Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
Please help. Donate to the Canadian Charter Challenge Fund.
February 5, 2014 was the day we thought we would never see. It was the day the Canadian government announced it had caved to a foreign nation’s demands to invade our honest, law abiding lives as Canadian citizens and residents to seize our private and legal financial records. It was the day we learned the Canadian government considers us second class Canadians with limited rights under Canadian laws and Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Today is the day we begin our drive to fight back. February 28, 2014 is the day we launch our Canadian Charter Challenge Fund to raise money for a legal opinion from prominent constitutional lawyer, Joseph Arvay.
We must demand freedom. We must demand our government uphold our rights. We must demand the government place its citizens and residents over the demands of a foreign power.
We must demand our government place our rights over those of the bully oppressor. We must band together to fight for our cherished Canadian rights and freedoms. We must do it now.
Remember, the War of 1812 was not over until 1815. We should likewise expect our battle to be long, messy and expensive.
First published on 28 Feb 2014
Tricia (nobledreamer) is doing a tweet-a-thon to get the C3f message out there. Thank you Tricia.
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23fatca&f=realtime
Elizabeth May tweeted: “…I am very keen to help on any challenge to #FATCA”
US_ExpatCanada is all atwitter too. Thank you!
Contribution will be coming from New Zealand. I have requested bank transfer details via the website.
February 12, 2014: http://michaelpower.ca/2014/02/fatca-charter-challenge/
Michael Powers may not have seen the actual text of the IGA or of the proposed legislation, but it clearly is not limited to US residents only.
Would you not think a lawyer would read the IGA and the proposed new law before writing a post on it?
It reminds me of a time I was on a television program debating the Latimer Supreme Court decision with a Canadian lawyer. At the end of it, he said “The next time I better actually read the Supreme Court decision before I go on television to discuss it with you.”
Now, there’s an idea. Unfortunately, there was no next time.
Osgood,
The info has been sent. Thanks for your help!
Here’s another radical idea. Why doesn’t someone doing a TV interview to publicly invite Senators Carl Levin, and Chuck Schumer to the CBC to participate in a live forum with ‘US persons’ to debate FATCA and explain to Canadian ‘US persons’ how this benefits them?
If they won’t go to Canada, then consider travelling south of the border to do it?
A sort of Question Time format on the BBC.
I just donated $100. It feels better than just about anything I’ve done all week!
@Blaze, There is no ‘s’ in Power. 😉
@Queenston re: Could Canadians be worse off if the Canada-US IGA is struck down by the Supreme Court?”
No! Not unless you think master will give you a better deal than you can get for yourself.
WhiteKat, great and appropriate response to Queenston, no offense to him/her. I like the analogy to slavery. I personally ain’t Obama’s slave. I relish the thought of watching him squirm under his own incompetence. Like my NJ brother in law said…..”right now, here in the USA, the children are in charge.”
So, what’s the grand total after one day?
I tweeted to so many Canadian politicians and news people that my twitter account was temporarily suspended 😉 @grouchyandmad
I will come up with a few different tweet versions and continue sending one to each MP tomorrow.
I was asked tonight by some Canadians in Jamaica what about the “Notwithstanding” Clause in the Chrater of Rights and Freedoms which they claim gives the Government the ability to do anything that they please. I was not knowledgeable enough to discuss this though I put it to them whether they really thought that any Canadian Court and Government would actually allow the creation of two separate classes of Canadian. I was asking for their contribution to the Opinion cost. Can anyone enlighten me on this?
@Em
Thanks for mentioning!
I am both – nobledreamer & US_Expat Canada
You can get more out without reaching the limit with two!
@grouchyandmad
I saw all of them. Thanks! The more the better, eh?
@nervousinvestor
As a non-expert, my understanding is that no government has ever invoked the “not withstanding clause”. To do so is the third rail in Canadian politics. So…it is unlikely to be invoked.
@Noone,
We know that everyone would like to have a daily update, but for strategic reasons we don’t want to let the extensive opposition have any information on how the donations are going. When we reach the goal we will let everyone know.
It is not even 24 hours after kickoff and we still need more donations.
@ Tricia
Well that solves that little mystery. 🙂
@ grouchyandmad
You’re a tweetie too! Thanks!
@IRSCompliantForever
That’s really all we need to know. Keep ’em coming Brockers!
To all who in the past have asked questions and received no satisfying answers:
Strategic Reasons
I am afraid “Strategic Reasons” is not a good enough answer. In other words what we are being told is we are NOT going to be transparent about this for “Strategic Reasons”. If you cannot even tell donors what progress is being made, then you erode confidence.
@Only a Canadian
I’m sorry to disagree with you but it is not in the best interests of this group for the progress of this initial fundraising effort to be posted on this public forum at this stage. In an ideal world there would be a closed, password protected site where contributors could login and see this type of information. I am sure the organisers will consider something like this in due course, However, given the urgency of the matter I don’t believe this is feasible at the moment.
For what it’s worth, I have never personally met any of the people on this blog, but I trust them implicitly to do the “right thing” for this cause. My contribution would buy me less than an hour of “consultation” with a cross border tax professional and I know where I feel I am going to get the better value for my money.
I am happy to wait to hear when the goal has been reached, or some other statement that indicates where we are at, but I trust the organisers to keep their cards close to their chest. Consider the actions of the other parties involved and I hope you will see that is the most sensible course of action at this point.
@ NorthernShrike – Thank you.Those Canadians that I was talking to also opined that no Government had ever invoked that clause and were unlikely to do so. Such an escape hatch however is dangerous in the wrong hands.
@OnlyaCanadian – As much as I would like to know the score, I have to agree with osgood that it would not aid our cause to display our cards to the oppressors. Better to keep them guessing and unsure of which foot to put forward. Kind of like cricket; keep the batsman unsure of the line, length, pace and spin of each ball.
Sorry, Osgood, I respectfully disagree. We are talking about people’s money here. To give an answer like that is like saying “please donate, but don’t ask even the most basic question”.
I have already donated and I was 1st asking to be informed. My basic reason for asking was to determine if this was going well or if I needed to somehow dig a little deeper and donate again to push this along. However if this is the kind of response I get, then I have made my last donation.