March 8, 2016 UPDATE: Legal fees paid — on to Federal Court for Charter trial contesting Canadian FATCA IGA legislation.
Canadians and International Supporters:
You came through once again: $594,970 for legal costs have now been donated and our outstanding legal bill is finally paid off.
Thanks especially to those who donated even though they never had any “spare” money to give, and despite this gave over and over and over again.
This last round of fundraising also shows that our Canadian lawsuit remains dependent on the kindness of our International Friends: There would be no lawsuit without their financial help.
Know that a very generous donation (today) from a supporter in the United States made it possible to pay off the remaining legal debt. Also please appreciate that there would be no lawsuit without the help of the Isaac Brock Society which has kindly let us use its website to solicit funds.
Our next step is the Constitutional-Charter trial in Federal Court.
For this we need more Canadian Witnesses, and my next post will be devoted only to a request for Witnesses willing to go public, like our Plaintiffs Ginny and Gwen.
For the future: I want a win in Federal Court — and I want the new Liberal Government not to appeal that win.
Thank you all for your support,
Stephen Kish,
for the Directors,
Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty
I’ve sent emails to my Liberal MP and to Trudeau. EVERYONE SHOULD DO THE SAME! Or like Mr. Kish suggests, mail a letter anonymously if you are worried.
There was a letter writing/emailing campaign awhile back when the CONS were in power. It didn’t change things, BUT IT GOT NOTICED (I believe Cullen and Rankin publicly commented on this as their email boxes were overflowing!).
Please people, EVERYONE needs to do it NOW. Lets just blitz the hell out of Trudeau and our MPs. Seriously, if their inboxes are filling up with our emails, and they’re getting lots of letters THEY WILL NOTICE and we just might influence our new leader to add FATCA to his list of Harper f-ups to fix.
Fortunately I did all this groundwork before my MP was elected! This allows me the energy to tweet each and every MP instead (as I did the day before C-31 was passed – and actually got some responses from MP’s opposed to the IGA). I agree – every bit helps.
Suggestion for letter/email writing:
Focus on the fact that FATCA is about applying FBAR penalties on Canadians living in Canada.
By giving USA the information it needs to calculate harsh penalties, Canada is in effect agreeing that Canadians born in USA(green card holders, etc), are criminals for not annually reporting their Canadian bank accounts to FINCEN.
I find when I approach FATCA this way, rather than from a taxation perspective, that people’s jaws usually drop and either they think I’ve been smoking too much MJ or they are horrified.
Is there a succinct ‘model’ letter available that one can use to write to their MP? My appoligies if this has already been covered.
I just discussed the question of a “template” letter with Blaze.
We both agree that personalized letters/emails that include your own passion and story are the best.
What I as a Canadian personally want: I want the Liberals to reverse what the Conservatives have done — and end immediately the lawsuit and repeal the entirety of the extorted FATCA IGA “agreement”.
Our ADCS-ADSC letter could not be quite as strongly stated and you should say anything that you feel is appropriate. BUT SEND THOSE LETTERS NOW AND MENTION THE LAWSUIT.
I believe that with the new Government we really do have “some chance” to end this lawsuit. But if the Liberals should continue to pursue, as aggressively as the Conservatives, the lawsuit, what will be your reaction?
@ ACanadianLivingInCanada
This is part of my pending letter to my Conservative MP. I tried to infuse Canadian into it as much as possible.
“I find it really disappointing that only a tiny number of U.S.- tainted Canadians have asked or will be asking the new Liberal Government to drop defence of the lawsuit and to repeal the FATCA IGA enabling legislation.”
This site doesn’t have a million readers, right?
Despite the occasional rare mention in the press, even the average US-tainted Canadian still doesn’t know yet what’s going to happen to them. When they read about it, they think tax evaders are getting what tax evaders deserve. They’re not really going to understand until they get hit themselves.
Even when they get hit, they don’t know what to search for in Google to find this site, and don’t know they can get help here. Recent threads gave a few examples.
Maybe it would have been better if CRA had turned over 1,000,000 names instead of 155,000.
Maybe it would be better if CRA would turn over 40,000,000 names, let the IRS attack everyone and let God sort them out:
http://thedailywtf.com/articles/Reenlisting-the-Data-General
Best would be if John Oliver would run a program on us.
