“Canada is expected to defend the constitutional rights and freedoms of its citizens and not bargain them away or capitulate to threats from a foreign bully state.” say Plaintiffs Gwen and Kazia in 12/13/2018 Canada Federal Court FATCA submission — Plaintiffs go to court January 28, 2019 and will ask for your support, later, for the appeal costs

cross-posted from Brock

by Stephen Kish

…and Plaintiffs go on to say:

“The notion that a foreign state could indirectly cause the violation of a Charter right in circumstances where Canada could not do so directly simply cannot be accepted. This is a deeply illiberal proposition and it would undermine the principle of the rule of law which explicitly animates the Charter.”

UPDATE: FATCA IGA litigation in Canada Federal Court: The guts of our Plaintiffs’ (Gwen and Kazia) arguments and those of the Government we oppose (for simplicity, “Canada”) can now be found in four court documents submitted between October 3 and December 13, 2018 (see below for some excerpts). The Court submissions can be found on our ADCS website.

The trial, which fleshes out the written arguments in orals in Federal Court, will be held the week of January 28, 2019 (next month) in Vancouver. We hope that some of you will attend.

FUNDING WILL BE NEEDED FOR THE EXPECTED APPEAL: A trial decision will come at some indeterminate time later (June 2019?) and it can be expected that THERE WILL BE AN APPEAL NO MATTER WHO WINS.

However, our appeal will only happen if we are successful in seeking funds, again from our supporters, for the costs of the appeal (Canada has unlimited funds from taxpayers).

At present we do not intend to seek funds for the appeal costs until pronouncement of judgement.

The first filing deadline is 30 days after court decision, and then a series of new 30 day deadlines kick in, and we will need to scramble very quickly to obtain the necessary funds our legal team will need to pay for their costs.
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CANADIAN FATCA IGA LAWSUIT UPDATE: October 3, 2018 Plaintiffs’ Memorandum of Argument Has Been Submitted to Canada’s Federal Court

cross-posted from Brock.

by Stephen J. Kish

CANADIAN FATCA IGA LAWSUIT UPDATE

Here is the Memorandum of Argument of our Plaintiffs (Gwen and Kazia) for our FATCA IGA legislation lawsuit that was submitted on October 3, 2018 to Canada’s Federal Court. [Note that text is limited to 30 pages.]

The Memorandum can be found HERE.

The gist of our argument (page 12) is that the FATCA IGA legislation is inapplicable to Provincially regulated institutions and violates Sections 7, 8, and 15 of Canada’s Charter of Rights.

The word “sovereignty” is used many times in the document.

Some Excerpts:

— “Section 8 of the Charter states: Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure…The Impugned Provisions authorize both a search and a seizure…The plaintiffs and other reasonable hypothetical individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their Accountholder Information…Canada pleads that because the plaintiffs and other US Persons have pre-existing obligations to report certain information to the IRS under US law, their privacy interest in that information is minimal…Canada cannot demonstrate that the searches and seizures authorized by Impugned Provisions are reasonable because (a) they are warrantless and lack any judicial supervision of any kind, (b) it is impossible to test their reliability in achieving their objective, and (c) they almost certainly capture an inordinate number of individuals who have no US tax and reporting obligations…”

— “The state objective underlying the Impugned Provisions is to assist the United States in implementing FATCA and finding US tax evaders and cheats.57 This is not an important Canadian objective.”

— “Finally, the court should recognize a novel principle of fundamental justice that Canada will not deny its citizens the protection of Canadian sovereignty…the principle of non-intervention between states is a cornerstone of the international order and intrinsically connected to state sovereignty;88 it is undoubtedly considered by all Canadians to be fundamental to their notion of justice that Canada will not expose them to enforcement of another state’s laws…”

NEXT STEPS:

— Canada responds to our Memorandum of Argument by November 21, 2018.

— We reply to Canada by December 7, 2018.

— Trial is held in Vancouver beginning January 28, 2019

March 22, 2018 Canadian FATCA IGA Litigation in Federal Court Update: New Timetable

Canadian FATCA IGA litigation

UPDATE March 22, 2018

The attorneys for our side (our side are Plaintiffs Gwen and Kazia, the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty — the “client”, and our supporters) and the attorneys for Mr. Justin Trudeau’s Government have just agreed on the timing for the next steps of our Canadian FATCA IGA lawsuit in Canada’s Federal Court.

It is always possible that the Court might change some of the dates but here is the new timetable:

— Defence [the Government] evidence, except one expert report, filed April 16, 2018;

— Last defence expert report filed April 30, 2018;

— Notice of any objections to expert reports provided by June 15, 2018;

— CMC to discuss scheduling of any applications to strike all or portions of affidavits in

— Cross-examinations completed by July 31, 2018;

— Plaintiffs argument served and filed by September 28, 2018;

— Defence argument served and filed by November 16, 2018;

— Plaintiffs’ reply served and filed by December 7, 2018;

— Hearing the week of January 28, 2019, subject to the Court’s availability.

The key update is the hope/expectation that the Federal Court hearing will take place in January 2019.

Since the beginning of our lawsuit, many, many Canadian citizens (we have not been provided with the numbers) have been rounded up and turned over by Canada CRA to the United States IRS.

Yes, I know that our litigation has been moving at a glacial pace. Sorry…