Maple Sandbox Historical Archive – 2012 to 2016

FATCA Centric Debate–Toronto Centre November 18

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maplesandboxarchive

November 10, 2013

Toronto Centre Debates have invited all Toronto Centre candidates to a FATCA Centric Debate for Toronto Centre for November 18 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The location will be announced by November 13.
The organizers say:

FATCA – The most important issue Canadians are not aware of and Candidates won’t talk about!

Their information provides links to the recent MacLean’s article (What Is FATCA: IRS Peeking Into Canadians’ Accounts article by Erica Alini) and the OpEd News article (FATCA Faces Tell the Real Story) by Lynne Swanson. It incorporates much of the latter article into the blog.
In addition:

If all of this isn’t bad enough, the Canadian Bankers are working overtime, by encouraging the Harper Government to enter into an agreement with the U.S. to facilitate transferring this money and information to the IRS. According to the Canadian Bankers association the Government of Stephen Harper is poised to just that – agree to turn the confidential information of Canadian citizens over to the IRS. How can this be done? Doesn’t the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protect Canadians from this intrusion into their privacy? Constitutional scholar and former dean of the Osgoode Hall Law School Peter Hogg thinks so. Incredibly the U.S. FATCA law REQUIRES the Canadian banks to comply even if to comply means they must violate Canadian law INCLUDING THE CONSTITUTION OF CANADA

I have no idea why this group has taken on FATCA as a major challenge, but I’m delighted they have. Based on their website and their tweets, FATCA is one of many issues they are dealing with in the Toronto Centre byelection. I can personally assure you that Lynne Swanson had no involvement in organizing this debate.
Will the candidates accept the invitation? I predict the major parties won’t. I certainly hope I’m wrong about that. In fact, I would be thrilled to admit I misjudged them if the candidates for the Conservatives, NDP and Liberals do finally agree to a public, open debate on FATCA.

2 responses to “FATCA Centric Debate–Toronto Centre November 18”

schubert

November 13, 2013

Toronto Centre Debates updated their website announcement today. The FATCA-centred debate will be held at the Don Mills United Church, 126 O’Connor Drive, Toronto M4K 2K7. Doors will open at 6:45 pm.
The website notes a) all eleven candidates have been invited to participate, and b) that while the main focus of the debate will be FATCA, there will be an opportunity for other issues and questions to be raised.
Please, everyone in Toronto turn out to support this debate. A major issue in this campaign, according to the Toronto Centre Debate website, is the refusal or unwillingness of some of the candidates to participate in debates before the voters. As the website so rightly points out, this is a slap in the face to the voters and an affront to democracy. Why have an election at all, if candidates aren’t prepared to debate and discuss issues before meetings of voters?
If I were a Toronto Centre voter, I would show up and take careful note of which candidates bother to attend. I would then cast my vote for one of those candidates, whichever came closest to my views. No candidate who fails to show up, except for an illness or a family emergency, would get my consideration. If someone I had been supporting failed to show up and I had a lawn sign, I would contact the campaign and give them a few hours to remove their sign, or I would remove it myself from my property.
And if none of the candidates can bother to show up, I would show up on election day and spoil my ballot. I’ve never heard of spoiled ballots being reported, but they ought to be.

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Blaze

November 20, 2013

Here is more information about the FATCA debate in Toronto Centre.
I still have no idea who or what the people organizing these debates are, but their assessments of FATCA are superb.
I wish journalists, banks and politicians would give as much care and attention to understanding what FATCA means for Canada and for Canadians.

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Maple Sandbox Historical Archive – 2012 to 2016

FATCA Centric Debate–Toronto Centre November 18

2 responses to “FATCA Centric Debate–Toronto Centre November 18”