as an individual is of little consequence to me- what happens to the collective “us” is more important.
I agree with Tricia that this was the worst account reported in our four years.
So we MUST get this done, please sooner than later.
Sorry George but I won’t accept what I cannot change. Change is coming. I can sleep when I am dead.
In the meantime, let’s fight.
@ WhiteKat
Like Ginny, I think the post about J may have been a factor with you. Just guessing though because it’s difficult to know anyone merely from words on a screen. (In fact, I have trouble with that, even in person.) The letters from J’s father certainly added more turmoil to the terrible stew in my brain. That increased my impatience factor so I did a bit of a “cranky pants” comment on another thread which I hope won’t jeopardise this “phenomenom” from getting more needed publicity. Oh well, done’s done, and the mods have a delete button.
@ Canadian Ginny
Small consolation but I mailed another green envelope yesterday. That one was for Anne Boleyn’s challenge and in my heart it was also for J. The next one will be for you and your generous little grand-daughter. I can’t match the wonderful $25/day donors but I’m doing the best I can. I think my impatience will morph into anticipation when we’re solidly (as in funded) on the road to the Charter Trial.
@ EmBee
I like to think that future donations could be in commemoration of Mr. J. I will be sure to tell my darling grand daughter also that she helped with motivation. I know that will make her smile, thanks.
Another project that I am currently involved with is assisting new refugee placements to my city, which has a very long history ( we were a terminal for the Underground Railway) of doing so. There are many participants, including old retiree lawyers like me and current lawyers and other stake holders who have banded together to help with their transition. It is incredibly gratifying work. Hearing their stories of how they have waited years to get here and suffered so many losses helps me with putting things in perspective if there is such a thing.
So many people to help, just never enough time. I need a Tardis.
EmBee,
A mod did not delete WhiteKat’s comments. She asked me (not a mod) to delete her last two comments from my post, which I did.
WhiteKat’s first comment remains and I incorporated a phrase from that comment (“this is war”) into my post asking for Witnesses.
@ Stephen Kish
Looks like I didn’t write my comment clearly. I wasn’t referring to delete re: WhiteKat’s comment but rather to a comment of my own on another thread. Words don’t always get onto to the screen the way I’m thinking them.
Oh nuts. That’s not clear either. I really don’t expect my “cranky pants” comment to be deleted. I just hope the journalist chocks it up to simple, perhaps understandable, impatience. Ginny seems to understand anyway.
EmBee, I re-read your comment and I must have been asleep when I posted mine, Sorry….
“My alcohol intake since discovering over 3 years ago that I am a US slave dramatically increased. I made a New Year’s resolution to quit drinking, and I did, until yesterday…that was a mistake.”
No it wasn’t. WK’s method of coping is better than J’s.
I understand the reluctance of people to serve as witnesses. How many times have we heard or read about gang killings where nobody wants to say anything? Many times these cases are solved because someone does say something. While anonymity is not on offer here, the chance to make a difference is. I am not an American citizen, but the maze of FATCA and the IGA still puts me in the crosshairs because of my parentage, and I am not going to stand for it. The government has confused itself with commercial interests (banks not even covered by the Charter) and the rights of its citizens. This cannot go unchallenged.
Alex posted this over on the Name This Post regarding J’s death.
Alex says
February 8, 2016 at 9:23 pm
As a former marketing and public relations person and a victim of FATCA tyranny and financial extortion myself, I would strongly advise those of you who are so bravely and determinedly fighting this battle in the public eye that, in order to get public sympathy, political response and important media coverage on a large scale, your focus in communicating the evils of FATCA and citizenship based taxation should be directed not so much on what FATCA is doing to individuals and the group affected, as horrible and reprehensible as that indeed is, but rather focus the story on the fact that through signing on to FATCA, all signatory countries have allowed citizenship based taxation to be implemented on their territory and as a result they are aiding and abetting tremendous sums of money being removed from their own country’s treasuries, to now be used by the United States.
Canada and all other signatories have now opened their tax base to the U.S. Treasury, allowing a foreign power to regularly and permanently tax Canadian citizens and legal tax residents, under foreign U.S. tax laws and siphon out funds from the Canadian, or any other, tax base and have those funds transferred into the Treasury of the United States. In the case of Canada, the millions and millions of Canadian dollars that this represents are funds that would have otherwise remained within the Canadian economy, been used and invested in Canadian services, Canadian homes, Canadian infrastructure, Canadian goods and Canadian investments and financial instruments, contributing directly to the well-being of the Canadian economy and its own tax paying residents. This is the only aspect of FATCA and citizenship based taxation that will resonate and gain widespread sympathy from every person in Canada who hears about this and it will be the only thing that will put pressure on Canadian politicians to act quickly to put an end to this madness. Every single Canadian person can relate to this story. Every single Canadian will immediately see and understand the injustice, criminality, extortion and arrogance of what is taking place. Every single Canadian will want accountability from its leaders as to how such a thing could happen on their watch and demand action to put an end to it. Imagine for a moment the Prime Minister, or any other official, being asked directly, in public, how do they justify millions of Canadian dollars being taken from tax paying Canadian residents and citizens, and having those dollars removed from the Canadian economy on an ongoing and permanent basis and paid into the tax system of a third country. How can they justify that and why are they abetting that and what are they going to do about it?
