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Two Moms in Tennis Shoes are at it again. WhiteKat and AtticusinCanada hope others will join them on 
Parliament Hill October 16 to try to stop FATCA.
Here is what AtticusinCanada posted in What’s New
Sandboxers! Our permit to protest FATCA on Parliament Hill Oct. 16th has been approved between the hours of 9.am. and 3 p.m. by Heritage Canada!
Score!
I can’t make it, but I hope lots show up.
Thanks Lynne, those who want to attend can email me if they wish to @ atticus in canada at gmail dot com.
We have one woman coming from up north who is driving and so if you are up that way let me know and I’ll co ordinate you with her.
If you are coming from out of town and want to come the night before. I recommend the Sheraton as it is walking distance two blocks from the Hill and it’s not so expensive. I do not recommend the Capital to stay in as it not that clean and isn’t any closer than the other one. I have mapped distance walking and will send a detail map to anyone who wants it from hotel walking up O’Conner to the Hill. It’s pretty much a straight shot.
We are not allowed to bring a megaphone, we cannot impede the coming and going of anyone doing their work on the Hill. We must clean up anything we brought in. We can bring signs but,not attach to the fences or any part of the property. All that means is hold your own sign and don’t tie to anything. They just want to be sure the Hill is respected and that people can move unimpeded on the Hill. Some are bringing their older children if possible to participate in our Canadian democracy and I think this is a wonderful way to show family how we exercise our rights in Canada.
Hope to see some of you there! If you can’t come let others know who may be interested. I’ll be there rain or shine. Which brings me to the following. Watch the weather! Bring a poncho, Canadian Tire has very good rain suits for not much, I may have some extra ponchos and will bring to share. At any rate plan for and dress for the weather. It’s Ottawa! We could get a bright shiny crisp fall day but, it’s windy on the Hill! I’m hoping for a gorgeous day.
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@ AtticusinCanada
Are there any plans to notify the media in advance of the protest? It will be a busy day on Parliament Hill that day.
For those who cannot attend the Ottawa protest, I like the suggestion made by The Mom at IBS that something be done at at local level. This can be a nationwide day of action with the main event in Ottawa.
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I’ve asked Elizabeth May to stop by the Ottawa protest. If you would also like her to stop by you can contact her at:
http://elizabethmaymp.ca/ask-elizabeth-anything/
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Hazy, this day was chosen because there will already be media on the Hill that day! I don’t think I will need to alert them as they will already be there. They will see us and some will ask what we are there for. I think it’s important to get as many involved across the country as we can. If you can come to Ottawa, GREAT. If not do something locally even if it is only to have a sign in your yard.
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@Atticus: I think Hazy’s idea is a good one. Media will be there for Opening Day, but focused on on that.
There will probably be other protests.
A news release could help reporters understand better and make their jobs easier. Think about how they love to regurgitate IRS news releases in Canada. We need to give them counter points to work with.
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Hi, I’ve been busy today with a few other things. I’m doing an interview Tuesday morning at 10:30 on this radio show. http://www.thetakeaway.org/ They are” The show is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.”
I was called out of the blue today to do this. They said they had seen the Global interview and asked me about doing it. I did say I didn’t want to do any further U.S. based interviews but, I think this one is important so will do it.
As to the protest and a press release. I’m not sure of the proper way to do one and have no media contacts BUT I did bring it up with the radio interviewer on our initial conversation.
If someone who has done press release before wishes to do one that’s fine with me. If there is consensus that this is what we ought to do, then that’s fine of course. I just thought we got plenty of press before just because they were there and we were too last time. Hopefully, we’d get the same attention the same way with more press at the next protest than at the first one. You may however, be right about doing a formal press release. I’m open to suggestions. I don’t speak for Brock or Maple Sandbox as an “official” though so perhaps the two sites want to collaborate and come up with a release? Then I guess it would be submitted to the press and we’d have to pay for it to be published? I’m willing to do one locally in our paper here and pay the fee to do it. Something more national I guess is what we’d be looking for though. Thoughts?
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You don’t pay for press releases. You send them to the media and hope they pick up on the story.
It’s important to have a strong hook to capture the attention of reporters and editors, especially because there will be a lot of other activity on The Hill consuming them that day.
It might also be a great way to get some advance publicity on places like Ontario Morning, Ottawa Morning, etc. to let people know about the protest and more importantly about the issue.
I think this would be a great cooperative effort for Brock and Sandbox.
I think Petros has sent out press releases in the past, so he may have names and e-mail addresses to send them to.
I’m willing to help write it.
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Great! I’ve never been involved in press releases and was wondering about assurance of publication thinking it may cost to be sure it was published. If it works the way you say, Lynne and I’m sure it does as you would know then Okay. Would like to see this happen if you all feel it will help!
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The only time you would pay anything for a news release is if you hire a PR firm to do one for you. Then you pay them–not the paper.
You only pay a newspaper if you place an ad.
Could you check at Brock and see if they are interested in a joint release. If so, I work with you and someone from Brock to put it together. Think about what the most important things are you want to say. Think powerful. Think concise. Think snappy. Think what will make this stand out from hundreds of others.
