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
Sorry Ginny, meant to say:
He has a five year US passport that runs out in a few weeks and says he has no intention of renewing it or ever using it.
Big fingers with middle aged eyes typing on a small keyboard and screen!
@badger
Maybe they figure they can answer the supporters of C-31 by placing the blame on the court when the court rules against that statute.
Doesn’t being a member of our Armed Forces automatically void US citizenship?
From the US INA:
(4) (A) accepting, serving in, or performing the duties of any office, post, or employment under the government of a foreign state or a political subdivision thereof, after attaining the age of eighteen years if he has or acquires the nationality of such foreign state”
The apathy and even hostility and intentional ignorance (“Why not just renounce?”) reflect not only an attitude about Canadians infected with U.S. personhood (calling them Americans living in Canada) but a common attitude toward people who are so incredibly rich that they have to worry about these things. Many people who are struggling to pay the apartment rent could only dream of having enough money in the bank to have to worry about such things.
There is also the attitude that if you do have so much, you gamed the crony capitalist system, you knew the right people, you pulled the right strings to get favours from A to Zed, from alcohol licenses to zoning variances, plowing back what you inherited. I remember having that attitude when I was chronically unemployed. Oh, you poor baby, getting writer’s cramp from countersigning a stack of $100 travelers cheques, I wish I had that problem.
@John Canuck:
Only if joining was done with the simultaneous intention of thereby relinquishing U.S. citizenship; and the U.S. bureaucrats are trained to presume that the person had no such intention unless it is clear the person had such an intention.
At issue here is a conflict between the old statutes which said you automatically lost U.S. citizenship, and the later court rulings which, retroactively of course, said that such statutes were partially void ab initio because they do conflict with the Citizenship Clause in U.S. Constitution, Amendment 14.
@calgary, love that RBC phrase;
“U.S. suspect recipients”
RBC and the rest of the Banksters can go to hell.
@Tom Alciere re;
“Maybe they figure they can answer the supporters of C-31 by placing the blame on the court when the court rules against that statute.”
Yes, I fully expect that the Liberal spin doctors have already worked out their lines. Or maybe they think they can just bury us under the cost of the lawsuit – since they are AB/USING OUR CANADIAN TAXPAYER REVENUES to defend the enablement of a FOREIGN law on Canadian soil.
So let’s not let them win a war of attrition.
Those out there reading and nodding – please send a donation to show the Liberals that they can’t get away with hypocritically carrying out the will of the US Congress and the Canadian Cons after they clearly demonstrated that they know very well what the FATCA IGA means for their fellow Canadians.
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/10/29/new-fatca-written-questions-from-liberal-mp-scott-brison/comment-page-1/ http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Canadian-Parliament-FATCA-Questions-121-and-127-Oct-2528-2013.pdf https://youtu.be/slqAkW_eeUA
@JC, re;
“How is @cancivlib funded? Perhaps they are controlled by the banks/government?”.
The least they could do is to share with the ADCS legal team the legal memo they said they were obtaining http://maplesandbox.ca/2015/update-from-ccla-on-fatca-lawsuit/comment-page-1/#comment-507008 . And it doesn’t cost them anything to support us with words in public. After all, they themselves invited Arthur Cockfield to present at their conference in Toronto – and he specifically showed how FATCA was an offence https://ccla.org/pathways2privacy/ . See Panel four for Cockfield’s presentation at the CCLA Pathways 2 Privacy Symposium 2014 and his full paper for the Privacy Commissioner of Canada http://ssrn.com/abstract=2433198 ‘FATCA and the Erosion of Canadian Taxpayer Privacy’ April 1, 2014 Report to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, April 2014 – and http://ssrn.com/abstract=2407264 ‘Submission to Finance Department on Implementation of FATCA in Canada’ co-authored Allison Christians McGill University – Faculty of Law and Arthur J. Cockfield – Queen’s University – Faculty of Law , March 10, 2014
@BC Doc, your son is very fortunate being able to benefit from your wisdom.
On the plus side and I suspect its like this with your family, FATCA/IGA has provided superb parent/child bonding moments.
But at the same time there is great sadness having to tell ones children to never reveal the past.
George, on Monday two of my grown children and I will sit in the office of a financial advisor and arrange for each of them to open a tax free savings account, a TFSA. Everybody in the room will be lying: the money guy, me , and both of my kids. The fact that we ALL have to lie in order to open a TFSA is beyond absurd. My kids should be getting a medal! Instead, they lie. How rediculous.
http://cheezburger.com/78372865/bird-video-foul-mouth
Warning: may be inappropriate due to personal sensitivities. I tried to scroll back to give an accurate attribution, but couldn’t find the poster ( Badger? perhaps) and don’t want to get it wrong, but someone recently suggested raising a middle finger to the government.
I think this bird did just that on our behalf. I wasn’t able to catch much of what s/ he chirped except for the operative word.
I think PM Trudeau would appreciate a new PET? Pun intended. And that’s just the kind of mood I am in today with this lousy weather and still over $13,999 remaining on our legal bill. I do feel better now that we have broken through the $14K ceiling.
Just a bit more to go folks and then we are there! Won’t that be a glorious day? Dr. Stephen Kish might be speechless. Imagine! What a great job he does on a daily basis.
And our John Richardson is again off on his European speaking tour. What a toll it must take on him to know that with each talk the result well may be another OMG moment for some.
These are the brave people I am so proud to be associated with. Go Team!
@ Canadian Ginny
LOL … Now THAT bird has attitude! I swear Pebble absolutely knows what she’s saying and why. Wonder what ruffled her pretty pink feathers? Perhaps there’s an IRS letter lining the bottom of her birdcage.
Lol, Ginny and EmBee!
