FATCA has been challenged in the Canadian Federal Court.

[riverbendviewgal]

Today there are quite a few articles on this Court Challenge in the USA... WSJ, ABJ and
FORBES article by Robert Wood
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/08/12/canadians-file-suit-to-block-fatca-and-prohibit-handover-of-u-s-names/2/

one of the comments on the FORBES article is by A very esteemed US lawyer. James George Jatras. James George Jatras is a specialist in international relations, government affairs, and legislative politics.. http://www.georgemasonjicl.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Jatras-Bio.pdf

I believe Mr. Jatras, who is American definitely thinks this challenge will be successful.



FYI. Maybe of interest on Forbes:
Jim Jatras 32 minutes ago
Robert, re: “Besides, even if the Canadian IGA fails, can’t Canadian banks then still voluntarily comply with FATCA and submit data to the U.S.? I think so.” Maybe, but I doubt it. It can’t be stressed too much that the main purpose of the IGAs — which even U.S. Treasury has admitted — is to abrogate other countries’ privacy laws (like Canada has) that prohibit providing a non-authorized party private information. The Canadian domestic law challenged in this suit in effect creates a legal exception to that prohibition. If the suit succeeds, that exception is closed. In order to comply directly, without an IGA, Canadian banks would then be faced with trying to strong-arm clients singled out for their “American indicia” to allow “voluntary” disclosure of their information under threat of closing their accounts. The trouble with that is that, if the IGA is nullified by the Canadian courts, it would be in large part because of discrimination against Canadians like the plaintiffs for their national origins. It’s then unlikely that direct enforcement by banks on the same discriminatory basis would fly, either. I suspect that if the IGA goes down, Canadian banks would then be left without the ability to comply and Treasury having to consider sanctioning our biggest trading partner — which I doubt they would. At that point, FATCA becomes a virtual dead letter in Canada, and probably altogether.

o Called-out comment

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Robert W. Wood, Contributor 27 minutes ago
Really insightful, thank you. If you are right about this, it sure underscores the importance of this suit.

Also here is the Charter Challenge to FATCA


Statement of Claim to the Canadian Attorney General of Canada
by Petros
Statement of Claim against the Canadian Attorney General of Canada

This is a great text. Everyone in Canada should read it.


http://isaacbrocksociety.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/2014-08-11-statement-of-claimfederalcourtcanada.pdf