It should be short–about 200 words. We will need a quote from you or WhiteKat or someone else. We will also need a name, number and e-mail address.
Once we have the Ottawa one done, people planning other protests can adapt it for their communities. Some papers have community calendars where you can post information free, but I don’ t know if you can do protest notices there.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a protest notice there. My city has reader to reader letters on Saturdays, but I don’t recall ever seeing a protest notice there.
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@Blaze,
Email me, and we can discuss how I can help.
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I’m meeting with form filers next week so it’s going to be a bit of a push. I’ll post something at Brock, I don’t see why it can’t be a joint venture.
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Got a really good tip from a reporter I talked to today (off the record, of course, he said)
I explained that there was a demonstration planned and he said “webcast”. Get somebody with production skills and do an on-line feed so that it can be shown all over the world LIVE.
Put that together with a twitter feed, an active post at Brock and maybe something on each blog (Sandbox, Flophouse and so on) as well and suddenly the demonstration is GLOBAL and you have tons of participants (virtual) from all over.
The media, he said, would eat it up.
I thought that was a pretty damn good idea. I’d love to help put something like that together if anyone is game.
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I don’t have the techie skills–I can just help with news release.
Would it be possible to link a webcast to to other locations throughout Canada to get even greater attention or would it just be for Ottawa?
Is there any possibility of other countries doing something that day?
For those who don’t know, the reason the October 16 date was chosen was it is the day Parliament reconvenes.
I’m hoping to video my version of American Taxman Stay Away from Me before then.
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Has anyone ever heard of a Portrait Petition?
I never had, but just discovered one as a result of a campaign to try to free a London Ontario ER physician and a Toronto filmaker who have been jailed in Egypt for a month.
Here is the information of that Portrait Petition.
http://freetarekandjohn.tumblr.com/
How do others feel about doing a “I’m Am Not A Myth” campaign to show US Treasury the real faces behind the FATCA nightmare?
Victoria, if people are interested, could you help with the technical issues?
Of course, it would mean people would need to go public, but I think it might have a huge impact and could garner some good media attention.
The more people we could get to do this before October 16, the better.
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The “I am not a Myth” idea is great! And is easy to do.
Occupy did use Live Stream and that is how they went Global. We’d have to do that at another protest though as we are not allowed to use or set up equipment such as Macbook and mic.. you need to have the area covered so equipment doesn’t get exposed to weather. We’re not allowed to use equipment this time as permit doesn’t allow for that on the Hill with this permit. That’s not stopping anyone from doing it elsewhere though.
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Darn. That webcast idea sounded fabulous. Victoria, is there any other way it could be done, i.e. with a Smart Phone. Atticus, would that be allowed?
What should we do as our next step for I Am Not a Myth virtual global Protest?
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I just began my own One Person I Am Not A Myth protest by tweeting:
Lynne Swanson ?@LynneBlaze 2h
@USTreasury I am not a myth. I am Canadian. I pay taxes 2 Canada No “illicit activities” my accounts. Don’t #FATCA me pic.twitter.com/nagfW4blXc
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It is possible to do it with Livestream from a smart phone I think but, it would not last very long as it would eat your battery up like crazy. At Occupy they employed lots of extra batteries and had charger banks that could be used and rotated. That means having a bank of batteries. It’s easy to do but, you have to have permission for that kind of equipment. An alternative is to do a very short Livestream unless someone is willing for their battery to be dead very quickly on their phone. I have the Livestream app. Let me see what can be done. I know someone I can ask about this and see if there is a way to do it without having obvious equipment.
We probably can do this at another protest and other events. You just have to have a proper equipment permit or they can shut you down and take away equipment without it and sometimes even when you DO have all the proper equipment. Occupy had their equipment taken and destroyed sometimes even when they had the right to use it by police.
One thing people CAN do is use the livestream app and each person can stream for a few minutes or record video for later uploading to other sites. If you have a cell phone and who doesn’t then record what you can or stream what you can from where you are. Perhaps if others are doing this protest in other parts of the world and have time to get the appropriate permissions for equipment they CAN do a full Live Stream. I got the feeling Heritage Canada wasn’t wanting to approve large equipment. I was specifically asked about it.
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Would it be possible to webcast it for a few really important minutes at a predetermined time using a phone? I don’t think the media would follow the entire six hours.
Victoria, any suggestions? Would people in UK or Europe be interested in somehow joining in if it was at a good time for both sides of the pond?
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I have looked into that tonight Lynn. If someone has a You Tube account with one hundred followers you can live stream directly to YT. Otherwise you can do a few minutes I think through Live Stream. I emailed you some of the issues with that. It’s best done by someone with a LOCAL plan in Ottawa as anyone else streaming data long distance would be very limited. There’s some mini equipment you can buy that would be perfect for getting better quality film, for longer lasting phone life but, it’s pricey. Web casting is a great idea if you can be set up for it. I’ll see what else I can find out about doing this.
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Here’s an article by Lynne Swanson (aka Blaze) on the upcoming protest in Ottawa.
