See below March 9, 2016 response of new Liberal Canadian Government to January 21, 2016 FATCA questions raised by NDP Revenue Critic Mr. Pierre-Luc Dusseault (Sherbrooke).
Response comes from Canada Revenue Agency, Minister of National Revenue (who we are suing), Finance Canada, Stephane Dion, and Attorney General (who we are also suing).
SEE THE LINK. The text is in both english and french.
Bottom line: 1) We are still second class — our lawsuit continues; and 2) WE NEED MORE WITNESSES.
— I am amazed that the Prime Minister of Canada allowed this statement to be included in the response, asking Canadians to recognize the public interest of the United States at the expense of the sovereignty of our country:
“…we must resign ourselves to the fact that we are faced with a requirement from the United States and that the requirement corresponds to the public interest of the United States, meaning the integrity of their tax regime.”
— The OPC privacy review was passed on to CRA in January 2016 AFTER the September 2015 turnover of your bank records. In other words, Canada does the privacy assessment AFTER the turnover of private confidential data. See below statement:
“Part (aa): The CRA consulted with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC). A privacy impact assessment (PIA), which is a policy process for identifying, assessing, and mitigating privacy risks, was completed and submitted to the OPC for review on August 27, 2015. The CRA received the OPC’s recommendations on January 4, 2016 [AFTER THE TURNOVER]. The recommendations do not prevent the CRA from exchanging the required information. A response to the OPC’s recommendations is being prepared.”
Mr. Dusseault is now considering his next step. If you have follow-up questions you would like him to ask Mr. Trudeau (e.g., “…But Mr. Trudeau, what about that pre-election statement you made that Canada’s FATCA IGA legislation is insufficient to protect Canadians? What changed your mind?”) you can email him at Pierre-Luc.Dusseault@parl.gc.ca
United States Secretary of State John Kerry offers this accurate assessment of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “It’s clear that the Prime Minister has begun to make his mark on Canada’s future.”
USCitizenAbroad comments on Government response:
“The disappointment is understandable. That said, the Trudeau Government is behaving exactly as expected. The truth is the the previous Conservative Government and various opposition MPs (at least in the initial stages) did more to oppose FATCA (think Flaherty, think Murry Rankin, think Scott Brison, think Elizabeth May and others) than the Trudeau Government will ever do.
In fact, this is much worse. Not only is Mr. Trudeau NOT protecting Canadian citizens, but what he is actually doing is socializing with the Obama Government. He is being friendly to the biggest bully on the block.
Would this be an appropriate analogy to describes Mr. Trudeau’s behavior? An intruder breaks into the family home one night and attacks your teenaged daughter. Instead of protecting the daughter, the father is having a beer with the intruder. That’s Justin!!
At least the previous Prime Minister did not spend his time trying to ingratiate himself to the United States.
But, what is clear is the following …
The attitude of the Trudeau Government is that it its perfectly okay for the United States to use the IGA to claim ANY Canadian citizen that it wants, at ANY time, as the property of the United States of America. That’s the attitude of the Trudeau Government. Now, this has a historical analogy to the “slave trade” where European powers would go to other nations and say “I’ll take this one and I’ll take that one”. The time has come to stop the politically correct BS and tell it like it is.
It’s simple. U.S. citizenship is nothing but a modern day form of slavery. That’s all it is. The U.S. claims a property interest in all its citizens – their only purpose is to serve the Homeland in some way or another. Some on this blog call it “taxation based citizenship”. That’s fine, but how about “slave based citizenship”….”
See part of Government response. Hope to have link to entire response this morning.
Blah, blah, blah. See you in court.
I apologize to Peter in my criticism of his posts in October after the election about the liberal government also showing signs of being sociopaths. He was right. I was wrong. I despair.
“Some Canadians are a Canadian and some Canadians are simply not.”
New phrase for Trudeau the junior.
@Ginny, @Gwen…..you might as well go and apply for that little blue book and move across the river because you are not even second class Canadians anymore.
-snark off.
I would love to see Ginny testify under examination in Court!!!
I want a Canadian Judge to hear her response to the question Are you a US Citizen?
Cheryl, Trudeau is probably not a diagnosable sociopath, but sadly, we all have it in us given the right circumstances. Even ‘sunny ways’ Trudeau. Doubt it would matter who was PM or what party was in power. Power and greed corrupts all and has a way of making us unable to see what we don’t want to see.
@Stephen, “Bottom line: 1) We are still second class ”
As I said above me thinks you are being too generous…..in the eyes of Trudeau you all are SOLELY AMERICANO.
What I wonder is, does the Cdn government think it will actually win this lawsuit or is it just trying to suck up to the US government in order to blame it on us if they lose?
George, right on. We are non-Canadians.
@George I am not American!!!!! Canada has made me stateless.
@Brockers….@Whitekat……….time to smell the roses……or actually smell the manure.
The Canada FATCA IGA has actually stripped away your Canadian Citizenship.
