Monthly Archives: January 2016

watch the master cheats-lawyers (not required 2 report SARS) move $$ IRS should go after these folks https://t.co/JNswBNCyMi …

— U.S. Expat Canada (@USExpatCanada) February 1, 2016

US becoming the preferred place 4 tax evasion -airing now https://t.co/JNswBNCyMi

— U.S. Expat Canada (@USExpatCanada) February 1, 2016

60 Minutes aired a program this evening, Anonymous Inc which exposed some well-known and some less-well-known facts about “dirty money” and how easy it is to use the U.S. in laundering this money.

What interests me about this is not what they are doing nor how they are doing it. It is whether Homelanders would be able to discern how completely different this is than their perception of our “offshore” funds. While the two situations are not really similar, in the minds of those who claim we are “tax cheats” because we are “offshore” , the distinctions seem beyond their willingness to consider.

And while this notion would not be helpful for us, the behaviour of the lawyers immediately brings to mind the actions of the IRS/DOJ toward the Swiss banks. Will we see a similar move in this direction?
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cross-posted from ADCSovereignty blog

Photo highlights from Day 1 of the @OttawaForum. Tune in for Day 2 here: https://t.co/0CvbgvgH64 #Can2020 pic.twitter.com/PuMUfsPlEg

— Canada 2020 (@Canada2020) January 29, 2016

 
On January 28, 29/16 I attended the Canada 2020 “Building A Foreign Policy For Canada’s Future” forum. It was enormously interesting (apparently you will be able to view the sessions online – “Full Conference Video Coming Shortly”). I would recommend it.

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Error For those considering their US vote, @NoGo suggests this tweet on candidates as a post for Brock…

https://twitter.com/bracing/status/693567510856220672

Dear @BernieSanders Please–inform yourself of #FATCA‘s harmful effects on ALL US expats. It’s major for us.

cross-posted from ADCSovereignty

Regional reality: There are worse alternatives than the House of Saud https://t.co/AGYXguQL1B – tension between human rights and economics

— Citizenship Lawyer (@ExpatriationLaw) January 16, 2016

Many years ago I became familiar with the story of William Sampson who was a Canadian born engineer who, worked in Saudi Arabia, was tortured in a Saudi Arabian prison, eventually was released and died at very young age. I had the privilege of briefly meeting him. He was actually considering attending law school (and I know that he was accepted by at least one Canadian law school). I highly recommend his book – “Confessions Of An Innocent Man“. To learn more see this documentary.

At the very least …

you will appreciate the importance of rule of law (somehow I don’t think the ADCS Charter challenge would be an option in Saudi Arabia and many other countries.) By the way, I do know that FATCA and U.S. citizenship taxation are causing problems for many Saudi citizens (who by the way are allowed only one citizenship). Many Saudi citizens fear that the imposition of U.S. citizenship will cause problems with both the U.S. Government and the Saudi Government.

This morning I received an email linking me to this article which detailed some of the recent “Saudi human rights abuses”.

Okay, so …

The above references an interesting article that appeared in today’s Globe and Mail. The article was written by Michael Bell who is a Carleton Professor and apparently an adviser to the Trudeau Liberals.

For the record, I am in NO WAY equating the treatment of Canadian citizens  under FATCA with the human rights violations that are alleged to have been committed by the Saudi Government. What I found interesting was the willingness of the writer to tolerate those individual human rights abuses because it was in the common good to do so. What I find particularly interesting (and I hope that I am not being unfair to him) is that he seems to assume that “collective rights” (society) take precedence over “individual rights” (Charter rights). Interesting question. I had always understood that the whole point of a Charter of Rights was to give individually protected Charter rights a priority over group rights (within reason and that’s why S. 1 of the Charter exists).  As I think about the article I wonder whether Mr. Bell would apply the same reasoning to a a gross violation (and NO CANADIAN is subject to the kinds of violations that occur in some other parts of the world) to the rights of Canadian citizens in Canada.

As a reminder, Charter S. 1 provides the template for when the violation of individual rights should be justified. S. 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms reads as follows:

Rights and freedoms in Canada

1. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

Those of you who are interested in what this is interpreted to mean should read the Oakes decision of the Supreme Court of Canada. Wikipedia comes to the rescue (maybe) here.

I recommend Mr. Bell’s article (it is quite short) and urge you to read the comments.

