“Canadians affected by FATCA have every right to feel betrayed by their adopted country.”
That is one of many superb comments in today’s Toronto Star: U.S. tax deal jeopardizes Canadians’ privacy: Tim Harper
Reviewing this, I think we can safely conclude Tim Harper listened closely to what was said Finance Committee testimony:
Here are some of the other key points:
If one wants another clear-eyed illustration of the power imbalance between Washington and the federal Conservatives, one need look no further than a tax deal signed between the two countries last winter.
It is a deal which imperils the privacy of up to a million Canadians and creates a two-tier level of citizenship in this country, discriminating against citizens based on their ethnic origin.
And:
FATCA is something that should be alarming in an era of NSA spying and telecom information gathering for governments.
On the CRA issue:
Ottawa may see this two-step as a means to guard privacy. Those affected see it as double jeopardy.
On the choices:
What the Conservatives didn’t have to do was essentially embed foreign legislation into their budget bill.
On the constitution:
The Conservatives have likely set themselves up for the courts to again ultimately decide on the constitutionality of this move.
Concluding:
Canadian financial institutions must begin handing over information by July 1, a Canada Day repudiation of our own sovereignty.
RT @MapleSandbox: “Canadians have every right to feel betrayed by their adopted country” on FATCA (Toronto Star): http://t.co/JYrfGFMsFZ
“Canadian financial institutions must begin handing over information by July 1”.
Is that information correct? I think I read somewhere in the FATCA timeline that the first batch of info was not going to be sent until mid 2015.
Not even close to being correct. Mid 2015 will be iffy
http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Corporations/Summary-of-FATCA-Timelines
2015: Reporting Begins
When to Report
March 31 FFIs in non-IGA jurisdictions and FFIs in Model 2 IGA jurisdictions
September 30 FFIs in Model 1 IGA jurisdictions
So far, in the two days since Tim Harper’s article ran, the Toronto Star hasn’t published any letters to the editor on the subject. That surprises me, because I think they must have received a lot of them. I know I sent one.
“Canadians affected by FATCA have every right to feel betrayed by their adopted country.”
FATCA affects all Canadians; the degree just differs with circumstances. So the above ought to read: “Canadians have every right to feel betrayed by the government of their country.”
Today the Toronto Star has finally published two good letters to the editor in response to Tim Harper’s FATCA article:
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2014/05/29/time_to_stand_up_to_big_brother.html
Harper is inaccurate on one point. The bill does not discriminate on the basis of ethnic origin.
It discriminates on the basis of national origin, whether the ethnicity of the person in question in white, black, oriental, Semite, or Asian.
How ironic our Canadian government is wringing their hands over rights violations of temporary foreign workers while at the same time willfully violating the rights of a million Canadian citizens.
@ maz57……..
Yes..they are violating our rights.
The government realizes it too. My own conservative MP, with whom I have spoken in person, realizes it and agrees with you and me. If he sees it, so do the rest.
But he says the 30% tax that O’Bungler wants is tying our hands. Let’s face it, it would make cross border business very difficult, and we would be overpowered by any attempt to retaliate. Many, many Canadians would lose their jobs and their homes. So while I support the court challenge, and have contributed financially to both the opinion and the challenge, the object of our wrath and the wrath of the Canadian media should be at the American government and its head. I am so sick of Obama being treated like a protected species, both by our media, and by some people in here.
This FATCA was part of Obama’s 2008 election platform, yet he still got a majority of the absentee vote, so sometimes the electorate gets what it deserves.
The media (ours and the American) treated him as if he was the second coming of some sort of messiah. Good grief, even though he, at one point, had more American troops deployed overseas than Bush ever did, the Nobel committee gave him a peace prize. He is compromised up to his eyeballs in the military industrial complex. I suggest you google Obama and the Crown family (General Dynamics).
So as angry as I am at FATCA, I am just as angry at his enablers, such as those voters who were too blind to see what an evil narcissist he is, and wealthy people who financed him, like George Soros and Warren Buffet. I am also quite positive that Lynne’s NDP and Green Party supporters at that hearing would have voted for Obama in 2008 given the right to do so. Polls have shown that most Canadians would have too, yet no American President in history has so egregiously violated our sovereignty. Canadians have not been too bright about all of this.
Let’s face it. There have been a whole lot of people in a whole lot of places who haven’t been too bright in their choices. I fear that what we are doing now could be compared to an unfaithful husband seeking a cure for AIDS before his wife finds out that he has it.
Too many people have a problem with enemy identification.
Meanwhile, the CBC sits quietly.