Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 2,208 Comments

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

2,208 thoughts on “CANADIANS AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORTERS: Thank you for $594,970 donated and overdue legal bill paid off — Next step is Federal Court Constitutional-Charter trial”

  3. @ badger
    It was an e-mail to another Brocker. You are a legend here. You have to expect to be mentioned sometimes in correspondence. 🙂

  5. @ Blaze
    OMG! What a great find. Dare we hope for a Goodale-Brison-Dubourg cabinet trifecta? I’m almost afraid to write that, lest I jinx it. This was my favourite part from your National Post link:

    The largest assault by the Conservatives against personal information came in the form of Bill C-31, the omnibus budget implementation bill. This bill would amend the Income Tax Act, allowing an officer of the CRA to provide confidential information to domestic or foreign police organizations. This breach of Canadian tax secrecy is dangerous. Under this act, an official could unilaterally disclose confidential information, regardless of whether criminal proceedings had been initiated.

    Section 241 of the current Tax Act is clear: “Except as authorized by this Article, a) no official or other representative of a government entity may knowingly provide any confidential information to any person or knowingly permit the service; b) knowingly allow any person to have access to confidential information.” Instances when officials can provide confidential information are clearly stated in the law, or they can do so with the authorization of a judge. This is the way it should be.

  6. “Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Canada’s prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau agreed to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), both seeing the free-trade deal as beneficial to the region, Japan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.”
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/abe-and-trudeau-agree-to-promote-trans-pacific-partnership/article27058428/
    Trudeau was non committal on this item during the election.
    What does this tell you about FATCA?

    If you want to believe that we will stop trading with USA, I have some swamp land to sell to you.
    I assume that if the charter challenge is successful, he will apply non withstanding clause if Obama applies sanctions. We are dependent on trade with USA they are not dependent on us and he does even want our oil production. There may be small change to IGA similar to what Obama proposed for accidental births. Roy Berg wrote an article on it.

    If you want to reduce amount of people caught, I have some suggestion what may be done. If you are interested I will describe them, but I do not want to waste my time unless, I see some board member of charter challenge asking me. You can still go ahead with Supreme court challenges. These are changes that Obama can not apply 30% withholding.
    One of these proposal (a new legislation) would even appeal to the vast majority of Canadians.
    I will check back Monday Night to see your response.

  8. @ Bubblebustin’

    “Has anyone mentioned this NDP anti-FATCA petition yet? Can anyone figure out how to access the signatures?
    http://petition.ndp.ca/FATCA “

    Thanks, Bubblebustin!

    I put a link to it at the sidebar under “Take Action!” “Canada THIS WEEK Contact the New Government re FATCA!”

    This new sidebar link leads to this petition, and to a page of anti-FATCA/IGA statements by the Liberal Party and MPs, and to a page of letters/e-mails that Brockers sent to the MPs of the new Parliament.

    I also put a link to the petition at the top of the “Current Surveys You Can Take” page, also accessible under “Take Action!”

  9. @GeorgeIII

    “There may be small change to IGA similar to what Obama proposed for accidental births.”

    But it should not be limited to “accidental births” alone; it should also be extended to “intentional expatriation” as well. I know of people who struggled to develop their careers in America and left overseas to work in other countries (and doing quite well now).

  11. @George III, the only legislation in our own home countries is that the issue of paramount citizenship be pushed and pushed.

    A Canadian Citizen in Canada can only be a Canadian or something else.

    An Irish Citizen (and a UK Citizen) present in the Republic of Ireland can only be Irish or UK and everyone else is an Alien.

    The USA exercises that exact same practice!!!!

    The poster called Neil is a USA Citizen resident in the USA who is also deemed to be a British Citizen by Her Majesty.

    He/she has nothing to fear about anything handed over to HMRC because his Britishness is overruled by his USness.

  12. Please everyone, get those letters in the mail. Here is the one I just sent to my MP. (I did not give background information because I have met with her and communicated with her during the campaign).

    November 2, 2015

    Ms. Kate Young
    Member of Parliament
    House of Commons
    Ottawa ON

    Dear Kate:

    Congratulations on your election as Member of Parliament for London West. I look forward to being represented by an MP who will listen and respond to her constituents.

    “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian” (Justin Trudeau, Munk Debate, September 28, 2015)

    “The government of Canada has a responsibility to stand up for its citizens when foreign governments are encroaching on their rights. We believe that the deal reached between Canada and the U.S. is insufficient to protect affected Canadians.” (Justin Trudeau in attached June 25 letter to me).

    I appreciate the time you spent with me prior to the election to discuss the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the efforts you made to try to get a clear policy from the Liberal Party.

    Now that the Liberals and Team Trudeau have been elected with a majority government, I ask you and your colleagues to ensure “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian” despite where we were born. The Government of Canada must “stand up for its citizens (and residents) when foreign governments are encroaching on their rights.”

    I now ask my elected Liberal government to do the right thing for one million Canadians by:

    1) taking immediate steps to seek a just resolution of the costly lawsuit forced upon innocent Canadian citizens;
    2) repealing the enabling legislation for the FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement entered into under threat of economic sanctions.
    3) informing the American government that Canadian rights, laws, constitution, Charter of Rights and Freedoms and sovereignty prevail over foreign law in Canada. Therefore, their FATCA will not be enforced in our free and democratic country.

    I look forward to working with you to resolve the FATCA nightmare that encroaches on my rights as a Canadian citizen.

