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Today, in the mail, I received two cards from ‘Joe’ a grateful Canadian. One was addressed to me and one addressed to Ginny c/o myself. Inside he writes:

Dear Ms. Hillis/Ms. Deegan

I read the recent article in the Toronto Star. I feel exactly the same way you do and I am so glad you are taking up this cause. I think many supporters may not want to comment online because of the Patriot Act, so please accept my thanks for your time and energy; it’s a large undertaking.

You are a true champion for Canadian Sovereignty!

Yours Truly

‘Joe’

Ginny and I thank ‘Joe’ and every other Canadian who supports us, but who may be afraid to comment online or send cards/letters. I hope that ‘Joe’ represents at least 10 more people who are like-minded.

Card to Ginny

Card to Gwen

The following is cross-posted from Maple Sandbox, original post by Blaze:

Continue reading →

We shall not stand up for Canadian citizens and residents in Canada.

We shall deem their ‘US indicia’ more important than their Canadian citizenship and permanent residence.

We shall change Canadian law of the land to enforce extra-territorial law in Canada.

Question from “Don” – If Harper wakes up some morning and finds the IGA has been ruled unconstitutional, how easy or difficult would it be for him change the Charter to enact ‘legal’ discrimination? In other words, what are his options?

Another MP letter answering a constituent, this time from the Minister of National Revenue:

Dear XXX:

Thank you for your correspondence of February 12, 2014, about the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) enacted in the United States.

I understand from your email that you are opposed to FATCA and are critical of actions taken by the Government of Canada.

As you are aware, the U.S. uses citizenship as the basis for taxation while Canada and most of the rest of the world use a residency-based approach. I understand that this situation creates unique challenges, including compliance burdens for U.S. citizens who reside in Canada or elsewhere in the world, even when they do not owe U.S. tax. Please note that the U.S. citizenship-based tax system has been in place for many years and is not altered by the recently signed intergovernmental agreement under the Canada–U.S. tax treaty.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) administers taxes and benefits only in Canada. Therefore, it encourages U.S. taxpayers looking for information on their U.S. tax obligations to visit the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website atwww.irs.gov and read its guidance on the streamlined filing procedures for non-resident U.S. taxpayers atwww.irs.gov/uac/Instructions-for-New-Streamlined-Filing-Compliance-Procedures-for-Non-Resident-Non-Filer-US-Taxpayers .

While FATCA was enacted by the U.S. government to promote U.S. tax compliance, it has raised concerns in Canada among dual Canada-U.S. citizens and Canadian financial institutions. If the Canadian government had not signed the intergovernmental agreement, non-compliance with FATCA could have subjected Canadian financial institutions and their account holders to sanctions, including special U.S. withholding taxes on payments to them from the U.S. Also, compliance with FATCA would have forced Canadian financial institutions to report information directly to the IRS, potentially violating Canadian privacy laws.

You can find more information on why the intergovernmental agreement was signed on the Department of Finance Canada website at www.fin.gc.ca/treaties-conventions/notices/fatca-eng.asp .

As Minister of National Revenue, I can assure you that the CRA will administer fairly any legislation enacted to implement the intergovernmental agreement according to the privacy and confidentiality rights of Canadians. The intergovernmental agreement is strictly an information-sharing agreement and the CRA does not collect the U.S. tax debt of a Canadian citizen if the individual was a Canadian citizen at the time the debt arose.

Canadians who hold financial accounts can find more information at
www.cra.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/nhncdrprtng/menu-eng.html .

I trust the information I have provided clarifies the position of the CRA on this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Kerry-Lynne D. Findlay, P.C., Q.C., M.P.

Minister of National Revenue

The following is a cross-post from Maple Sandbox, a post by Blaze. WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE ALL TORONTO-AREA BROCKERS AND SANDBOXERS TO ATTEND THIS DEBATE IF THEY CAN.

An organization called Toronto Centre Debates has announced there will be an all-candidates debate specifically on FATCA, to which all eleven candidates are being invited, for November 18 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Update: The location will be the Don Mills United Church at 126 O’Connor Drive M4K 2K7.  Doors open at 6:45 pm.  In their update, the organizers note that all candidates are invited, and that while the debate will focus on FATCA, there will be time for discussion of other questions and issues.  PLEASE SUPPORT THIS DEBATE BY ATTENDING IF YOU CAN!
http://torontocentredebates.wordpress.com/2013/11/10/torontocentre-debates-all-torcen-candidates-to-fatca-centric-all-candidates-november-1813/

What follows is the cut-and-paste from Blaze’s post which may also be found here
http://maplesandbox.ca/2013/fatca-centric-debate-toronto-centre-november-18/
The organizers say:

FATCA – The most important issue Canadians are not aware of and Candidates won’t talk about!

Their information provides links to the recent MacLean’s article (What Is FATCA: IRS Peeking Into Canadians’ Accounts article by Erica Alini) and the OpEd News article (FATCA Faces Tell the Real Story) by Lynne Swanson. It incorporates much of the latter article into the blog.

In addition: Continue reading →

As has been mentioned on another post, several activists with the Isaac Brock and Maple Sandbox sites have planned a demonstration in Toronto on November 13 and 14, on the sidewalk outside the convention centre where representatives of various Canadian financial institutions are meeting to discuss, among other things, “navigating the hurdles to compliance with FATCA.”

Five candidates for the Toronto Centre by-election, and their campaign organizations, have been invited to participate in the demonstration. They are the candidates for the Conservative, Green, Liberal, New Democrat, and Progressive Canadian parties. The Progressive Canadian party was included, in thanks for their support some months ago in organizing an excellent meeting in Toronto on FATCA and all that is wrong with it. The Greens, Liberals and New Democrats all have expressed major reservations about FATCA. The Conservatives were included in fairness and to signal that we are not partisans and represent a full spectrum of political views, while being united in opposition to FATCA and any Canada-US IGA.

We thought this would be an opportunity to learn exactly what degree of support these parties are, or are not, prepared to provide to those opposing FATCA and an IGA. After some discussion, a group of us agreed that all five of the mentioned parties should be contacted, but none of the other candidates on the ballot (eleven in total).

For those who are interested, attached is a PDF copy of the email that was sent to each of the five parties (with the organizer’s and sender’s personal particulars removed). generic candidate email

The Conservative email was copied to Jim Flaherty. The other four emails were copied to the parties’ leaders; also, the Liberal email was copied to MPs Ted Hsu, Scott Brison, and Irwin Cotler (Liberal justice critic and former Minister of Justice); and the NDP email was also copied to MP Murray Rankin.

We will keep you posted as to who does or does not accept the invitation. Draw your own conclusions from this information.

Linda McQuaig’s (NDP) campaign office is at this writing the only one to acknowledge and then reply; the reply says that Ms. McQuaig unfortunately “is unable to attend. Best of luck with your event!”

As replies are passed on to me, I will update in the comment thread to this post.

UPDATED NOVEMBER 9 – As IRSCompliantForever has noted in his update to his post on the demonstration, and as I’ve detailed in the comment thread below, I am pleased to announce that Progressive Canadian Party candidate Dorian Baxter has replied, saying his is attempting to rearrange his schedule so he can assist in our demonstration.  The text of his reply appears below in my comment post today.  At this time, only Baxter and McQuaig have replied.