I am referring specifically to the following excerpt from  his article:

If the Saudi royal family were to fall, it would result in a massive destabilization of the Arabian Peninsula. Does this mean we should write them off in a world when hardball is the only game, where no regional standards meet ours? Are we to write off the interest displayed by the smaller Gulf States – Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates – in acquiring LAVs because of their alleged human rights violations (which are less spectacularly evident in the international media)?

To do so would mean single-issue politics, in this case human rights, should invariably trump all other considerations, including international and regional stability, security and our own economic well-being. If so, we should immediately consider the future of our relationship with other noteworthy human rights violators, perhaps beginning with China.

Unfortunately, we live in a highly imperfect world where it is beyond our capacity to change the primordial behaviour of other states within their own borders, no matter the legitimacy of our concerns. As members of the international community we live in a web of immensely complicated contending interests where to be effective we must be realists.

We have to ask ourselves whether a rough balance of power in the Middle East, as shambolic as it is, better suits Canadian interests than the fall of the Saudi dynasty, which would further destabilize an entire region. These LAVs may just maintain a semblance of equilibrium. Nor can we ignore that this latest deal (we have been selling LAVs to the Saudis for decades) affects 3,000 jobs over 15 years, and is worth $15-billion to the Canadian economy. Hefty penalties would apply were we to renege.

What do you think? Should the Trudeau government sell arms to Saudi Arabia?

Thank you for your continued support. As Stephen continues to report – we do need generous funding to continue.

John Richardson

To give us all a badly-needed lift, Brockers have often quoted the lyrics to familiar songs or have even written their own to go with well-known tunes. I recall a couple of years ago turning up the volume on Trooper’s “Raise a Little Hell” when a Youtube video was posted here! Nobody knows how it works, but music really does do something incredibly wonderful to our hearts.

In tandem with the fellowship I’ve experienced and the support I’ve received from the people on this blog, music has been what has gotten me through the FATCA/CBT minefield without stepping on a bomb. A side-effect of my own “OMG moment” was the discovery of a previously untapped well of creativity that I had not ever explored before. Since 2012 I’ve managed to write a short album’s worth of songs inspired almost entirely by the situation in which we have all found ourselves. There are 11 songs so far with a twelfth in the works.

Most of them are unrecorded as yet. For several personal reasons I have not shared them before, but I would like to offer three of them to you today. They are not “Hi-Fi”. They are raw, un-produced, and unedited, recorded in my living room. They are what they are, including everything I wish could have been better.

“Pay the Piper” (2012) might be called a “blues autobiography”; Out of the Shadows (2013), from my pre-blogging days, is about what it’s like to be in hiding without a voice; Rosa (2014) tells the story of Rosa Parks, our heroine from the civil rights  movement. They can be found on the IBS Youtube link thanks to the hard work and generosity of Deckard. My sincere thanks to him and everyone else who made the upload possible! I hope you enjoy listening!

With thanks to badger, who found this and passed it on.

The NDP now pressures the Liberals on FATCA IGA information turnover.
Here is some info on MP Pierre-Luc Dusseault, Critic for National Revenue (this guy is doing his job!). Perhaps we should thank him, communicate with him on an ongoing basis, etc. Contact info at bottom of post.
 

@PLDusseault Bravo 4 all your questions about the CRA turnover of CDNs' private financial info 2 IRS-Every CDN caught up in this thanks you!

— Patricia Moon (@nobledreamer16) January 23, 2016

Q-352 – January 21, 2016 – Mr. Dusseault (Sherbrooke) –
 
 
With respect to the September 2015 announcement of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that it would effectuate a transfer of information to the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS):
 

• (a) how many records has the CRA transferred to the IRS to date;

 

• (b) on what dates did information transfer occur and how many records were transferred on each date;

 

• (c) how many records of individuals have been transferred in total;

 

• (d) by what means were the records transferred;

 

• (e) how much did it cost the CRA to compile the records for transfer;

 

• (f) how much did it cost the CRA to complete the transfer;

 

• (g) how were the costs in

    (e) and (f) calculated and what is the breakdown of those costs;

 

• (h) who made the decision to transfer the records;

 

• (i) when was the decision made to transfer records;

 

• (j) when did the CRA become aware that the U.S. Treasury had extended the deadline for such transfer

 

