McGilll University Professor Allison Christians and Queen’s University Professor Arthur Cockfield have made a Joint Submission on the FATCA IGA to Finance Canada.
I admit I’ve only read the beginning. My energy is crashing so I can’t read anymore tonight, but I’m posting it here so others can see it.
There is a link there to download the full paper.
In addition, Allison has posted it at her own blog Christians & Cockfield: Submission to Finance Dept on FATCA in Canada
Thank you for your work, Professors Christians and Cockfield. I am sure your joint submission will be a respected part of the legal resources on this subject.
All I can say is… “WOW!”
This is powerful stuff.
I have to add one more comment on this. If you haven’t read it, you should – document is well worth reading – it’s written in very readable language, unlike the IGA itself.
This is a quote from the conclusion, one for which I applaud the authors,
“We are therefore of the view that caution and reflection are in order. An unwarranted sense of urgency should not stifle considered democratic review of the proposed adoption of an expansive foreign data mining regime and fishing expedition in Canada.
In particular, we have concluded that the IGA and the Implementation Act will impair Canadians’ individual rights and interests, involve significant national and personal compliance costs, potentially harm firm competitiveness, interfere with Canada’s efforts to enforce its own tax laws, and violate the spirit and potentially the letter of a number of Canadian laws. We accordingly urge the government to carefully consider the issues we have raised and to respond with all due rigour.”
Is anyone else having problems linking to this submission?
I have not been able to connect to it here, at Brock, on Twitter or even through Allison’s own blog for over an hour.
I just downloaded again easily, Lynne.
Yeah, I can access with no issues, as well.