WITNESS SEARCH UPDATE FOR CANADIAN FATCA IGA LAWSUIT:
WE STILL SEEK MORE CANADIAN WITNESSES:
Have you experienced marital stress or breakup, or medical or psychiatric illness because Canada turned you and your family over to a foreign country — or because you were afraid and entered into IRS compliance and suffered harm, or because you are in “hiding” and can’t afford to be IRS compliant or to renounce? Be a witness.
No single witness will be “perfect” from a litigation point of view. We will be seeking more witnesses (almost) right up to the time of submission of court documents. Your specific situation, that we cannot predict, might have unique characteristics that would be helpful in the lawsuit.
If you cannot be a witness, please tell a friend who you think might be interested.
— If you are interested in becoming a witness You will describe your harm in a written affidavit which will be made public and you can contact me at stephen.kish.chair@adcs-adsc.ca See our website at www.adcs-adsc-ca
FOR THOSE CANADIANS WHO ALREADY VOLUNTEERED: Unless you have already been informed by me or by our legal team that you will not be a witness, there is still the possibility — or (for some) likelihood — that you will be asked to be a witness. I’m sorry but I cannot estimate the time it will take for our legal team to get back to you with their decision. This is because they need to “mesh” the characteristics of all of the necessary witnesses and testimonies with the actual detailed submission that contains the entirety of their evidence, which are all still evolving. Please be patient in our getting back to you with a decision. Thank you for your help.
@badger
Re your message to @calgary411: “it is your right to make your own individual decision.”. Yeah right but if everyone makes such decisions out of personal self interest–or even based on the interests of their own immediate family–where does that leave us?
People are angry with me because I’ve touched a nerve here. Everyone wants this lawsuit to succeed but no one wants to take any risk for themselves or their immediate family to achieve success.
@bubblebustin
Has he been asked his decision?
@bubblebustin
What precisely are the risks to @calgary411 ‘s son that he would incur by testifying that he would not incur simply by his Ted Cruz moment of having been born to an expat in Calgary? Can we get thoi risks out on the table for discussion?
@bubblebustin
Actually I’m beginning to suspect that @calgary411’s son and Ted Cruz are one and the same person.
@Dash, I completely get what you were saying yesterday. As a mother, I also get what Calgary is saying.
I am hoping if Calgary is chosen as a witness, she may relay the consequences of this mess as it affects her son.
@Duke, yes, G&M is read nationally, but not in print so much anymore…online. I believe Stephen referenced an ad in the print version.
@The Mom
I understand. Many would like to support this effort as witnesses. But it would have an effect on immediate family members–children, parents, spouses. So where does that leave this effort?
My husband volunteered to be a witness. His only connection to the US is that his Canadian citizen wife happens to have been born there. He does not believe the Canadian government should have full access to all of his financial data and transactions simply because his wife’s birth certificate was stamped in a different country. He does not believe the Canadian government has the right to pass all that collected data over to a foreign country so that they can apply taxes against his wife on income he has earned in Canada as the sole wage earner in our family.
Marie,
Thanks for mentioning that your husband (a Canadian citizen harmed by marriage to a spouse born in the United States) volunteered to be a witness.
Thank you also because I know that he had to have your support to come forward.
Dash You don’t get it. You are being an agent provocateur. You are also becoming o loose cannon.
@ Don RE your suggestion: “One other thought. To get a handle on who is renouncing US citizenship, I would search the names off the US Expatriation quarterly list (usually uncommon names) and find them on LinkedIn. This may be a source of witnesses even if they’ve renounced. They may know someone else who hasn’t renounced who is a ‘US person.’ Since they took the step to divorce Uncle Sam, they may have an open ear to hear IBS’ need for witnesses.
Are you interested in pursuing this? I’d be happy to work with you on this.
Please note that, on March 22, Canadian Member of Parliament and NDP House Leader Peter Julian asked the Minister of Revenue during Question Period about the new Liberal government lack of action on protecting the privacy rights of Canadians with respect to the FATCA issue.
Here is a transcript of Peter’s question with a link to the video clip:
https://peterjulian.ca/QP_on_FATCA
@Dash
You’re attempting to turn Calgary’s son into something he isn’t in order to prove injury that would be negated by doing so – that is injury resulting from the fact that he is incapable making informed decisions.
Now if Calgary could prove injury to herself as a result of the IGA’s effects on her entrapped son, that’s another story.
@Peter Julian MP
I posted your video clip here last week and wrote a personal letter to you in follow up to your comments in the House of Commons. I wrote:
“Dear Mr Julian,
Thank you for your renewed efforts to hold our government accountable for this unprecedented handover of Canadian banking information to a foreign government, and to the CRA itself. You may recall that you and I spoke about this in Gibsons, where I had the opportunity to meet both you and Larry Koopman prior to the election.
Please be aware that I’ve offered myself as a witness in the ADCS lawsuit against the FATCA IGA. My MP, Pamela Smith-Jones, in spite of repeated efforts, has not been able to get the Revenue Minister to confirm whether my Canadian banking information has been sent to the IRS. This is unacceptable. Can you help?”
My bank told me I had to contact the CRA for this information, who in turn told me I had to ask the Minister of National Revenue. I’ve had nothing but radio silence for months on whether my private Canadian banking information has been sent to the IRS. This too needs to be brought to the attention of our country’s legislators. Again, can you help me?
I will mention this now and repeat this request later:
Soon GwEvil will be placing a Google ad asking for witnesses. I will pay the initial cost of the ad as a test run.