• (k) how was the CRA made aware that the U.S. Treasury had extended the deadline;

 

• (l) what steps were taken to assess and respond to the notice of deadline extension in (j)

 

• (m) what was the policy reason for transferring records despite the deadline extension;

 

• (n) when is the next transfer of records scheduled to take place;

 

• (o) what analysis was conducted to assess whether the transfer of records during the   writ period for the 42nd General Election complied with the “Guidelines on the Conduct of   Ministers, Ministers of State, Exempt Staff and Public Servants During an Election”;

 

• (p) what records exist with respect to any analysis conducted in relation to (o);

 

• (q) was information concerning the transfer of records from the CRA to the IRS included in any  transition materials prepared for a potential change in government or the Ministers responsible for CRA and Foreign Affairs;

 

• (r) what documents exist in relation to (q) and what are their file numbers;

 

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UPDATE JANUARY 21, 2016
 
WHAT:Solving U.S. Citizenship Problems: Accidental Americans

WHEN: Saturday January 23, 2016, 2:00-4:00 pm EST

 
This meeting is being moved online/conference call via UberConference and will make it possible to participate from outside the Toronto area. Please pass the word!
 
REGISTRATION & ADMISSION: please register by submitting admission cost of $20.00 CAD via Paypal to: information@cbtlawsuit.ca

Please note you do not have to be a member of Paypal in order to pay/register.

Once registration is complete we will email you the details of how to log in, etc.
 

Generally, an Accidental American is:
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Barbara has spotted it from Huffington Post and John Richardson has already written about it at citizenshipsolutions.ca.
 
The following is a cross-post to Brock from citizenshipsolutions.ca
 

Cruz Bill Eases Revocations of U.S. Citizenship Without Due Process https://t.co/L1tcQUXUsZ via @HuffPostPol

— Citizenship Lawyer (@ExpatriationLaw) January 20, 2016

 
By the time I had received this fascinating “hot off the press” information from a U.S. law firm, I had read the article referenced in the above tweet. The article is written by David Bier who is an immigration policy analyst at the Niskanen Center. It has generated interesting discussion at Keith Redmond’s  “American Expatriates Facebook Group“.Yes, it’s true, Canadian born, U.S. presidential candidate Ted Cruz, has introduced a bill threatening people with the loss of U.S. citizenship (notwithstanding that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that U.S. citizenship belongs to the citizen and NOT to the government). It is clear that Senator Cruz, hearkening back to the days of the Viet Nam era and before, is of the view that U.S. citizens remain citizens only as long as Congress allows them to. The purpose of the revocation of citizenship is to provide a mechanism to keep them out of the United States. This is is a form of “border control” – a “Cruz concern” as evidenced by the following @SenTedCruz tweet:
 

Border security is national security. We must take basic steps to protect American citizens https://t.co/vvZx2y4vg7 https://t.co/3qhMSIfAHN

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) January 20, 2016

 
The article in the Huffington Post is remarkably well researched and provides a reasonable overview of the issue.
 
See for example:
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UPDATE WEDNESDAY JANUARY 20,2016

 
A listener responds to CBC’s call for people to tell their stories; Veronique Shinder:
 
http://www.cbc.ca/player/AudioMobile/All%2Bin%2Ba%2BDay/ID/2682331846/”
 
 
Original broadcast:John Richardson on Tuesday, January 19, 2016
http://mp3.cbc.ca/radio/CBC_Radio_VMS/80/883/ottallinaday_20160119_20484_uploaded.mp3
 
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2682218188
 

Please tune into to hear Alan Neal, host of “All in a Day” interview (CBC radio) with John Richardson this afternoon at:
 

5:45 PM Atlantic
4:45 PM Eastern
3:45 PM Central
2:45 PM Mountain
1:45 PM Pacific

5:45 AM AWST Perth West Australia
8:15 AM ACDT Adelaide South Australia
8:45 AM AEDT Melbourne & Sydney New South Wales
7:45 AM AEST Brisbane Queensland

NB: Hope the Australia times are converted properly….

I am listening right now – HERE.
 
or go here:
http://www.cbc.ca/allinaday

under the first menu bar – upper Right Hand Corner- Box: LIVE Click on “Listen Live”

PLEASE: Anyone who is knows how/is able to record this, please do so since there will be limited time to listen to the replay version. Thanks!