Justice Luc Martineau has delivered his Decision in the Summary Trial.
i have not read it thoroughly yet, but this indicates information may be transmitted because Justice Martineau has ruled FATCA does not violate the Income Tax Treaty.
Significantly:
[9] I have concluded that the collection and automatic disclosure of account holder information about US reportable accounts (see paragraphs 28 to 34 below) contemplated by Articles 2 and 3 of the IGA is legally authorized in Canada by the provisions of the IGA Implementation Act and Part XVIII of the ITA. Moreover, contrary to the assertions made by the plaintiffs, I find that the collection and automatic disclosure of any such information is not inconsistent with the provisions of the Canada-US Tax Treaty, and does not otherwise violate section 241 of the ITA. Basically, I endorse the general reasoning and the legal arguments submitted by the defendants in their written submissions and reasserted at the hearing by counsel.
Fortunately, he did not award costs to the government so Ginny and Gwen are not responsible for those.
77] For all these reasons, the declaratory and injunctive relief requested by the plaintiffs in their motion for summary judgment shall be denied by the Court, without prejudice to the plaintiffs’ right to pursue their claim that the impugned provisions are ultra vires or inoperative because they are unconstitutional or otherwise unjustifiably infringe Charter rights. There shall be no costs. This is a case where, in view of the nature of the issues and the public interest involved in clarifying the scope of novel provisions affecting hundreds of thousands of Canadian citizens, no costs should be ordered against the losing parties.
Please note, this is a decision on the Summary Trial involving the Income Tax Act and Income Tax Treaty issues and not on the Charter and constitutional issues.
The fight continues……
UPDATE September 17, 2015: I have read the decision a bit more thoroughly. My non-lawyer sense of it is Justice Martineau agrees with Canadian Parliament that “Congress has spoken.”
ADCS Directors are considering options. I think Stephen will post further information as things progress.
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