One of the organizers says:
“This is against the rights of all Canadians”
She also says:
“It’s US overreach. It violates our privacy laws. It violates our Charter. I just think if we give in on this…where does this end?”
You Go Girls!
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As Oct 16 is quickly approaching, I would strongly urge anyone who is on the fence as to whether or not to participate in the Ottawa protest, to join us! So far, the number of people who have committed to coming is rather small (under 10 I believe). Blaze, Atticus and others have worked hard on the press release and gathering media contacts, so it is important to have a good showing this Wednesday.
Let’s not let this opportunity go to waste!
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@WhiteKat – I wish I could, but I can’t afford the airfare 🙂 I sincerely hope to see you guys on the news!
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I would love to be there too. I will be there in spirit.
Two Moms in Tennis Shoes do it again!
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I just noticed these tweets between Noble Dreamer, Allison Christians and AtticusinCanada.
https://twitter.com/nobledreamer16/status/388514989364875264
It sounds like Noble Dreamer and Atticus will try to do some live tweeting from the protest tomorrow.
I will be out in the morning, but I will try to check it out on Twitter as soon as I get home. If there are tweets there about the protest, I will try to add some of them here.
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Parliament Hill webcam
http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/collineduparlement-parliamenthill/camera-eng.html
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Hazy, thanks for the link to the cam!
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Cool webcam Hazy.
Here is a tweet from Atticus
AtticusinCanada @AtticusinCanada 58m
parliament Hill Now pic.twitter.com/3AaUHs7fqEIfd
I hope the pic link she tweeted will work with the copy and paste I have done.
It looks rainy and the group is small, but they look determined.
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Nope the twitter link to the picture doesn’t work.
Here it is.
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Yikes! Prime Minister’s Office evacuated due to a suspicious package.
I know our FATCA Fighters didn’t have anything to do with this, but I wonder if their protest has been affected by it.
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Thank you all you brave ones on Parliament hill – standing up for Canadian sovereignty and your fellows in danger of being FATCAnized.
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Yeah nobledreamer!
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Hey, can someone tweet this and the picture to Sophie in’t Veld? She has an English language twitter too
https://www.facebook.com/sophieintveld
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Badger: Good suggestion. Done.
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thanks Blaze! Now the EU will see it too.
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Our protest permit ran 9 am to 3 pm. I counted 13 people (a 650% increase over the first FATCA protest, which took place in Ottawa last month — at that rate in 6 months we’ll have something like 980,000 protesting in Ottawa 🙂 Thanks to Atticus and White Kat of that first protest for organising this one! Protesters today came from as far as Toronto, Kingston and Brockville.
We had fact sheets and business cards to pass out – we also have fact sheet/press releases on about 40 lamp-poles in downtown Ottawa, which are designated for posting, where they’ll stay til the end of the month (the city strips these lamp-pole “bulletin boards” twice a month – but we can put up some more then).
We spoke with a couple of MPs and a staffer of Tom Mulcair’s, at least that I’m aware of, and many other people. With one exception, everyone we spoke with was very positive. The non-positive guy spoke with us in the morning (I mainly recall him speaking about the layout and grammar of the fact sheet) then came back in the afternoon with a copy of the Economist and called us all tax cheats. I actually found him kind of amusing, like a guy in a play or a movie.
I found it interesting that simply while walking the few blocks to Parliament and back home again, that 4 people, who noticed my sign, stopped me on the sidewalk and asked “What’s FATCA?” They hadn’t heard of it before, but thought it sounded awful and that US law is inappropriate for Canada.
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Thanks for that information Pacifica. I wish I could have been there. Many of us were in spirit.
Atticus also posted the following under Maple Sandbox Rules, but I’m posting it here to be sure people interested in the protest see it.
atticusincanada on October 16, 2013 at 7:01 pm said:
Our protest today went very well! There were about 13 of us all together plus a few people who stopped by who have been reading about this and had heard about the protest from around the area. We had people there from Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston, Brockville, Beckwith! We spoke with Murray Rankin, another NDP member and Ted Hsu! Several other people stopped by from Idle No More and spoke with me about this and once they heard about the issue were completely against FATCA.
There was quite a bit of excitement with the scare today on the hill as the offices across the street *The PM’S office* were evacuated.
There were lots of opportunities to speak with other Canadians and once again our RCMP officer was very interested and took a flyer as well as a card. She was not thrilled with the idea of the U.S. passing laws over our border at all.
All in all it was a successful day and I was so pleased to see so many come by. Especially the lady from Brockville who had sent her story to the Ways and Means committee. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you to everyone who made it there from Toronto and to those who took time out of their work day to stop by. Thanks especially to everyone who printed fact sheets, brought information cards and to all who were out there today. As the NDP member said to us “You are a small group but, you are getting noticed and having an impact.”
Thank you Atticus for all your hard work and efforts on this.
Do you have a link to the information from the Brockville woman who sent her information to Ways and Means Committee. I know I’ve read it in the past, but we don’t seem to have a link to it here.
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Here’s another photo of the protest from Atticus.
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I don’t think Canada will sign.
I think FATCA will whither away and die, and the Americans will come out of this with egg all over the face.
Americans………Blithering idiots.
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