Can the Senate Finance Committee read the submissions on the devastating impact of CBT and FATCA and fail to act?
All I can say to that is how little our submission to the House of Commons Finance Committee made.
I hope it will make a difference. But, I;m not optimistic.
Again, I will quote Will Rogers.

The only difference between death and taxes is death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.

Americans Abroad Need Tax Justice Too say Lynne Swanson and Victoria Ferauge in an article published in The Hill.

“Why are we doing this to folks? Why are we tormenting them in this way?” IRS Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson asked in an address to Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association FATCA Policy Symposium in Washington last year.
Who Are These “Folks?”
These “folks” are Americans living abroad: NGO workers, English teachers, physicians, taxi drivers, lawyers, bar tenders, nurses, accountants, engineers, stay at home parents, retirees, U.S. military veterans, entrepreneurs promoting American-made products creating jobs in the United States and others..
But according to some members of Congress and advocates for tax justice in the United States, these “folks” are really tax cheats, tax evaders, traitors, Fat Cats, criminals, money launderers, drug traffickers, and terrorist financers hiding “illicit activities” in their bank accounts.
If you listen to the “folks” themselves, you get a very different picture. They are simply Americans living rather ordinary lives in Australia or Zimbabwe instead of Maine or California. And it should be no surprise that they have bank accounts where they live, work, earn income—and pay taxes.
What is their Problem?
These “folks” are tormented by the same problems: FATCA and Citizenship-based taxation (CBT)…

The article reports on CBT and FATCA. It recommends a solution:

There is a simple solution to end the torment of honest Americans by their own government. United States should join the rest of the world and move to residence based taxation—including scrapping FATCA for Americans abroad.

Obama is finally being honest about his mission and that of the United States of Arrogance.
In a weekly address last week, Obama insisted:

America has to write the rules of the global economy…

He says this is all about American values.
Yep. He got that right. The value to control every other country on the planet.
He also says:

We are meant to win the future.

He knows:

“When the playing field is level, nobody can beat us.”

Yep again. Obama plans to flatten the rest of the world so “everyone plays by the same set of rules.”
Those rules, of course, are American rules.
This gives us a bit of a sense of why the U.S. thinks they can impose CBT and FATCA on us.
Oh wait. Isn’t that a different set of rules than what applies to the rest of the world? What happened to a level playing field?

An anonymous donor who contributed to the ADCS lawsuit sent me a long letter. It contained these words:

“I can feel the fatigue in our small team, but please forward my words of encouragement: We are the only ones fighting FATCA [‘…the most arrogant piece of illegal, immoral and evil overreach by any foreign — yes, America happens to be foreign to the rest of the world…’] and CBT and any injury we can do to it will crack it open and show how evil it is inside. If we stop, nobody will do it.”

He/she describes some of the harm:

“I also join a small testimony how all this affected my family.
My mother, the only one with a hint of a long faded American accent, is scared of talking in public. She hasn’t had access to a bank account in three years, she cannot be associated with any of our businesses and cannot even be named on any of the assets she should be entitled to. She has become a non-person and so would we if our very dirty secret was discovered. Because of the fear of her place of birth being noticed at the U.S. immigration, we missed the funerals of her four closest relatives, including her parents.
[Bold in original:] Let me repeat this: my mother wasn’t present at her parents’ funerals because she feared it might destroy the life of her husband and children!“

…and the extreme anger:

“We used to be the best Ambassadors for America. We always found an excuse when the wretched country trampled human rights, invaded foreign countries, manipulated the markets, or just crashed the World economy. Now, we hate it with so much rage that we can’t ever forgive it. I personally swear never to go there again, never buy American again and systematically oppose the will of the US in my private life and professional and [xxxxx] careers. I would rather catch AIDS than ever have an American passport again.”

