As noted on other threads, on November 6 I sent an email to five Toronto Centre candidates concerning our current demonstration outside the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto. Yesterday I sent emails to the same candidates, transmitting to them the joint Brock/Sandbox letter to CBA and reminding them both about our demo and about the FATCA-centred debate being organized by Toronto Centre Debates for November 18.
I received yesterday (but only got to my email today) a reply to these emails from the Green candidate. Several days ago I got a reply from the Progressive Canadian candidate, who has been in touch with IRSCompliantForever and who I understand may attend our demonstration. At this moment, I have received no replies at all to either email from the Conservative candidate (Geoff Pollock) nor the Liberal candidate (Chrystia Freeland), and all I have from the NDP candidate (Linda McQuaig) in reply to my second email is a standard robo-reply thanking me for my email, saying it will be forwarded to an appropriate person, and asking me for a donation. Conclude from all this as you will, Toronto Centre voters. And pass the word around.
The full text of the reply from John Deverell, the Green candidate for Toronto Centre, is as follows:
Dear XXXX,
Thank you for the extensive documentation you provided on the US Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (FACTA) and the attempt to embroil Canadian financial Institutions directly in its administration.
As Green Party leader Elizabeth May indicated in January of this year, we do not approve of the extraterritorial enforcement of US tax law by Canadian financial institutions, nor do we approve of an Intergovernmental Agreement between Canada and the US to produce that effect.
Information exchanges between Revenue Canada and the IRS, and shared investigations by them where warranted, are in our view a more acceptable approach to combating transborder tax evasion while at the same time protecting the privacy rights of Canadian citizens and residents and the sovereignty of Canada.
I presume you understand, however, that the Toronto Centre by-election is unlikely to have much bearing on the resolution of the FACTA/IGA question. No matter which candidate wins, the power balance in Ottawa will be unaffected. I hope you and your supporters will give attention to other significant issues, such as the need for positive federal action to prevent climate change, and the need for democratic voting and proportional representation in the House of Commons, when deciding how to cast your ballots.
Yours truly
John Deverell, Green Party candidate, Toronto Centre