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The Isaac Brock Society

Five Toronto Centre candidates invited to our November 13/14 protest

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 46 Comments

As has been mentioned on another post, several activists with the Isaac Brock and Maple Sandbox sites have planned a demonstration in Toronto on November 13 and 14, on the sidewalk outside the convention centre where representatives of various Canadian financial institutions are meeting to discuss, among other things, “navigating the hurdles to compliance with FATCA.”

Five candidates for the Toronto Centre by-election, and their campaign organizations, have been invited to participate in the demonstration. They are the candidates for the Conservative, Green, Liberal, New Democrat, and Progressive Canadian parties. The Progressive Canadian party was included, in thanks for their support some months ago in organizing an excellent meeting in Toronto on FATCA and all that is wrong with it. The Greens, Liberals and New Democrats all have expressed major reservations about FATCA. The Conservatives were included in fairness and to signal that we are not partisans and represent a full spectrum of political views, while being united in opposition to FATCA and any Canada-US IGA.

We thought this would be an opportunity to learn exactly what degree of support these parties are, or are not, prepared to provide to those opposing FATCA and an IGA. After some discussion, a group of us agreed that all five of the mentioned parties should be contacted, but none of the other candidates on the ballot (eleven in total).

For those who are interested, attached is a PDF copy of the email that was sent to each of the five parties (with the organizer’s and sender’s personal particulars removed). generic candidate email

The Conservative email was copied to Jim Flaherty. The other four emails were copied to the parties’ leaders; also, the Liberal email was copied to MPs Ted Hsu, Scott Brison, and Irwin Cotler (Liberal justice critic and former Minister of Justice); and the NDP email was also copied to MP Murray Rankin.

We will keep you posted as to who does or does not accept the invitation. Draw your own conclusions from this information.

Linda McQuaig’s (NDP) campaign office is at this writing the only one to acknowledge and then reply; the reply says that Ms. McQuaig unfortunately “is unable to attend. Best of luck with your event!”

As replies are passed on to me, I will update in the comment thread to this post.

UPDATED NOVEMBER 9 – As IRSCompliantForever has noted in his update to his post on the demonstration, and as I’ve detailed in the comment thread below, I am pleased to announce that Progressive Canadian Party candidate Dorian Baxter has replied, saying his is attempting to rearrange his schedule so he can assist in our demonstration.  The text of his reply appears below in my comment post today.  At this time, only Baxter and McQuaig have replied.

I was born and educated in the US. After completing my post-graduate education, I entered Canada on a temporary work permit, moving to Canada because of the Vietnam war. Shortly after unpacking, I applied for landed immigrant status. A few months later I received in the mail an induction notice from the US Army; I drew a peace symbol on it in felt marker pen and mailed it back. As a result, I was indicted and a warrant was issued for my arrest (both were quashed in 1977 by the Carter amnesty). I became a Canadian citizen in 1975. In 1976, for the US Bicentennial I wrote a political letter to Henry Kissinger, then Secretary of State. In it I mentioned that I had "renounced" (I didn't then know of "relinquish") my US citizenship on becoming a Canadian, explaining in several pages my reasons for leaving the US. I also mentioned the fact that on my mother's side I am a descendant of a soldier who fought in Washington's army during the US rebellion, but now I was declaring my personal independence from the US and rejoining the British Commonwealth. Within six months, I received by mail a CLN recognizing my having expatriated myself from the US in 1975. I filed away my CLN and forgot I had it, until I found it after searching for it upon learning of FATCA and OVDI in August 2011. Since then, I proudly keep a photocopy of it with my passport (which is Canadian; I have never had a US passport in my life, nor will I ever). As a Canadian who long since ceased being an American and who has a CLN, I am not directly affected by FATCA or other US taxation outrages. However, my wife and several of her friends are affected, until their relinquishment CLNs (dating from 30-40 years ago) are issued. Also I have several close friends who were born in Canada of US parents and are considered by the US to be US citizens, though they have never lived in the US, worked there, earned income there, held property there, held US passports, or in any other way excercised USC and are horrified they might be considered US. I am active on this website and in writing my elected Canadian politicians about these issues, on their behalf. I am a retired former employee of the Government of Canada who faithfully and proudly served his adopted and adoptive country for many years. Updated September 2, 2012: earlier this week, my wife finally received her relinquishment CLN, State Department formal recognition that (in their exact words on the CLN) she "ceased to be a US citizen on" the date she became a Canadian more than 35 years ago. Mission Accomplished, to borrow words from my least-favourite contemporary/contemptible American. I will continue to monitor this website from time to time to see if I contribute useful information or opinions, but my wife and I are determined to regain our lives after the past twelve months of angst. Best wishes to all of you on this website in your odyssey toward freedom from the US.

46 thoughts on “Five Toronto Centre candidates invited to our November 13/14 protest”

  1. @Em
    it is 13 and 14….we are going to be classy and look smart. Not wearing flowers in my hair. and yes a smaller group will invite curiosity….and hopefully if there are media cameras…more will flock around.

    We sure will rock on.

  3. @Em, lol stay classy, okay but, I’m going to stay warm first! Hopefully we’ll get a gorgeous day. It’s very mild right now so perhaps it will stay mild for next week. The wind this afternoon wasn’t pleasant though.