And yes, whilst the Trudeau government is coming to the rescue of preventing possible terrorist persons from being stripped of Canadian Citizenship…..you have been stripped of your citizenship, full stop.
All of you are nothing more than Americans abiding in Canada just like one of your MPs called you.
Mind you I had been of the mindset that this was simple on par with unadulterated racism!! But I was wrong on that, you have been stripped of your Canadian Citizenship pure and simple. For all financial and emplyment matters in Canada you are SOLEY Amerricano/
If the renunciation fee wasn’t so high, I would suggest we all just renounce without filing any US tax forms and ‘do a Peter’ for the FBARS and 8854 (or whatever that stupid expatriation form is). This is all just so fucking sickening.
Whats next?
1.) Want to go to Havana? Sorry, thats against US Law and as an Americano……you can not go and Canada needs to ensure that is enforced.
2.) Selective Sertvice……yep that need to start registering all of you of age, or your kids or grandkids…….just like they do in the States…you get your Ontario Drivers License and the register you for the US Selective Service.
People, American Citizens were placed in internment camps in WW2 because of family origin. This is no different.
@Whitekat…my kids instead of saving their money for college are saving to renounce!!!!
This is insane.
I find the Canadian Government’s response to be just as all government officials around the world. It is pure government speak for saying we don’t give a dam what is good and right, they help us with our skullduggary and by God we will help them. Taxation around the world for centuries has been uneven and patently unfair and worldwide collection of the Marxist Income Tax is no different. In the old west they might have just strung them up and started over.
We need for our kids to start having cookie and lemonade sales to earn renouncing money.
They need to write letters to their MPs begging for donations to pay the US fee.
“I think that the regime we have developed is proportional to that requirement, but I would like the assurance, on the one hand, as Iwas telling the chair a minute ago, that all of the measures required to avoid the excessive collection of information will be implemented, as well as all of the measures required to protect the security of the information once it has been collected.”
I recall our lawmakers during the SCF making a rather large leap of faith that the US would keep this information solely for tax collection purposes. Had it been known that it was going to other agencies, our lawmakers would have had to prohibit the transfer. I think it’s inevitable that the US will use this information elsewhere. Will these bloody cowards stop it even then?
“However, we must resign ourselves to the fact that we are faced with a requirement from the United States and that the requirement corresponds to the public interest of the United States, meaning the integrity of their tax regime.”
First of all, what about the public interest of CANADA? And what makes the Canadian Government believe there is ANY integrity in the US tax regime? What a pathetic joke. This can only be considered willful ignorance, and every country in the world seems to be infected by the same disease. It’s so discouraging.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: condoning America’s citizenship-based taxation is exactly the same thing as condoning slavery, Jim Crow laws or Apartheid. This new Liberal government already has plenty to be ashamed of and it will only get worse, especially as young Justin makes it his pet project to ingratiate himself even more closely with the amoral assholes to the south. His father must be rolling in his grave by now, knowing what an obsequious hypocrite his son turned out to be.
I might as well become a terrorist because then I would at least get to keep my Canadian citizenship. JT is a dopey kid who clearly doesn’t understand the issues and may well not even be aware of the lawsuit. A momentary glimmer of hope but now we’re back to our regularly scheduled sue the bastards.
They charge way too much and take way too long to get rid of that rotten citizenship. How about a mass instant renunciation via a US passport burning ceremony right in front of the US consulate or perhaps the Federal Court building declaring that as of that moment we are all no longer US citizens. (Although I haven’t used mine for years I still have the moldy old thing, Might as well use it for a good purpose one final time.)
See link with text in english and in french
@Maz57 what a great idea.
maz57,
Although I have already renounced, you know that my so-called US-deemed US citizen son (born in Canada, raised in Canada, who never had any benefit of any kind from the US (but defined by Canada a US citizen who happens to abide in Canada), CANNOT renounce for any amount of money to any US tax or accounting or immigration / nationality professional.
In lieu of a US passport for my son (which he has never had), I offer my one and only ever US Passport (that I applied for after my intimiation at a border crossing) with holes punched into it that I received in the package with my Certificate of Loss of US Nationality for any such bonfire! (I have no idea why they returned it to me with holes punched into it — useless and unwanted piece of trash.)
A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.
Bull Shit!!
——-
I knew the response would piss me off.
I just did not know how much I would be pissed off.
Not surprised at all by the Liberal response. I know that many were hopeful prior to the election, but a government is a government is a government.
The passport burning is a great idea, however many of us would need to make a fake one to burn as we’ve never had the damned things.
Trudeau, Obama talks wrap up with invitation for return visit to Canada
From one commenter there:
@Maz57 Love the idea–except I have never had a U.S. passport. Neither have Ginny, Gwen, Native Canadians wife and many others.
@JustinTrudeau, @JodyWilson-Raybould @EmmanuelDuBourg @ScottBrison @RalphGoodale @JohnMcCallum @KateYoung: A Liberal Hypocrite is a Hypocrite is a Hypocrite.