Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 101 Comments

This weekend I spoke at length with a concerned Canadian citizen (ChearsBigEars) who believes that the time to launch the mother of all class actions lawsuits against the banks has already arrived.  Why should we wait until the banks actually deprive Canadian citizens of their Charter rights?  What if the banks are already in the process of planning to violate those rights?  Would that not constitute a conspiracy to violate their rights?

Suppose TD Bank decided to ban some minority–let’s say anyone who is not white.  Now they put out an advertisement that they wish to hire a bouncer who will stand at the door and prevent non-white people from entering the bank.  Would those people who are about to have their rights violated have to wait until they were bounced or could they go ahead and launch a lawsuit based upon a conspiracy to violate Charter rights?  My contact suggests that we can go ahead and sue the banks in a class action lawsuit and that we should do it right away, and it should be for one billion CDN dollars, to reflect the seriousness of this rights violation and the actual damages that are being inflicted by the United States as a result of the banks’ plan to implement FATCA.  We can do this because TD Bank (et al.) has put out placement ads asking for FATCA compliance officers–not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars that they have already spent putting a system in place to discriminate against comfortable and concerned clients.  Here is plea that he sent me to share with the readers of the Isaac Brock Society:

FATCA CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT HELP NEEDED

We are currently investigating launching a Class Action Lawsuit against one of the major Canadian banks. The lawsuit will claim that the bank is conspiring to deprive Canadians of their rights under The Charter of Rights and Freedoms by advertising unlawfully for applicants for a job category designed to allow a hostile foreign power to harass and deprive certain large groups of their basic rights to live as other Canadians with equal rights to access to banking and other financial instruments.

Equality before and under law and equal protection and benefit of law

  • 15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

If there are any constitutional and or class action attorney groups out there please contact us ASAP (petros at isaacbrocksociety dot ca).

WHY JOIN A CLASS ACTION?

  1. Joining a class action is a way to have your disputes resolved in a low-risk, low-cost manner. In most circumstances, class actions are pursued on a contingency fee basis, meaning that class counsel is only paid if a settlement or court award is achieved. Class counsel fees would then be paid out of the settlement or award.
  2. Joining a class action requires little effort on your part. In most circumstances, you are not required to provide any documentation until the case has been resolved either through settlement or court award. At that stage, you would simply be required to file a claim form.
  3. Class actions provide a mechanism for pursing claims of relatively small monetary value. Unfortunately, the costs of litigating is often prohibitive to pursuing one’s legal rights. By bringing an action on behalf of hundreds, or thousands of individuals, class actions make it possible to pursue claims that would otherwise be uneconomical.
  4. Class actions provide a mechanism for leveling the playing field with defendants that often have significant resources. Again, by bringing an action on behalf of hundreds, or thousands of individuals, class actions provide for greater bargaining power on the part of the injured parties.
  5. The class proceeding legislation contains many safeguards to ensure that the rights of class members are protected. For example, any settlement reached in a class action must be approved by the court as being fair, reasonable and in the best interests of class members.

 

101 thoughts on “Conspiracy lawsuit against TD bank”

  6. Good to see you here @NativeCanadian

    @nervousinvestor

    You’ve got a captive audience at the Blaze – they HATE Obama over there.

    @Petros

    What comes next?

  9. I am a 70-year-old dual American/Canadian grandma who is infuriated by all this and ready to spit tacks. I’m in.

  10. I believe the Merchant Law Group out of Regina has undertaken several class action suits in the past. You can check out their website.

  11. Would it be possible to be in a class action lawsuit and remain anonymous? I’m born in Canada so I have a chance of passing under their radar, but they have all my RRSP savings in there.

  13. Would we have to be a TD customer/victim to take part? If so, can we at least contribute to the lawyers’ fees to help the TD customer/victims who are part of the lawsuit?

  14. Would a hot shot legal firm do this on a no fee no win basis? What damages would they actually be suing the bank for? Obviously all that everyone really wants is to have resident dual US / Canadian citizens carved out of FATCA perhaps by forcing the bank to put down Ottawa for their place of birth for ‘tax’ reasons.

    What could the US really do about it? Canada agrees to FATCA but then Stephen Harper could go back and say to the US, it’s not us, it’s our courts, we tried. That would put the US in a difficult position either starting hitting Canada with the withholding tax or accept it.

