Ted Hsu suggested we should submit a petition to the government on FATCA. If we submit at least 25 signatures to him, he will present the petition in the House of Commons.
Some of us drafted a petition, which was then reviewed by Dr. Hsu’s staff to ensure it met guidelines. Here is FATCA Petition To Canadian Government in Word.Please print a copy of the actual petition and get signatures.
If you don’t have Word, here is FATCA Petition To Canadian Government in pdf.
Please note, only Canadian residents can sign (You do not have to be a Canadian citizen). However, people living outside Canada (including Canadian citizens cannot sign.)
Signatures are only accepted if they are on a sheet with the full text of the petition. Therefore, only four signatures per page.
Signatures must be original (not scanned or photocopied) We are still working out the details of whether we will all submit directly to Dr. Hsu or if we will courier them to Atticus to present to him. We will let you know when those details are worked out.
Here it the content of the petition–but you should print out a copy and use that to sign and gather signatures.
Petition to Canadian Government re: Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in Canada
Whereas the United States is demanding that Canadian financial institutions provide to the United States Treasury and United States Internal Revenue Service comprehensive and confidential financial information on “US persons” who are Canadian citizens and residents;
And
Whereas Canadian Bankers Association has advised that they may comply with FATCA, including possible closure of bank accounts of Canadian citizens and residents who refuse to consent to information being provided to US Treasury and IRS;
And
Whereas FATCA is a foreign law that violates Canada’s sovereignty;
And
Whereas the term “U.S. person” has no legal meaning in Canada;
And
Whereas FATCA violates Canada’s Bank Act, Personal Information Protection and Electronics Documents Act (PIPEDA) and Canadian Human Rights Code;
And
Whereas compliance with FATCA would violate Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms;
Therefore, we request the Canadian government to:
1. Immediately assure Canadian citizens and residents that all Canadian citizens and residents have the same rights to privacy in managing their financial affairs.
2. Advise Canadian financial institutions that they must comply with Canadian laws.
3. Assure Canadian citizens and residents that those Canadian laws and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms will not be changed for FATCA.
4. Cease negotiating with the United States on any agreement to implement FATCA that will contradict Canada’s Charter, its current banking, privacy and human rights laws and the current Canada-US Tax Treaty.
Just to add an important technical detail:
sign, do not print, your name
print your full address including postal code, in the other space provided.
I suggest, as Calgary411 has done on the Brock site, that once you’ve printed and signed the petition and have collected additional signatures, you snail-mail them asap to
The Honourable Ted Hsu
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
You don’t need to pay postage to do this; you can simply print “Free” in the upper-right corner of the envelope. As far as I know, there are no limits on the size of the envelope, so include as many signed copies of the petition as you can.
For this petition to make a difference, time is of the essence — since it seems likely (to me, at any rate) that if there will be an IGA at all, it’s going to be announced very soon, certainly before Christmas (otherwise the poor bankers and investment brokers who have been lobbying furiously for an IGA will all have heart failure, which I’m sure will devastate us all).
I hope the petition will result in a big black hole in the CBA’s and brokers’ stockings on Christmas morning.
Ted Hsu hopes to present the petition to Parliament today. Here are tweets between him and me yesterday.
Lynne Swanson @LynneBlaze 8 Dec
@TedHsu Do u think u will be able to present #FATCA petition this week? http://bit.ly/1e08eB6
Ted Hsu @tedhsu 8 Dec
@LynneBlaze yes, planning Monday, took a while to get clerk to certify and I had things come up in my schedule last week
Also, responses to Mr. Hsu’s Order Paper questions are due by the end of this week (by December 14). Answers to Scott Brison’s Order Paper questions are due the beginning of next week (by December 16.)
Ted Hsu presented the FATCA Petition in House of Commons yesterday. You can find by scrolling way down in the Hansard under Petitions.
Here is what he said in presenting the petition:
One of Mr. Hsu’s staff told me if more signed petitions are received, Mr. Hsu will present those as well. It is required to have another 25 signatures for him to again present the petition.
I don’t know what the requirement is of the government to respond. Another issue in which I have significant interest (CCSVI treatment for MS) has had petitions presented for almost four years with no resolution in sight. Another petition on that subect was again submitted yesterday.
I hope FATCA doesn’t take that long to resolve-but it’s already been over two years since many of us became aware of it.