    Looking forward to seeing all you classy warm people at this protest!

  4. Pingback: @IsaacBrockSoc invites some #TorCen candidates to #FATCA protest | Toronto Centre Debates - All candidates debate

  5. Has anyone seen the comment on the sidebar from @IsaacBrockSoc invites some #TorCen candidates to #FATCA protest?

    Just like the comment from TorontoCentre yesterday (or so), when you click on the comment it links to another site (not sure how to do this myself!). In any event, as more comments are made, this type of comment gets lost since it is not visible from within a particular post.

    We seem to have some friends at TorontoCentre!

  10. @Calgary411 I like the letter
    I think we should hand out or display it on a board.

    That Link was great..I love blaze doing American woman.

    and Foreign Attack To Control All..
    1 country controls 193 countries who are RBT

  12. I AM DELIGHTED TO REPORT THAT WE NOW HAVE AT LEAST ONE TORONTO CENTRE CANDIDATE WHO SAYS HE HOPES TO ATTEND THE DEMONSTRATION.

    Dorian Baxter, who is the Progressive Canadian candidate for Toronto Centre, sent me the following email:

    “Thank you for your insightful and very informative e-mail …. I am going to immediately attempt to re-arrange my schedule so as to be able to assist in your demonstration. In my view FATCA is nothing more than an unethical money-grab and I will seek to do everything in my power to prevent it from being established!!!”

    Linda McQuaig’s office says she is unavailable but passes on best wishes; we still haven’t heard from the Greens, Liberals, or Tories, at least I haven’t.

    As I mentioned in my original post, the Progressive Canadian party organized a successful anti-FATCA meeting in Toronto about a year ago. They’ve been stalwart and outspoken on this issue all along. The Progressive Canadian party is led by the Hon. Sinclair Stevens, a former cabinet minister in the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney who broke away from the current Conservative Party when they merged with the former Reform Party. The PC party, as I understand them, are former Progressive Conservatives and like-minded “red Tories” who were and still are fiscal conservatives but socially more progressive and more respectful of Parliament (IMO) than our current Conservative Party under Stephen Harper.

    Mr. Baxter and any of his supporters are most welcome, as are any other people who are concerned about FATCA and didn’t get an “invitation.” From my view anyway, one purpose of the “invitation” was to smoke out exactly how committed those five parties (or at least their Toronto Centre candidates) are on the FATCA and IGA issue, and I think we’re starting to find that out.

    BTW my quote in the original post from McQuaig’s office is, except for the introductory formalities, the complete text of the reply I got. Compare that to Mr. Baxter’s reply, if you will. (The three exclamation marks are his, not mine.)

  13. @ Shubert1975
    You know what day and when he will come. This is good news. Great you are doing this Shubert

  14. Details are still to be worked out, emails still going back and forth. Stay tuned, there may be more news about another event he’s just told me that’s occurring soon after our demo; I’m waiting for more details on that before posting anything.

  15. Neither the Greens nor the NDP were made aware of this debate until 2 days ago. No invitation by snail mail or email was received as the generally accepted customary practice. And as it turns out there is already an all-candidates debate on the 13th.

  16. @Sharon Danley
    For the record, the email invitations were sent to all five parties, including the Greens and the NDP, on November 6, three days ago. Linda McQuaig’s office replied that same day at 7pm; I have no indications from my email server than there were any problems in the receipt of the emails on the 6th. I do not understand how you can say “no invitation by snail mail or email was received” given the NDP clearly did in fact receive it, as obviously also did the Progressive Canadians. I find it very difficult to believe the Liberals, Greens and Conservatives didn’t receive their emails on the 6th, given there were no delivery error messages from any servers at my end.

    That being said, the demonstration is both on the 13th and the 14th, so anyone going to the all-candidates debate on the 13th can still participate on the 14th. In some ways, that would be preferable anyway, since the 14th is the day on which FATCA compliance is scheduled to be discussed at the conference.

  17. … forgot to mention that all the invitations were sent from my email account between 2:44pm and 2:52pm on November 6, depending on the specific party. All were sent to the email addresses that I found on the party or candidate websites.

  18. @Sharon Danley: I understand one of the All Candidates debates on November 13 scheduled for 6:00 p.m. was cancelled because the Libs and Cons declined to participate. The Rogers televised debate is scheduled for 9:00 p,m. on November 13.

    The protest is during the day, so a stop there should not interfere with the debate. However, as Schubert said, the important day is November 14, which is the day Navigating the FATCA Hurdles session will be held. That should not in any way interfere with the debate the previous evening.

    If you have contact or involvement with either the Green or NDP campaigns, we hope you will encourage the candidates to attend. If that is not possible, a very public statement opposing or supporting FATCA would be appreciated so we know where the candidates stand. In addition, representatives of the candidates are welcome to attend.

    The silence of Ms. McQuaig in particular is very disturbing. Many of us are still waiting for a reply from her “as is generally accepted practice” on an issue affecting up to one million Canadians and their families.

    Thank you for any help you may be able to provide in ensuring we are listened to “as is generally accepted practice” in an election campaign.

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  20. Pingback: @TorontoCentre Debates ALL #TorCen candidates to #FATCA Centric All Candidates – November 18/13 | Toronto Centre Debates - All candidates debate

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