    The US will have to understand all Canadians should be treated equally.

  15. @nervous Investor
    Did I get myself into a pickle on the Blaze article you put up here …at 12:24…I am concerned as I have now been accused of being a Glen Beck follower….OMG…I hate that man….he is insane. He is my racist brother. (not really but they could be twins).
    but the author of the article you sent wrote sanely about FATCA. . From now on I will look carefully at what I pass on.

  19. @ nervousinvestor
    Would there be some way to correct your comment on the Blaze article to James Jatras at repealfatca.com? That’s a great site and we want to make sure everybody gets to the right place. Paul Chambres did a pretty good job on that piece I’d say. He only wrote “evaders” once and didn’t use the word “cheats” at all. Although he was pretty harsh and quite wrong about Eritrea. The Eritrean “diaspora tax” is only 2%, many things are excluded from it and the form is only one page long. Also the “shoot to kill” border order was rescinded. Has the U.S.A. ever rescinded its “drone to kill” order? Nope!

  20. Don
    I think Harper would be happy to sign the IGA and have the Supreme Court of Canada overturn most of it. I think the Liberal or NDP. if they were in power would do the same thing. No country as dependent on USA for trade and capital market can really ignore the threat.
    The Supreme Court may allow the withholding tax on USA assets for people who refuse to disclose. US government control US currency and already imposes the 30% witholding tax on dividend from US properties.

  21. Joe Avery mentioned this would be doable some time ago. I think he might be interested. This would be open to ALL Canadians I presume since it violates the Charter for everyone. If it’s broken it’s broken and there’s no one group that is singly affected by something like that. It’s everyone’s concern.

  23. @Em – I noticed that after posting but was unable to correct it.

    I notice that that post and a related one about people starting to renounce citizenship have been submerged and are no longer as prominent. I suspect that it is the old Jingoism at work …. if the US does it internationally then that is cool … being patriotic …. but if it is done to the US by someone else then that is NOT cool and must be dramatized.

    @ northernstar – sorry … but I dont care where I can find comments against FATCA … it is that bad. Consider : “If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.” Winston Churchill

    In any case I actually think that Glen Beck for all his faults has been the most correct (if dramatic) of all the media personalities about so many subjects over the last years. Certainly the behavior of President Obama has been consistent with people who have held power in other countries and driven them into the ground. Regardless let us not get distracted in a debate on the merits of Glen Beck or indeed President Obama …. the FATCA horror is upon us.

    One last comment before I drop the subject. I was at a dinner with a large number of friends in Miami at a time when W was president. In passing conversation my girlfriend made a remark favourable of W or of something he had done. Two rabid (well to do, children of privilege and medical doctors both I believe) Democrats who were house guests of others at the table very shortly after arose and announced that they were leaving the dinner. Our mutual friends quietly whispered to us not to be offended, apologized for the behavior of their invited guests and asked to be excused to take the house guests home. The remainder of the party continued the dinner and dessert. I have experienced this sort of intolerance of the opinions and thoughts of others repeatedly amongst the strong left in many countries around the world, they are as intolerable as the ultra right. I therefore tend to read their views and weigh these in my balance but avoid their company. ‘Nuff said if not indeed too much.

    FATCA is our common terror. One love.

  24. Thanks, Petros.

    And, Atticus is correct — this should be a fight for ALL Canadians. If only enough realized and got on board to make it possible to thwart the US creep across our border with FATCA and with many others things.

  25. As one admitted to the bar of a common law country (not Canada) I would propose that IBS and Maple Sandbox approach (i) Constitutional law professors and see if their law school would take the lead on a class action/Constitutional Challenge, (ii) Canadian civil rights (i.e. like the US ACLU) to see if that group would spearhead a legal challenge, and (iii) large law firms that have a history of taking on pro bono or contingency based social/civil rights cases to see if they would handle the suit. It may be that, given the serious social and Constitutional implications of FATCA that one of these approaches will pay off. In terms of the timing, in general a plaintiff would normally have to wait until the IGA is entered into to challenge it, but Canadian counsel must advise on this point. However, in the meantime, Professors like Hogg (?) and civil rights groups should issue further opinions/letters so that the legal position is well known to both the government and the legal community.

Comments are closed.

%d bloggers like this: