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. Progressive Canadian Party candidate Dorian Baxter has informed us he is attempting re-arrange his schedule in order to assist us in our demonstration; he considers FATCA to be “nothing more than an unethical money-grab.” Details in the thread below. So far no other invited candidates than he and McQuaig have replied.
This was a great plan! It will be interesting to see who shows up. Thanks for all your efforts!
Lynne Swanson @LynneBlaze 1h
@tcndp Y doesn’t @LindaMcQuaig answer tweets, e-mails on #FATCA? Does she know @ThomasMulcair @MurrayRankin @PeggyNashNDP r opposed?
Lynne Swanson @LynneBlaze 1h
@tcndp Y did @LindaMcQuaig brush off invitation 2 #FATCA Protest Nov 13-14? http://bit.ly/1bdmbVL Does @ThomasMulcair care Cdn sovereignty?
I AM DELIGHTED TO REPORT THAT WE NOW HAVE AT LEAST ONE TORONTO CENTRE CANDIDATE WHO SAYS HE HOPES TO ATTEND THE DEMONSTRATION.
Dorian Baxter, who is the Progressive Canadian candidate for Toronto Centre, sent me the following email:
Linda McQuaig’s office says she is unavailable but passes on best wishes; we still haven’t heard from the Greens, Liberals, or Tories, at least I haven’t.
As I mentioned in my original post, the Progressive Canadian party organized a successful anti-FATCA meeting in Toronto about a year ago. They’ve been stalwart and outspoken on this issue all along. The Progressive Canadian party is led by the Hon. Sinclair Stevens, a former cabinet minister in the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney who broke away from the current Conservative Party when they merged with the former Reform Party. The PC party, as I understand them, are former Progressive Conservatives and like-minded “red Tories” who were and still are fiscal conservatives but socially more progressive and more respectful of Parliament (IMO) than our current Conservative Party under Stephen Harper.
Mr. Baxter and any of his supporters are most welcome, as are any other people who are concerned about FATCA and didn’t get an “invitation.” From my view anyway, one purpose of the “invitation” was to smoke out exactly how committed those five parties (or at least their Toronto Centre candidates) are on the FATCA and IGA issue, and I think we’re starting to find that out.
BTW my quote in the original post from McQuaig’s office is, except for the introductory formalities, the complete text of the reply I got. Compare that to Mr. Baxter’s reply, if you will. (The three exclamation marks are his, not mine.)