Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 20 Comments

[This letter from the Honourable Elizabeth May was prompted by a letter to her from one of our supporters.]

“September 22, 2015

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, PC, MP
Prime Minister of Canada
Langevin Block
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A2

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing to inform you of an urgent deadline that impacts many Canadians, including many of my constituents in Saanich Gulf Islands.

As you are well aware, the Government passed Bill C31 in the spring of 2014, that, amongst its many provisions, implemented an intergovernmental agreement with the United States respecting the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

Per the terms of that agreement, the private banking information of hundreds of thousands of Canadian citizens and permanent residents is set to be transferred by Canada Revenue Agency to the IRS on September 23, 2015.

This is unacceptable.

It is a breach of privacy and an attack on citizenship, sovereignty, and access to justice for the Canadian government to allow Canadian banks to send personal financial information of Canadian citizens to another country.

I implore you, Prime Minister, to act now to protect the privacy of Canadian citizens. The IRS is receptive to extension requests and has already granted extensions to other countries. You can, and should, write to the IRS by end of business day and seek an extension from the IRS.

Yours sincerely,

Elizabeth May, OC, MP
Incumbent Candidate for Saanich Gulf Islands
Leader of the Green Party of Canada”

20 thoughts on “Letter from Elizabeth May — Green Party of Canada Leader — to Canada’s Prime Minister requesting delay in FATCA turnover”

  4. Why doesn’t someone just write a letter on CRA letterhead and send it to the IRS. Perhaps it will invoke a response?

  6. Just fired this letter off to Peter Julian, former NDP house leader:

    Dear Mr Julian,

    Thank you for your acknowledgement of receipt of my letter. I unfortunately have not heard from you in response to my urgent request.

    When I spoke with you, you claimed that the NDP leads the anti-FATCA efforts in Parliament. The reality that the Greens have made FATCA IGA repeal a part of its election platform and your apparent lack of response undermines that argument. Elizabeth May sent a letter to the PM today requesting him to do what I’ve essentially asked you to ask Mr Mulcair to do:

    [Ms May’s letter]

    If I, and millions of Canadians were to vote based on this single issue, I would have to vote Green – for now. Will you respond and press Mr Mulcair for a similar letter?

    Yours truly,
    …

  7. Thank you Elizabeth May. She is doing exactly what a representative of the people should be doing, listening and acting on their behalf. While Moe, Larry and Curly are off kissing babies and spreading lies and half-truths about one another to further their campaigns, Ms. May is still doing her job.

  8. Maple Sandbox mentioned here http://www.step.org/news/last-minute-us-announcement-extends-fatca-iga-reporting-deadline at this website, “…One Canadian pressure group, Maple Sandbox, has already instructed its legal counsel to notify Canada’s federal government of the development, and request them not to disclose US citizens’ banking information to the IRS. – See more at: http://www.step.org/news/last-minute-us-announcement-extends-fatca-iga-reporting-deadline#sthash.60JCS4ZJ.dpuf…”…

  9. Although I didn’t agree with ADCS-ADSC requesting a delay, I DO strongly support Elizabeth May in asking for such a delay. Although this may seem like a contradictory position on my part, actually I don’t see it that way. I think it would be ideal if the sending of the data could be stopped; I do not believe that the request should come directly from ADCS-ADSC or anyone associated with either lawsuit for fear that this might be interpreted as agreeing to the US/IRS demand to support the eventual data transfer in good faith.

    I think it is wonderful, however, if others such as Elizabeth May ask on Brockers’ behalf, though. Elizabeth May is not a party to either lawsuit, and since she isn’t likely to actually become PM, her support at this time shouldn’t constrain anyone in the future.

  10. I don’t think it hurts ADCS’s position at all. I think it demonstrates ADCS’s commitment to stop the imminent harm FATCA going to cause, at any cost. They would be contradicting that commitment if they didn’t, Dash.

    But would they really do ANYTHING? We’ll see…

  11. Good for her. What a wonderful letter. It might be ignored, but the fact that she took the time out of her busy campaign to write this means a lot.

  14. If the Greens were running a candidate in my riding I would be strongly tempted to place my “X” in that box. Thank you, Elizabeth May! My thanks also to all of you (particular kudos to Bubblebustin) for your tenacity in getting the word out to all the politicians that we are watching them closely with regard to our issue.

  15. Thanks MuzzledNoMore. I’m rightly PO’d now though. We need more people applying pressure. I suppose they’ll be coming out of the woodwork soon though, thanks to the Harper government’s apparent lack of response to the IRS opportunity to delay FATCA.

    I’m in a real quandary over who to vote for so far. Elizabeth May is a shining star, but will my vote for her help get rid of my Con MP? My Liberal candidate seems to be engaged with the issues I’ve presented to her but has done nothing about it. The NDP talk the talk, but their lack of pressure on the PM to delay FATCA shows they aren’t willing to walk the walk.

    I suppose a lot could happen over the next little while though…

  17. I just met the Calgary Confederation Green Party candidate at my door. A lovely young woman — but she knew nothing of FATCA until about 20 minutes ago. I’ve just sent her further information regarding the Green Party Platform and Elizabeth May’s promise regarding FATCA and the comment I made earlier today, which I see Charl has now posted on my behalf (thanks, Charl!) at the National Post article: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments-part-2-of-2/comment-page-39/#comment-6610713.

    Natalie Odd, my candidate, said *she wouldn’t be surprised as she just met several persons from the US on tonight’s outing* when I told her that my Conservative MP told me there would be about 83,000 US citizens in Calgary. I told Natalie that it was likely none of these people she had just met knew about FATCA — and I’ve just told her that for any future *US Persons in Canada that she meets* she needs to give them Elizabeth May’s promise per the Green Party Platform (http://www.greenparty.ca/sites/default/files/platform_english_web.pdf):

    “We will repeal as unconstitutional the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act FATCA). It essentially deprives any Canadian with US connections (even those short of dual citizenship) of full rights to privacy and treats them as a lesser Canadian. We will also repeal Bill C-24 which allows the minister of citizenship to revoke citizenship. Other threats to Canadians will be eliminated with the repeal of Bill C-51.”

    (I also sent letters from Elizabeth May, Nathan Cullen and John Weston, their requests for delay of transfer of Canadian private financial information to the US.)

  18. Thanks for educating your Green Party candidate. I find it odd that Ms Odd hadn’t read her own party’s platform yet. Maybe she’s greener than you’d like for a candidate of any kind. That should be embarrassing for her, really.

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