I just spoke to the House of Commons Information Service which said: Just send the letter to: [Your MP], House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6.
When do new MP’s take office–and will the HOC be able to accept mail (with or without postage) for incoming MP’s before they take office?
Wikipedia seems to show newly elected MP’s as already having taken office but I cannot imagine that that is correct given that the writs won’t be returned until Nov 9 at the latest (this is distinct from the date the new cabinet will be sworn in which is Nov 4)?
I will be writing to my newly elected MP–a new MP taking office for the first time in the 42nd Parliament–once it is clear that he is formally seated in Parliament and able to accept mail as an MP. I will model my letter on the one that ADCS-ADSC sent to Trudeau as I’d prefer to follow the ADCS-ADSC’s lead on this.
Here’s a copy of that letter BTW:
https://adcsovereignty.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/adcs_prr_oct24_2015-2.pdf
I think it is a good letter and is neither too long not too short to serve as a good introduction to the FATCA issue for a new MP who is likely unfamiliar with FATCA. Of course it would need to be tailored a bit to suit a new MP rather than the new PM.
Good thing my letter to my MP hasn’t been sent yet. I have to add an “a” to one Canada there. I’ll be modifying it to send out to whoever is appointed Minister of Finance (hope it’s either Scott Brison or Ralph Goodale). PM to be Justin Trudeau is on my list too. I urge everyone (particularly those who have Liberal MPs now) to send something, even if you have to do it anonymously for your own protection. We don’t want FATCA to go to the bottom of the “To Do” list for the new parliament. Borrowing from a new U.S. meme, “FATCA’d Lives Matter”.
Hasn’t anyone posted a canned letter so someone only has to fill in the name of the MP, the voter and sign it.
PDF with form filling would be preferable.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members
You might also search for *your* riding or MP’s name here: https://openparliament.ca/ for latest of news regarding one or the other.
I’m waiting a little longer as well to send the correspondence I’ll send.
I think it was Trish who had the list of MP’s Twitter accounts last go round. Are those readily available?
@ Don As Stephen Kish with Blaze say “We both agree that personalized letters/emails that include your own passion and story are the best.”
A couple of people have posted their letters on this thread (Calgary, Dash and Mr A), take parts from all of them to make your letter a little different. Add a little something personal to make it yours. They might take more notice.
My Conservative MP was re-elected and did not respond to my previous letter, I will try the new PM, Finance Minister and other Liberal MPs.
Without going back too far, some of Trish’s incredible work, including some Twitter addresses, can be found here: https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2015/09/19/the-stopfatca-press-release-and-social-media-page/.
@Embee, The FuBAR part of your letter is purrfect!
It might be a good idea, in your letter, to call this the “Conservative Challenge” when referring to our lawsuit against the omnibus bill C-31. Let the Liberals know exactly why they are now in power and also let them know that this had a lot to do with it. I have also put in my letter that the Aboriginals are well aware of the damage caused by the Conservatives and that we voted Liberal based on what the Liberals stand for based on their election platform. Now, it is time to undo the serious harm caused to my family and over 1 million Canadians.
Another suggestion: put FATCA in the subject of your email or letter. Often letters don’t get read (especially lengthy ones), but people will notice at least the subject of the letter, and will notice if they get lots of “FATCA emails/letters.” Let’s dump a whole lot of FATCA on them!
I agree that a personal letter with FATCA in the subject line will get way more attention than a “canned letter”. Don’t worry if you don’t consider yourself the finest “author” on the planet. A plea from your own heart is worth far more. Go for it, everybody!
Dash wonders whether the House of Commons (HOC) will accept mail for the incoming Canadian MPs before they take office — and will wait to send a letter until the MP is formally sitting in office.
— I called again the information services at the HOC which confirms that the letters will be ACCEPTED by the HOC but they will not be DELIVERED to the MPs until the MPs are formally sworn in. Each MP might be sworn in at a different time. You can call information services to at: 1-866-599-4999
— Our approach is to send a letter to MPs of interest immediately as the letters will eventually be delivered, The HOC address will not change.
