15 thoughts on “@PMHarper: If You Won’t Stand up for Canada, Give Other MPs a Chance to Vote Against #FATCA”

1. I agree. It won’t be easy as most Canadians do not speak up or out. I know many people up my way hate the Harper government. All groups need to unite in this cause, because he is destroying Canada.

2. Message from Green Party Finance Critic;
   “Would you be so kind as to post these on the IBS website?

   I expect people would appreciate that May is using much of her very
   limited speaking time in the House to focus on this issue, not just
   reading off a page but responding to the “answers” to try and keep the
   gov’t on the hot seat or get some accountability.

   Thanks,

   Erich.”

   erich@barriegreens.ca

3. and that any LOYAL Brockers will vote for the Green Party. Just an opinion but if the other parties are late in defending our rights they should know that the Greens get our vote and we will encourage everyone we meet to vote Green because of this crucial issue. This one issue is the ONLY issue in this country that upwards of 10 million people affected by this in Canada care about.

4. @ ChearsBigEars
   Post these what? The link is just Erich’s e-mail address. I’m already on the Greens mailing list.

5. Here are Elizabeth May’s recent comments in the House on FATCA

   April 3rd, 10:45 a.m.
   Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1
   
   ———————————————————-

   Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley for
   raising the fact that one of the larger offences in all of the last number
   of years of omnibus budget bills is buried in this omnibus bill. This
   complex piece of legislation should never be put in an omnibus bill.

   I have previously mentioned to the House Peter Hogg, one of Canada’s
   leading constitutional experts, who warned the Minister of Finance that this
   bill would violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

   I also want to draw the attention of the House to the opinion of Allison
   Christians, who is the H. Heward Stikeman chair in tax law at McGill, and
   Arthur Cockfield, a professor at Queen’s University. I want to put their
   opinion on the record:

   The proposed Implementation Act and the IGA do not enhance the reciprocal
   tax information exchange between the United States and Canada, nor do they
   create a workable regime for Canada to enhance its international tax
   enforcement efforts going forward.

   Further they state:

   Instead, the Implementation Act and the IGA raise a number of serious
   issues ranging from likely Charter violations to violations—

   April 3rd, 11:15 a.m.
   Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1
   
   ———————————————————-

   Mr. Speaker, there are many complex aspects of this omnibus legislation.
   Certainly, even the title, FATCA, foreign accounts taxation and compliance
   agreement, is one of the most complex.

   It certainly would, as the hon. member stated, affect people who have no
   idea whatsoever that they could be caught in this broad ambit of people who
   are considered U.S. persons, people like me who were born in the United
   States but have nothing to do with the United States, who in my case has
   never lived there as an adult, but purely as a Canadian citizen and
   renounced U.S. citizenship.

   This could apply to me, or my daughter. Then the information is handed over
   to the IRS without our knowledge.

   Now, I want to draw attention to the charter argument, specifically section
   15 of the charter, which says “Every individual is equal before and under
   the law…”. As my hon. colleague mentioned, the leading constitutional law
   experts of Canada have said that this will violate the charter.

   So, as with other legislation, it will get pushed through this place. As in
   the case of the Nadon appointment or with some of the mandatory minimum
   sentence laws that were passed, we have clear evidence that we are being
   asked, as parliamentarians, to push through a piece of legislation that
   would be offensive to our fundamental rights of equality under the law,
   under section 15. I ask for the member’s comments.

   April 3rd, 1:05 p.m.
   Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1
   
   ———————————————————-

   Mr. Speaker, I regret very much that the hon. government House leader
   decided to shut down debate. He made a speech and then, well I cannot remark
   on where he might be, questions are being taken by the hon. parliamentary
   secretary.

   The hon. government House leader had the gall to tell the House, on behalf
   of his constituents, that the government did not believe in big government.
   What is not “big government” about it asking the banks to root through the
   private information of Canadian citizens and turn that information, without
   their knowledge or consent, over to a foreign government? That is not just
   big government, that is big brother government. This measure deserves
   treatment in something other than an omnibus bill that has limited debate
   time.

   I will not be able to speak a full 10 minutes because with time allocation,
   debate never comes around to the smaller parties. This is both an affront to
   democracy and a violation of the charter, as well as further abuse of our
   parliamentary system.

6. Thank you Erich. Many of us have poured through the parliamentary minutes and have noted, with our appreciation, Elizabeth’s efforts. Please take a look at this while your are here:
   http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/04/06/proposed-amendment-idea-sent-to-ndp-liberals-on-finance-committee/

7. Harper’s a piece of work. I think Rick Mercer summed it up the best when he put up this video.
   http://youtu.be/lpp5tUujTsc

   Don’t worry, unless you’re Asian, you’ll have it easier. Japanese-Canadians will get executed for 1939.

9. Sorry, wrong video URL. Here’s the proper one.

   http://youtu.be/lpp5tUujTsc

10. @erich

    Appreciate everything Ms May is doing. Happy I voted Green!

11. FATCA in House of Commons, April 8, 2014 and prior: http://openparliament.ca/search/?q=FATCA&sort=date+desc

    Besides ally, Elizabeth May, see: Charlie Angus, Matthew Kelway, Hélène LeBlanc, Linda Duncan, Lynne, Yelich, Joe Oliver entries for yesterday.

    http://maplesandbox.ca/2014/elizabeth-may-speaks-out-against-fatca-again/comment-page-1/#comment-18844

    Agreed, Blaze, Hazy, All:

    That this is not a HUGE story in the media is so, so, so troubling to me — just because no one will believe this could happen in Canada. It is the responsibility of the Canadian media to tell this story.

    I’ve sent an email to Patrick Cain, Global News, begging him to continue telling the FATCA story that needs to be in the forefront of news for ALL Canadians to realize what is happening.

12. Vote #99 on April 8th, 2014, that Bill C-31 That the Bill be now read a second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Finance.

    Vote #99 on April 8th, 2014
    Bill C-31 An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 11, 2014 and other measures
    Vote topic: That the Bill be now read a second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Finance.

    See context in the Debates.

    Result:
    YES 149 (ALL MPs WHO VOTED “YES” ARE CONSERVATIVE — No NO’s BY CONSERVATIVES)
    No 125 (MPs WHO VOTED “NO”: GREEN, LIBERAL, BLOC, NDP)

    Judge for yourself; did any CONSERVATIVE MP vote with their own conscious and moral conviction? Are you sure that your Conservative MP completely understood what they were voting for?

13. Re: Give Other MPs a Chance to Vote Against #FATCA…

    …and when they have the chance, sometimes they do vote against it.

    Brent Rathgeber, MP for Edmonton-St. Albert, was elected a Conservative. But he left to sit as an Independent. He represents my mother-in-law (relinquished 1972, CLN in process), and on first hearing of FATCA from her (and others in St. Albert), he circulated emails saying he was “pleased” that an IGA was signed.

    This led to more intense lobbying, and though he’s not my MP, I mailed him educational materials like the Christians & Cockfield submission on the IGA.

    And look at calgary411’s link above to vote #99. Brent Rathgeber, elected Conservative but sitting as an Independent, voted “No”!!!

14. Good job Shovel – one person CAN make a difference! 😉

15. @ Tricia Yeah.. my mother-in-law is pretty persuasive.

    Probably can’t read too much into it, but Flaherty is listed as “Didn’t Vote”