After subjecting us to multiple articles by Barrie McKenna on FATCA, the Globe and Mail comes out with this: Treat all Canadian citizens equally under the law:
Stripping a citizen of citizenship is characteristic of a totalitarian regime such as the Soviet Union, which banished dissidents, including the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn in 1974. It’s not a model for Canada to emulate.
Sending the banking information of Canadians of US origin to the IRS is an effective stripping of their protection under Canadian law as citizens. Hence it is another way that the Harper government wants to strip people of their Canadian citizenship. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a tyrant and does not deserve to lead Canada.
Other than fraud to obtain citizenship, the principle that has to be re-enforced is once someone becomes a citizen, that country is ‘stuck’ with that person for better or worse unless the person themselves decides to seek a divorce from that country through renunciation. A sovereign nation should not have the right to divorce its own citizens if they commit some sort of offense under the eyes of the law. A dangerous precedent would then be set.
The present government treats the Charter and democracy with contempt. We have witnessed this while watching the FATCA IGA proceedings. But it also true of many other actions of Mr. Harper & co. Bill after bill
has been or will be challenged in Court. This is no way to conduct the affairs of state.
We’ll have to search long and hard to find any other Canadian government that had so little regard for whatever constitutional framework the Canada was under.
In the UK they want to do this in the Home Secretary’s discretion (with some alleged protections that don’t rise to the level of legal process). They want to be able to do it to naturalized British citizens who have no other nationality (for example, those who have renounced US citizenship) even though they who were once British would become stateless. Second class Brits, to be sure. I wrote to my MP about this and the response was essentially that the government has to do everything necessary for national security and to defend against terrorism….
Governments in general do not take the interests of their citizens at heart. What they do is tax to get money to spread around so as to be re elected over and over and any idea we come up with is ignored by government. In General they Fiddle whilst Rome is burning.
The Fatca IGA completely “strips” Canadians of their rights PERIOD! The Harper government has created the “second class Canadian”
One big concern with C-24 IMHO is the potential loss of citizenship due to “terrorist acts”. The problem is that “terrorist acts” are defined pretty broadly or have the potential to be defined very broadly these days, and do not solely include major attacks like 9/11. The fact that it only takes a 5 year sentence–which may translate to much less time actually served–to trigger potential loss of citizenship shows that we aren’t just talking here about major attacks indicative of great evil on the part of the perpetrator.
Another concern is that the 5 year sentence might be in any country in the world which might not subscribe to Canadian standards of jurisprudence. (Then again, if this law is any indication of the future of Canadian jurisprudence, maybe it would be just as well if someone does find themselves in a country not respecting such standards.)
It clearly sends a message that any “dual” Canadian citizen has second class status. Moreover, even the protections against statelessness seem weak. The Canadian citizenship may be revoked even if there is only “reasonable grounds” to believe that they have dual citizenship, and the burden of proof to keep their citizenship is on the Canadian–quite possibly difficult if they are in a foreign prison.
Rocco Galati was interviewed on cbc radio “As It Happens last night.” The interview begins in part three.
http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/episode/2014/06/10/tuesday-montreal-homeless-spikes-cow-beatings-turing-computer-test-follow-up-and-more/
Tonight’s featured program: “Immigration minister Chris Alexander on Bill C-24, Syrian refugees and his hanging up on us.” http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/features/2014/06/11/chris-alexander-citizenship-and-immigration-minister/
The Harper Government can kiss my ass!
Sid, I read that article. What was interesting, to me, was Alexander’s insistence that the citizenship stripping can only happen to duals. Note that he makes a point of saying that Canadian only’s, whether native born or naturalized, are exempt.
Certainly bolsters my theory that Canadians prefer immigrants to sign up with Team Canada and shed their homeland obligations and ties permanently. Perhaps one of the intended consequences of this bill and the FATCA IGA was to forcefully nudge people to give up their dual status? Wild speculation, I know.
@YogaGirl
You might be right, but if it is Canada’s intent to nudge people out of dual citizenship, given the issues that it can bring, then why even allow dual citizenship?
If this is Canada’s way of trying to limit its exposure to the tentacles of FATCA, as they clearly have limited influence in US policy, then I can understand why they’re doing it this way. OTOH, as far as I understand it, some constitutional lawyer is standing on guard to challenge C-24 in court once it’s signed.