Watching this all from afar, I think that the big error that has been repeatedly made by all organizations fighting FATCA and citizenship based taxation has been to continuously present the story from the angle of the harm that it is doing to us, to those directly concerned and harmed by FATCA. We are a minority and while people may show sympathy, they can’t even begin to imagine what this is like to live through and the personal upheaval that it causes. They may give sympathy and express shock that a country would treat its citizens, or perceived citizens, in such a horrible way, but they can not relate to it! In order to give a cause traction and in order to get wide public and political support, one must always find the common denominator in the story, the aspect of the story that concerns and touches as many people as possible. You would have to search far and wide to find a Canadian who would see nothing wrong with Canadian earned and already taxed dollars being systematically confiscated and siphoned out of Canada by a third country and then usurped into that third country’s economy for use by that third country, with no benefit whatsoever to Canadians. This is a simple and clear story, easy to understand and easy to relate to, but it would provoke immediate anger and rightful outrage and would demand immediate accountability from those in government who are knowingly letting this happen on their watch.
My suggestion, especially in Canada, would be to focus on the fact that FATCA is clearly, unambiguously and directly siphoning enormous sums of Canadian money out of the Canadian economy and seeing those funds sent, with the approval and assistance of the Canadian government, to the U.S. Treasury, to be used in building U.S roads, fighting U.S. wars, funding U.S. public infrastructure projects, paying for U.S. civil servants, paying off the U.S. debt, etc., all to the detriment of Canada, its economy and its people.
Please think about this and please change your tactics in this battle. You will win battles and gain widespread support only when you appeal and touch the largest group of people in society. Only then will politicians suddenly take action. It’s all about numbers! Those affected by FATCA, while considerable, are still too marginal for this to gain the traction, outrage and attention that it requires.
I am retired and not able to get involved with this, but hope that my suggestions give you some food for thought and help you in changing your strategy in putting an end to this FATCA nightmare once and for all.
Thank you!
Honestly, imo, if this lawsuit fails the only thing that has a chance to bring about any change is a large, noisy revolt. So far the ‘Americans’ in our midst are mostly quietly hiding in their houses, hoping that the robbers won’t break in. But when the thievery really starts to happen in earnest (it hasn’t yet in Canada, except for the poor souls who got sucked into the various amnesty programs), then the US slaves will be incensed enough to do more than just peek out their front doors, because at that point there will be nothing left for them to lose. Let’s get this lawsuit funded and witnesses selected so we can stop the robbers in their tracks now.
Spectacular advise from Alex!
And refined here http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2016/02/06/perhaps-after-reading-this-you-could-suggest-a-title-for-this-post/comment-page-8/#comment-7184289 by @Fed Up.
Will the media please step forward and really tell this, the whole story — the *Trojan Horse* part as well as the evermore *tax evasion* cut and paste from our governments? It seems to me that in Canada, with the new Liberal government (and the new Prime Minister seemingly not standing by his campaign words *A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian*), we are starting anew in trying to educate our government representatives. We see also former Conservatives and now many Liberal government representatives repeating the meme, as WhiteKat pointed out:
The media needs to ask some hard questions to our government representatives the world over. We continue to ask, *Is a Canadian a Canadian a Canadian UNLESS they are a US citizen who happens to reside in Canada?*
Regarding Alex’s comment: “You would have to search far and wide to find a Canadian who would see nothing wrong with Canadian earned and already taxed dollars being systematically confiscated and siphoned out of Canada by a third country and then usurped into that third country’s economy for use by that third country, with no benefit whatsoever to Canadians.”
True that. But then tell those pure Canadians that that third country is the big and mighty USA, and that if Canada does not hand over the ‘Americans’ (a privileged lot anyway), Canadian banks (who hold their hard earned money) will get hit with a 30% penalty; for most, it’s just a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils.
third country? I think Alex meant second…god forbid another country is after us.
Good catch, WhiteKat. I missed that *third country* reference and now, too, need that clarified.
@ Dash…No way would I put pressure on this couple! They are both in their late 60″s and he has recently had cancer. This mess has caused them a great deal of suffering! They have paid for not being compliant; all this while battling cancer. They only found out about the obligation to do returns when they applied for Social Security. They had a business and went into the OVDP. We may not agree with each others choices, but we need to respect their right to choose what is right for them.
FuriousAC and Alex,
Thanks for the suggestions, and I hope that Canadians will pass your thoughts on to other Canadians, the press, and the politicians. CBC, since January 20, is still trying to arrange an interview with a Liberal spokesperson on our lawsuit.
By the way, John Richardson and I already tried to make your argument to the Canadian Government, but our proposal was “too long” and had to be rejected. In our March 10, 2014 submission (almost two years ago) we said in part:
No… I will not change my primary battle focus — which is litigation.
I must assume that all of our good representations and PR efforts will elicit no meaningful sympathy from first class Canadians or “politicians taking action” in a Government terrified of U.S. sanction — and I don’t expect that we will ever receive “widespread support”.
My immediate purpose in life (as WhiteKat suggests) is to ask second class Canadians and second class International Friends to help pay off the outstanding legal bill and for a few determined Canadians to volunteer as Witnesses. I want this litigation, which is my focus, to be a success.
.
Hello all. I have been buried up to my eyes in work so I haven’t been able to comment much. I have been reading, however. The situation is just so saddening and infuriating. The only thing we can do is keep fighting. So let’s!
PLEASE come forward and fight despite your fear. PLEASE donate or become a witness or help find witnesses. This is the only way forward as far as I can see. No big gov gives a shit about us or our rights, so we have to stand firm against them.
By the way, “our” very own Allison Christians was just named one of the 50 most influential tax minds in the world so maybe someone will listen to her!
TaxProf Blog:
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/02/allison-christians-named-one-of-the-50-most-influential-people-in-international-taxation.html