That bird gives new meaning to fowl-mouth. I don’t think I’ll ever get a parrot though. They’re worse than the NSA.
@ Auntie Em
I always liked ( again failing attribution to whomever suggested it) the concept of lining a bird cage with any IRS demands. Sweet Pebble spoke to you and me. Talented bird.
Alas, my two sweet parakeets, Moody and Blues are now long gone. Maybe it’s time to get Barclay new pet friends just in case. One always has to be prepared for whatever the USG throws at us next, n’est-ce pas?
Hey, Bc Doc
Big fingers with middle aged eyes typing on a small keyboard and screen!
+++
Never mind your big fingers,this lousy typist with skinny fingers would never criticize. Your heart is bigger than your fingers.Thanks for all your support. There are many posters here who cheer me up, and you are one of them.
No Name: Yes, for any decent person lying is uncomfortable and counseling your own children to do so, more so. My philosophy is that there are bone fide times when we have to play or work the game. For what it is worth, I get where you are. I think this is just rational financial planning. Any out that works. There are very few protections available to us.
BC Doc
regarding your son please note
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/nhncdrprtng/gdnc-eng.html
8.28
“Financial institutions should not accept as reasonable any explanation which is unlikely or ambiguous in light of an account holder’s actions. For example, if a financial institution knows that the individual voted in an U.S. election or travelled from Canada to a country (other than the U.S.) under a U.S. passport after the date the account holder claims to have relinquished U.S. citizenship, the financial institution does not have to accept the explanation.”
Also just because he can use swear allegiance to Crown as as a self relinquish for Canadian bank it does not mean that the US government consider him a non USA citizen, They still want probably want him to do a CLN. Blaze can use the language in IGA to say she is a non USA citizen for Canadian bank but the USA still consider her a USA citizen,
There is voter list on google I do not know if there is passport list available.
If your son travel to USA, they may demand him to use a USA passport, even if he was born in Canada. They may connect up his name birthplace and birth date to his previous USA passport. They can then dig up the fact that he has not done a CLN. He should not get a USA passport if they want him to travel to USA.
I wonder this about the 150,000 accounts turned over
1) I assume this included account of less than 1 million USA
From
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/nhncdrprtng/gdnc-eng.html
“Lower value accounts
8.78 The review of preexisting individual accounts that are lower value accounts on June 30, 2014, must be completed by June 30, 2016.”
I assume they gave the bank this long lead time to allow people who want to CLN to get it done.
Did the lawyers in September 2015 ever asked, that low value accounts should not be turned over?
“I think PM Trudeau would appreciate a new PET? Pun intended.”
P.E.T. was known for dropping the f-bomb himself. Maybe he and Margaret were the previous owners of Pebble.
Here’s the original by the way:
I believe it’s Mettleman who can be attributed to lining bird cages with IRS correspondence, lol.
I suspect, based on personal experience, that the majority of those 155K accounts reported to the CRA belonged to those who signed a W-9 in Canada.
@Calgary 411. “RBC is firmly in bed with the the IRS…”
I believe Immigration Minister John McAllum was a big wig at RBC before the Chretien govt. It would not be a stretch to suppose that he is whispering in young Trudeau’s ear about the disaster it would be if the IGA were amended or repealed. If true, it would mean that middle Eastern refugees have a far greater political value than any of us, despite billions of hard earned dollars paid from our humble accounts (foreign?!) over the decades…yes decades!
@John Canuck says
“Doesn’t being a member of our Armed Forces automatically void US citizenship?”
If only he were so lucky!!! 🙂
************************************************************************
@GeorgeIII
My son and I are Canadian. US laws are laws for the US and its territories. As I am a Canadian living in Canada, I follow Canadian laws. Any travels to the US by my son and I will be on a Canadian passport.
**************************************************************************
@Ginny @George
Thank you both for your kind words. You guys are my faves!
George, for me, FATCA and CBT were catalysts that compelled me to actively discard my US citizenship. I think if it weren’t for FATCA, that little blue book with the eagle on it would have sat locked away, unused, gathering dust, except for the odd trip to the US to see family. FATCA and the War on Expats forced me to rethink the notion of citizenship and my relationship with my place of birth.
Thanks for that interesting factoid regarding Immigration Minister John McAllum’s bio, Lake Superior Guy.
And, so true that OUR local Canadian *foreign financial institutions have reaped some of their bottom line $$$ off our humble accounts for decades!
BC_Doc: My “travel document” that, many years ago, I was told I required is also coming up to expiration. It has sat in a drawer in my filing cabinet, unused, for the past five years. I have been regarding the date of its expiry as the date of my “unofficial renunciation”. Since being allowed to travel freely to my native land is the *only* right of citizenship I have ever claimed I regard the giving up of that claim as my final break with that country. I am planning a party on that date which will include a “ceremony” in which I will take a “renunciation oath” before a group of witnesses. That’s as close to “official” as I intend to get.
At present, “Homeland Security” retains border crossing records for 15 years. Therefore, I will feel unsafe crossing on my Canadian passport until another decade goes by. Am I being overly cautious? I suspect there are a variety of answers to that, based on one’s personal stress-tolerance. Mine is quite low so I will spend my retirement quite differently than I had planned. I will enjoy getting to know my adopted country in greater detail and perhaps see some of the rest of the world that is still available to me.
Your son is much, much younger than I. I hope he is successful in his journeys south of the border. He is far too young to have his life and dreams curtailed by abusive law.
It infuriates reading stories like the one posted today where someone has only a net worth of $10K and they’re expected to pay $2350 US to shed the legal status of US citizenship.
The Canadian Government should offer her a tax credit for the full amount because it is responsible for putting her in harms way.
Come on Justin step up to the plate and help this fellow Canadian.