Today I emailed the following letter to my MP – Blake Richards Member of Parliament (Wild Rose Alberta).
Dear Mr. Richards
In the past month I have done two things you should know about, as my elected Member of Parliament:
1. I donated money to help fund a lawsuit against my own government to protect my rights as a Canadian citizen.
2. I vowed never to vote Conservative again.
As my elected official you should know that I believe that my government has taken the easy way out by placating the United States, and the big banks, rather than standing up for individual Canadian rights. And the consequence of that is the loss of my vote, and something I would never have thought feasible – my donation to a lawsuit to challenge my own government.
As a member of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, you should know that millions of Canadian citizens are now at risk for identity theft. As of July 1st, Canadian banks are forced to send the private information on ‘suspected US persons’ bank accounts, and those of their spouses and business partners, to the CRA. That information will then be sent on to the IRS, which has been repeatedly in the news about security breaches.
Are you not at all concerned that a foreign government will have the personal information on millions of Canadians?
Are you not at all concerned that millions of Canadians are at risk to have large financial penalties imposed by a foreign government?
Are you not at all concerned that millions of Canadian will have to take the onerous steps to relinquish or renounce US citizenship, creating a drain on finances, as well as health?
Are you not at all concerned that respected and renowned Canadian lawyers believe that the FATCA IGA is in violation of Section 15 of our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
Mr. Richards, I am writing to you, not only to express my concerns, but to give you an opportunity to tell me what you are doing to protect the rights of Canadians in your constituency from a foreign government. If you want a chance to win back a voter, this is the time – tell me how you will protect Canadians like me – law abiding, tax paying Canadians – from the might of the United States government who are enforcing their laws in my country.
Regards,
Outraged Canadian
superb letter outraged. i hope u get a reply.
brilliant idea 2 present this clearly as a public safety issue. the response–if u get one–will be interesting.
Thanks, Lynne. I doubt it will get anything but a pro forma response, but we’ll see.
Outraged,
This is a great letter. You may get that proforma reply but somewhere down the line, it may well have an influence.
Marilyn, the author of the letter to President Obama, had no idea that she would end up reading it on Forbes, where it has now, 110,678 views. Marilyn came to the Solving US Citizenship Problems meeting in Toronto last night and she had a big impact on the audience as well as all of us.
I agree with Lynne, the public safety idea is very good, taking it out of the “it will only affect Americans” arena.
May I cross-post this on Brock?
@OutragedCanadian Great letter. I too doubt that you will receive any kind of response. I wrote in June to my local MP, the Finance Minister, Joe Oliver, and the Prime Minister as well as all the Alberta Senators. I did not receive any responses. It made me feel better however just to vent my concerns. The Conservatives will not be getting my vote, nor will very many members of my family be voting for them. If other families follow suit that estimated 1 million becomes multiplied by 15-20 family members and increases again by their friends. Our government needs to go back to being a democracy, not a dictatorship.
I’ll echo — great letter. Has anybody gotten any replies from Conservatives lately. I sure haven’t from my Alberta Conservative MP. I don’t have a representative!!!
Thanks, all.
Sure Nobledreamer, happy to have it cross-posed.
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Is this some old folks home knitting session? Oh pray tell me why you all are still writing letters? LAME!
This is how they trained you to be good Canadian sheep. Can anyone here prove to me where letter writing has brought about any change?
Both of these sites remind me of some arrogant intellectual coffee group. This is what brings about change and gets attention and nothing else.
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@Chearsbigears – we’ve edited your comment as we cannot condone some of the things you said.
You have the right, of course, to disagree with our tactics, so we allowed your comment to post.
Lame is your opinion. Taking another shot is mine.
Personally, I will keep writing and letting our politicians know that they are being watched and held accountable for their actions.
Thank you Outraged Canadian for your continued effort and great letters. I do not agree with Chears Big Ears. We need to keep trying in our more civilized Canadian way. It doesn’t pay to use the same type of evil tactics as the US/IRS. They will fail eventually and it will probably be from the evil within.
So, I did get the expected response from Richards. blah da blah da blah.
Didn’t address anything, was just regurgitation we’ve seen from all govt/PC people.
Ended with.. “Thank you for your patience during this negotiation process, as our government fought for the best possible deal.”
yeah, no, sorry, don’t believe that.