— We are also trying to find email addresses of MPs for which a living person confirms receipt. So far I have one email address for Ralph Goodale, likely to have an important post in the Liberal Government. It is the address of his Communications person: Scott.Bardsley@parl.gc.ca
Thank you, Calgary411.
My email to my MP Anita Vendenbeld,
I voted for you.
Now please support me and one million Canadians (and their families) who were thrown under the bus when Harper hid FATCA in bill C-31.
I have been Canadian since birth. My parents and grandparents were born in Canada. Unfortunately, I happened to be born on American soil. I returned home to Canada under the age of 2 years and have lived here ever since (am now 53 years old).
According to US law, I am a criminal because I have not been filing annual Foreign Bank Account Reports (FBARS) detailing my Canadian bank accounts to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network(FINCEN) in the USA. The penalties are 50% of the value of each account for every year of non-reporting for up to 6 years (i.e. 300% of the value of each account).
Like the majority of Canadians with a US birthplace, I had no clue until FATCA reared its ugly head, that USA considered me a US taxpayer on my Canadian income, nor that I was required to report my Canadian accounts annually to FINCEN.
The American law FATCA, is designed to search out and find people such as myself and thanks to Harper is now law in Canada. Canadian financial institutions are now required to ignore privacy laws, and Charter rights, in order to send Canadian bank account details (balances, etc) to the CRA which in turn forwards the information to the IRS. The first round of data was sent to the IRS in September with more to follow on an annual basis. Canadian taxpayers are footing the bills for Canadian financial institutions and for the CRA to send IRS what it wants. Note that although US claims FATCA is reciprocal, since we don’t care what Canadians living in other countries have in their bank accounts, Canada isn’t getting anything out of the ‘deal.’
It doesn’t take a genius to deduce what happens next. Soon, unfortunate Canadians will be getting scary letters in the mail from the IRS. It will start slow, and eventually pick up steam, as more tax evading Canadians owned by the USA are discovered hiding out in Canada (note the sarcasm here).
Unfortunately, renouncing US citizenship does not solve the problem for many of us. USA has raised its renunciation fee from $0 in 2009 to $450 a couple years ago, and then again to $2350 most recently (in US dollars). In addition, one must swear to having 5 years of tax compliancy at time of renunciation. If I told you what it takes to get ‘tax compliant’, your head would spin. Lets just start by saying that a single Canadian mutual fund is considered a ‘passive foreign income corporation’ subject to confiscatory taxation and mind-boggling reporting. For the average middle-income, middle-aged Canadian holding possibly several different mutual funds, reporting is a complicated, expensive nightmare requiring detailed banking information that is not normally even provided by Canadian banks. There is more. For example, RESPs and TFSAs are “foreign trusts” requiring more paperwork and are taxable by the USA. I’ll stop here. Personally, as a very middle-class Canadian who is a stay home parent, I am looking at several thousand dollars per year for each of the last 5 years just in reporting costs.
Since I don’t have 30 or 40K laying around, I am stuck with unwanted US citizenship. So are hundreds of thousands of other Canadians. Apparently we are in effect OWNED BY THE USA simply because we were born on American soil. And we must pay for our freedom. This is WRONG and a human rights violation.
In case you are not aware, there is a lawsuit that was filed against the Conservative government for agreeing to supply the IRS with the personal financial details of Canadians deemed ‘US persons’ by the USA. Concerned Canadians and citizens throughout the entire world (USA has inflicted FATCA on ALL countries in the world) have been funding the lawsuit while the Conservative government uses taxpayer funds to pay for its defense.
Please support the rights of all Canadians, even those born on US soil, to live normal financial lives in Canada, and to be free from the threat of confiscation of hard earned, already taxed life savings by the USA, not to mention the privacy risks (identity theft) of having their personal information sent to a foreign country.
@ White Kat
Absolutely great!! Your letter is very well written!! By the way…it’s good to see you back posting again!!
My riding in the BC Interior remained Conservative. I won’t waste a letter on my MP.
I did, however, contribute to our local Liberal candidate’s campaign.
My previous riding was NDG-Westmount which continues to be held by Liberal MP Marc Garneau. My letter will go to Mr. Garneau who previously communicated to me that he is anti-FATCA on Twitter. Once we know who is who in the new Cabinet, I will cc the letter accordingly.