    I will follow up and make an appointment to discuss this with you after your office is set up.

    Lynne Swanson

  14. @WhiteKat

    Together, it is possible that we can put an end to this lawsuit sooner rather than later. Wouldn’t that be wonderful!

    Actually in some ways I’m not sure I’d see it as “wonderful”. Having made a significant commitment to this lawsuit already, I’d kind of like to see a precedent setting ruling from the SCC that ensures this doesn’t rear its ugly head again during a future Cons government. That is true even if it takes longer and will cost more.

    That said, there is clearly much that the Lib government can do to soften the impact of FATCA both before and after what we hope is an eventual SCC ruling favouring our side so letter writing and other approaches for putting as much pressure in the incoming Lib gov’t is clearly very necessary here.

  16. If any legislation could be reversed as we are hoping some will be with the Liberal government, it is likely the prudent course to take, Dash. The next Conservative government might reverse something like US FATCA law in Canada right back to where we’re at now. One step at a time to see the path to permanent justice that we search for from the consequences of US CBT.

  17. @calgary411

    I think the Libs should be pressured to reverse the legislation but I don’t see them actually doing it without “encouragement” from continued litigation.

  18. @Dash, I too would like to see the Supreme Court knock it down so the precedent would be useful in other nations!!!

    I agree that litigation is needed to encourage the Liberals to reverse legislation.

    What can the Liberals do?

    1.) Reverse the supremecy clause in the enabling legislation so Canadian Law is again paramount. This will neuter the legislation quite a bit making all manners of other lawsuits possible. It will put the banks back in a dark corner.

    2.) Pass legislation that forbids country of birth to open a financial account.

    3.) Canada withdrew from the 1930 convention on nationality. At first I felt that was bad but on reflection its an opportunity as Canada could resign it and pass enabling legislation that Canadian Citizenship is paramount in Canada and the only citizenship recognozed for all public and private purposes.

  20. @Dash and George, I hope your comments have not dissuaded others from participating in our letter writing campaign designed to convince the Liberals to make a commitment to do the right thing. By ending this fiasco NOW, we avoid LOSING a court case later – when you look at it that way, it makes a whole lot of sense to try to do whatever we can now (as slim as the chance might be, which might not be as slim as we think) to try to bring the Liberals on board.

  21. Everyone has their bias, personal scenario, etc. Certainly for Canadians living in Canada, like myself who have unwanted US taint, it makes sense to stop the train barreling through Canada sooner rather than later, before more Canadians get run over. Citizens of other countries deemed ‘US persons’ would benefit more by a supreme court case in Canada – that is, if we win.

    So Canadians Living In Canada, get your pom-poms out, and BLAST YOUR MPs and PM with the anti-FATCA message! They won’t notice one letter or email, but they will notice A WHOLE LOT OF THEM! The squeaky wheel gets the oil (or at least has a chance to).

  22. @ACanadianLivingInCanada

    I hope not either because I specifically said that people SHOULD contact the incoming Liberals. I think it will be very useful because I believe the Libs can and will significantly soften the impact of FATCA between now and the final resolution of the litigation. But I hope that people are not in the mood to “settle”. If the Liberals roll back, say, 75% of the Harper discrimination against US persons, the other 25% is still a Charter violation and I hope people won’t settle for “a little discrimination is OK as long as it isn’t as bad as under Harper.”

  23. @ACanadianLivingInCanada

    My interest is in putting the railway out of business not merely stopping the train. If you just stop the train a future Cons government could just start it again. Actually I didn’t fully understand @calgary’s comment because she seemed to be advocating repealing the legislation but then acknowledged that if you repeal the legislation a future Cons gov’t could just bring it back again. I agree with the latter sentiment.

  24. I just sent the following e-mail to Emmanuel Dubourg (who I hope may become Minister of National Revenue or other Cabinet Minister:

    Congratulations on your reelection and on the election of a Liberal majority government.

    As an Opposition MP and Liberal National Revenue Critic, you spoke out against the American Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) being imposed on Canada and on Canadians. In the House of Commons on June 11, 2014, you said CRA “will do the dirty work of transmitting the information to the IRS…We are truly appalled by it, because doing this kind of thing to assist the Americans is not appropriate.”

    In a letter to me on June 25, 2015, our new Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau said: The government of Canada has a responsibility to stand up for its citizens when foreign governments are encroaching on their rights. We believe that the deal reached between Canada and the U.S. is insufficient to protect affected Canadians.

    Now that the Liberals have a majority government, I urge you and your colleagues to “stand up for (one mullion Canadians) when (a) foreign government (is) encroaching on their rights.”

    You and your colleagues can stop CRA from doing the “dirty work of transmitting information to the IRS by:

    1) taking immediate steps to seek a just resolution of the costly lawsuit forced upon innocent Canadian citizens;
    2) repealing the enabling legislation for the FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement entered into under threat of economic sanctions.
    3) informing the American government that Canadian rights, laws, constitution, Charter of Rights and Freedoms and sovereignty prevail over foreign law in Canada. Therefore, their FATCA will not be enforced in our free, democratic and sovereign country.

    Please make this a priority for our new government.

    I sent similar e-mails to Scott Brison, Ralph Goodale and Marc Garneau using quotes from them.

    As ACanadianLivingInCanada said to other Canadians living in Canada: BLAST THEM.

  25. Should we call upon Brian J Ernewein’s employment with the Government of Canada to be terminated by Justin Trudeau?

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