Ginny and Gwen, who are risking so much for all of us, need our help.
We are getting close to the May 1 deadline for the next payment to our legal team. We still need more than $35,000.
Ginny has written a letter to supporters. Here is what Ginny says:

April 22, 2015
Dear Supporters,
Gwen and I have always been so appreciative, and overwhelmed by the many donations to our lawsuit from Canada and other donors around the world. Much has been asked of donors and they have so generously responded.
We are clearly up against a government determined to wear us down by a profusion of several thousands of documents and other delays that our legal team has to deal with. We know there are many people that the United States Government considers off-shore tax cheats. Neither Gwen nor I, nor any of you who live outside of the US are those cheats.
We are appealing to those of you who have never donated to this very important lawsuit to join in supporting us, and our team, to ensure that our small voices will be heard as we take on this precedent-setting lawsuit against our government, which has so callously disregarded our Charter and privacy Rights and those of our families.
If you have already given, Gwen and I are so grateful and hope you will be able to continue to support us.
You can help Gwen and I to stand for all of you who are equally affected. We are all in this together, but we need your support. It always strikes me that if we could receive even $1 from just the US citizens living in Canada, who are caught up in this ever-expanding net cast by the US government, this lawsuit would be fully funded.
We need your financial support and humbly ask for it now. You can make a difference through your donations.
We can, and will, do this together with your help.

Please help Ginny and Gwen with your donations to ADCS.
Please help us make the next installment, due on May 1, to our very skilled constitutional lawyer Joseph Arvay by donating now to the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty.
Sincerely,
Ginny

The Conservative budget for 2015 Supplementary Information contains an Update on the Automatic Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes including:

Under the new standard, foreign tax authorities will provide information to the Canada Revenue Agency relating to financial accounts in their jurisdictions held by Canadian residents. The Canada Revenue Agency will, on a reciprocal basis, provide corresponding information to the foreign tax authorities on accounts in Canada held by residents of their jurisdictions. In order for the Canada Revenue Agency to obtain the information to be exchanged, the common reporting standard will require financial institutions in Canada to implement due diligence procedures to identify accounts held by non-residents and report certain information relating to these accounts to the Agency. It will not require reporting on accounts held by residents of Canada with foreign citizenship. The standard includes important safeguards to protect taxpayer confidentiality and ensure that the exchanged information is used only by tax authorities and only for tax purposes.

Note the statement:

at
Unfortunately I don’t think that statement includes us–but I would love to be wrong about that.
Thanks to Tim for this find. Stephen has sent it to Joe Arvay.

National Post has published a Scorecard of the Harper Government’s wins and losses at the Supreme Court of Canada.
To sum it up in one word for Harper:

Dismal.

Losses for Harper: Mandatory Sentences for Gun Crimes, Assisted Suicide, Prostitution, Aboriginal title, Time-Served Sentencing, Senate Reforn, Supreme Court Nominee.
Wins for Harper: Terrorism-Related Security Certificates, Destruction of Gun Registry Data.
There are two others that are not mentioned here:
Loss for Harper: Mounties’ right to unionize.
Win for Harper: Cell phone searches upon arrest.
I may have missed some. If others add some in comments, I will include them here.
Has the government learned from these? Nope.
They are fighting a disabled aboriginal mother struggling for services for her severely disabled teenage son, disabled veterans, revocation of citizenship and deportation of Canadian citizens, expat Canadian citizens, sick new moms, women wearing the niqab during citizenship oath and us.
I think Harper should also be prepared for a constitutional challenge of Bill C51. There are likely many others we do not even know about.
Of course, the government is spending their access to unlimited taxpayer dollars fighting these issues in the courts.
That is why we must be steadfast in our resolve to continue to fight back by standing up–and donating to ADCS,

From an anonymous donor come the top ten reasons NOT to donate to ADCS lawsuit

The Top 10 List To NOT Donate to the ADCS-ADSC.ca lawsuit:

10. You don’t like Canadian citizens of U.S. origin..
9. You want to help tax compliance vultures become wealthy.
8. In Congress you trust and Congress has spoken.
7. You are a shareholder in one of the big Canadian banks.
6. You are a shareholder in all the Canadian banks.
5. FATCA will give me grounds to divorce my U.S. spouse.
4. You believe in the Obama administration instead of believing in freedom and justice.
3. You believe that U.S. law should be imposed on Canada.
2. You are pretending to be a Canadian but are really a member of “Homelanders Abroad”.
and the NUMBER 1 reason to NOT donate is …
1. You believe that FATCA should be the Supreme Law of Canada.