My request is that people (e.g., Brockers) who already know from this site that we need witnesses, and also know the type of witnesses we need, NOT ACCESS THAT GOOGLE AD BECAUSE THERE IS A CHARGE EVERY TIME THE AD IS ACCESSED.
The Google ad is meant for those who DO NOT know that we are asking for witnesses. If the curious, who already know that we want witnesses, access the ad, the ad money will be quickly depleted.
By the way, thanks to those who offered to donate for advertising.
Still hoping that readers will also communicate with potential witness volunteers by word of mouth.
@Dash You’re “deeply hurt” by responses to your awful comments to Calgary?!? Seriously?
@Bubblebustin
Your bank and the CRA refused to tell you whether your info was sent?!! That is a disgrace. I thought banks were required to inform you if asked. I hope this information makes it to the trial.
Yes, Marie, the banks are required to disclose. They even called head office to find out. I guess head office didn’t get the memo.
Peter Julian.
Thank you for your action on the FATCA issue. I hope you have seen the comment on this thread directed to you. I have also started a new post with the video of your question in Question Period: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2016/03/29/why-does-the-canadian-minister-of-national-revenue-keep-a-little-pink-flashcard-so-as-always-to-have-the-same-answer-handy/.
@Blaze, I support Calgary411 and her son 100%. Any loving mother would do exactly what she is doing. Even though I haven’t posted in ages I am still sensitive to the needs of her adult child having read in great detail how she has tried to protect him and his special circumstances. I remember how she spent a great deal of her own retirement savings to free her son to no avail.
I came out of seclusion just to support Calgary411 and her son. I’m sure somebody might take offence at that too but what can you do.
OMG, *OMG*, how to thank you and others?
Thanks to all for the support you’ve given me in what I thought I was clear on from the beginning in coming out with my family’s story, my son’s story and how it will be the same story for many others deemed US Citizens, like him, and their families. It was never intended to be specifically about MY son but all those who are so affected.
My main point remains that if there is such a thing as US citizenship-based taxation law and its consequences there should only be a claim to such when a person can consent as an adult and with full knowledge of any benefits and/or consequences. Such an adult person should also have the requisite mental capacity to be able to do so or someone to be able to act on their behalf. I question every day why this is not the case?
That this can affect my son or others like him in the fact they are not able to renounce a non-meaningful, without consent US-deemed US citizenship, that they must have no influence on from anyone, but must be their own decision — that a parent, a guardian or a trustee cannot act on such a person’s behalf, even with a court order, seems to me what I call it – entrapment. That is my issue. My son is an innocent bystander in this whole sordid mess. In my opinion to open this to him and put him on a stand is only criminalization of him because of the circumstances under which he was born to me in Canada – none of his doing, none of his choice.
If there is to be a criminal, then it must be me – not my son or any other family’s son or daughter. It is me who made all of the mistakes I made. It is me who never learned of US citizenship-based taxation law in my public schooling in New York and Washington states. It is me who gave birth to my son in Canada, without any realization of the consequences to him. It is me who believed when I became a Canadian citizen in 1975 and was warned that I would thereby lose my US citizenship, I took that as fact from a US official. It is me who believed I was Canadian (and my kids were Canadian). I admit my naivety. None of it was with intent. I made all of my own mistakes that I offer to others here so they might not make the same. My son’s father passed away many years ago, before all of this. My daughter and I have been able to renounce. My son cannot renounce and doesn’t have any knowledge of what that would mean.
How has it affected me? I believed the only way I could handle it for myself was to speak out, not to hide in the shadows and have to look over my shoulder. The insanity of it all has affected me in ways I cannot express. That should be only my burden, not my son’s.
For all of you that understand and support the way I chose to deal with this, you’ll never know how much that means to my own well-being. For those of you, like Dash, who believe my son should somehow become part of this, all I can say is I’m sorry you feel that way. My son cannot be, in my estimation, any kind of hero for the cause of all of the injustice to any of us who are or have any relationship to (even business partners) to anyone who lives outside the US homeland and has some US taint.
And, that this has become another of the issues is another of the harms to me — and any other family like mine.
@ Peter Julian
Thank you for posing your question to the Minister of Revenue. There’s a comment on another thread by Roger that I hope you will read. Roger raises some very good points I think.
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2016/03/29/why-does-the-canadian-minister-of-national-revenue-keep-a-little-pink-flashcard-so-as-always-to-have-the-same-answer-handy/comment-page-1/#comment-7381632
@ Dash1729
” Everyone wants this lawsuit to succeed but no one wants to take any risk for themselves”
Really? You need to chill out and quit the provocations and accusations. You have no idea how many people have volunteered to be witnesses, nor do you know each circumstance. Your comments are not productive to this forum.
@ calgary411
Thanks for starting a post re: Peter Julian’s question in parliament. I was off reading elsewhere when you did that. BTW you can put those past “mistakes” behind you because you have been doing things very, very right since then. You are the best mother your son could ever have.
@ Stephen Kish
I promise not to peek but it’s always hard for me to curb my curiosity. Good luck with the Google Ad!
Embee,
I was just speaking to GwEvil, and she tells me that our banner ad needs to be really short, one or two lines. The banner ad will direct/link people to a document that contains all of the details.
Yes, Brockers are not allowed to peek….
@Embee, re: “I promise not to peek but it’s always hard for me to curb my curiosity. ”
Curiosity kills me too Embee.