Do NOT let American law become the Supreme Law of Canada. Donate now! Donate often. Donate as much as you can.

We delivered! Monumental effort 2 demonstrate harm 2 #Americansabroad submitted 2 Senate Finance Committee http://t.co/carqgGs6lj #FightCBT

— Patricia Moon (@nobledreamer16) April 15, 2015

We did it! Just as promised by John Richardson our submission to the Senate Finance Committee is signed, sealed and delivered….Remember this? :

I also made it clear that Dr. Kish and I would be taking the initiative to “educate” the Committee about:
– what “citizenship taxation” really is; and
– the true effects that it has on “Americans” (recognizing that many of you do NOT consider yourselves to be U.S. citizens) in Canada and elsewhere.
I am happy to report to you that on February 14, 2015 the videos were made as planned.
I am happy to report that on April 9, 2014 Dr. Kish and I met with representatives of the Senate Finance Committee and had a “productive discussion”.
I am happy to report that, today, April 15, 2015 our submission to the Senate Finance Committee (consisting of a total of 7 separate submissions on various topics) has been delivered. One of the submissions was the text of the “Human Rights complaint to the United Nations“. We acknowledge the tremendous work that went into the creation and submission of the complaint.
We encourage you to look at our complete “Folder of Submissions” as follows:
https://app.box.com/s/yn25x1gketbzrkqp2ghu5sbce7mqoynu
I want to remind you that this is going to be a “slow process”. Be patient. Keep yourselves focused on the “long term” goal. The key is to remain patient and focused.

For all who submitted comments to be included, please see here.
Thank you so much for all who took the time to send in your letters & comments in support of this project. Please spend time and explore all seven of the submissions as each is a very important component of demonstrating to the US government how perverse and discriminatory U.S. Tax policy is, not only against U.S. Persons, but to every country and person who is connected to one. We need residence-based taxation. We want the ability to make use of our tax-deferred savings vehicles in our countries of choice. We deserve the right to have our bank accounts free from the prying eyes of FinCen. We demand the recognition that we are not tax cheats and traitors. We insist that the privacy rights of our “alien” spouses and children be respected. For those who cannot act on their own behalf, we must have the ability to make choices free of imposed US citizenship be it from immigration or tax status.
It is time. The U.S.must start living up to its claim of being the land of freedom and opportunity. It must address its own areas of human rights violations and act in the best interests of all. We will not be satisfied nor stop until we receive exactly that.

Born in USA? Have You Received the FATCA Letter?
Are you now or have you ever been an American citizen is a question that can now terrify people.
Were you born in the United States? Is one of your parents a U.S. citizen? Do you have a U.S. address or Green Card? Do you spend winters or substantial time in U.S.?
Are you just learning American Internal Revenue Service (IRS) wants you and your financial records? Welcome to your OMG moment shared by one million Canadians and their families.
On Canada Day, July 1, 2014, Canada surrendered Canadian citizens, residents, laws, constitution and sovereignty to a foreign bully under the American Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) mandating Canadian financial institutions to seek out the financial records of Canadians born in the U.S. or with some other U.S. connection for reporting to IRS with Canada Revenue Agency as an intermediary.
Have you received the FATCA letter yet? Be prepared if you do or if lawyers or accountants try to terrorize you into filing tax returns with the IRS.
Learn from Toronto lawyer John Richardson how FATCA affects you and what this means for Canada and all Canadians. Find out what your rights are as a Canadian citizen and resident—and what your Canadian government surrendered to the Americans in an unprecedented law that overrides all Canadian laws for a foreign bully..
Know your options before you do anything.
Have You Received the FATCA Letter interactive information session will be held Thursday April 23 in the Martha Bishop Room at Landon Branch Library, 167 Wortley Road from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. $20 per person or $40 for a family of four. No pre-registration.