[PHOTO] The CN Tower behind the BellMedia complex

[PHOTO] Looking west on Water Street at Great George, Charlottetown

The brick facade of Gainsford House, which I photographed on last year's visit, is visible.

[LINK] "‘U.S. persons’ in Canada express fear and loathing of tax crackdown"

Douglas Todd's Vancouver Sun article relating to binational American-Canadian citizens and their complaints about controversial new taxation policies is worth reading.

I do have to say that this--at least the mandatory taxation of long-time Canadian residents and holders of Canadian citizenship who are also Americans by birth--sounds bad. Half of my links on Eritrea relate to the Eritrean government's much less sophisticated shakedowns of Eritrean diasporids. Or am I drawing too much similarity between the efforts of two different governments to tax their citizens abroad?

The sense of outrage, loathing and emotional tumult displayed by people in Canada who have direct or indirect U.S. connections reverberates on at least three major websites devoted to the battle against the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, best known as FATCA.

Americans in Canada have written about experiencing emotional breakdowns, marital discord, depression and alcohol dependence on FATCA-protest websites such as The Isaac Brock Society, Maple Sandbox and the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty. Using pseudonyms, they have called Uncle Sam a "global bully," an "oligarchy" and a "desperate fading empire."

Their fury has been heating up since July 1, when the Canadian government brought into effect a complex agreement with the U.S. that requires roughly a million people in Canada who are considered "U.S. persons" to file U.S. income tax statements — or face severe penalties. While many Americans in Canada will not be out of pocket because of FATCA, many will be hit with extra costs, including capital gains on the sale of their Canadian homes.

Upset with what they see as the Conservative government caving into pressure from the U.S. government in its global quest to root out tax "cheats", a group of Canadian citizens this week launched a lawsuit in Federal Court alleging the legislation is unconstitutional.

Two Ontario women with roots in the U.S. — Gwen Deegan of Toronto and Ginny Hillis of Windsor — took the risk of attaching their name to the lawsuit, which was sponsored in part by the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty and is being spearheaded by noted Vancouver constitutional lawyer Joe Arvay.

Deegan, who moved to Canada when she was five years old and has never had a U.S. passport, called Canada's complicity with FATCA "a literal betrayal." She maintained the country in which she was born, but has no meaningful ties, is "plundering" her retirement savings with an "absurd law."

One Metro Vancouver man has also come forward with how appalled he is by the behaviour of the U.S. and Canadian governments, even though he's not a signatory to the lawsuit. James Hamilton, a 55-year-old BC Hydro engineer who lives with his family in Coquitlam, joins many in demanding to know how the U.S. can get away with being the only major country in the world that taxes people based on citizenship, not residency. Hamilton believes the U.S. is engaged in "a big money grab" since its inadequate banking regulations helped throw the world into a financial crisis in 2008.

[LINK] "Shelving to Save a Book's Life"

Susan Coll's article at The Atlantic about the complexities of shelving books on the shelves of bookstores resonates with me.

The rules of shelving can seem arbitrary, even arcane, but the fundamentals are easy to learn: two hard covers, and no more than three paperbacks of the same title, on each shelf. The exception is the face-out. If the jacket is displayed horizontally, behind it you can stack as many books as can fit.

Turning a book face out is an act of tremendous power, or so it feels when you are working at an independent bookstore at a moment that has major chains shrinking and Amazon wreaking havoc with publishing’s already fragile ecosystem. In a bookstore, you can decide, unilaterally, without having to ask permission or sit in an hour-long meeting, to simply face out Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance because, well, because it’s one of your favorite books, and it also solves the problem of what to do with the space left by your desire to consolidate the David Mitchells, which means moving them all to the shelf below.

You can also show a little love to an obscure mid-list paperback you just discovered suffocating between two behemoth hardcovers—simply because it feels like the right thing to do. The positioning will likely only matter for a day or two before the next person doing some shelving undoes your handiwork, sticks three Fine Balances spine out, climbs the giant ladder, and puts the rest in overstock.

[LINK] "Putin's Threat to East Risks New Market Russia Has Cultivated"

Writing for Bloomberg, David Tweed and Ott Ummelas describe how Russian moves in Ukraine are undermining its relationship with non-Chinese East Asia, particularly Japan but also South Korea. (China, conversely, may do nicely.)

As a convoy of white trucks heading from Moscow to Ukraine raises alarm about a potential Russian invasion, Vladimir Putin is opening up a new front on his global chess board.

Putin sparked outrage in Japan with a military drill along Russia’s eastern frontier this week, reigniting a territorial dispute with his Asian neighbor that has festered since the Soviet Union occupied the Kuril Islands, which Japan calls its Northern Territories, at the end of World War II.

The move risks upending years of rapprochement and rising trade with Japan, according to analysts from Tokyo to Washington. It also suggests that Putin is willing to take his European playbook to Asia and subordinate Russia’s economic interests to the calling of power and prestige.

“The military exercises are about projecting confidence and strength,” said Michael Auslin, director of Japan Studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “Putin wants Russia to be seen as a great player in the Pacific, otherwise it’s going to be eclipsed by China.”

[. . .]

Alienating Japan [. . .] raises the risk of Putin becoming even more reliant on China as a destination for Russian goods at a time when he’s running out of global allies. China is already Russia’s biggest trading partner, and three months ago the two countries signed a $400 billion gas-supply deal.

“In the case of China, it may further accelerate the process of Russian-Chinese relations becoming a China-dominated partnership,” said Arkady Moshes, head of the European Union’s Eastern Neighborhood and Russia research program at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki.

[URBAN NOTE] "The view from a condo"

Kanishk Bhatia's June article at Spacing about the dynamic development of the condo-dominated neighbourhood of Fort York is a thoughtful consideration. When I moved to Toronto a decade ago and walked down there, I saw nothing but wasteland. So much change!

I sometimes pause to reflect on the change that has occurred on this particular plot of land between Bathurst Street and the Princes’ Gate (entrance to Exhibition Place) and bounded by historic Fort York to the north and Lakeshore Boulevard to the south. Much of this section of the city, together with surrounding land south of the rail corridor, was previously re-claimed from the lake and had a largely industrial character for decades. With the eventual displacement of industry, this “dead” space has been transformed into a new residential neighbourhood literally started from scratch – one of several such developments in Toronto in recent years. Today there are thousands of people living here who collectively represent a new chapter in Toronto’s continuing growth.

Unlike City Place to the east which has a relative “sameness” in terms of architectural style (due to much of it being built by a single developer), the ownership of plots was dispersed amongst four developers here, which has had the effect of a slightly more varied mix of building types sprouting up. The City of Toronto went through an extensive master planning process to guide the development of this new neighbourhood in line with its desired city-building principles around elements such as transit access, public realm elements and integration with existing heritage features.

While it could be argued that the term “neighbourhood” may be pre-mature given the area’s development is still very much a work-in-progress (new building construction is still on-going), one can start to see the early signs of a sustainable residential community taking shape. To be sure, it is easy to point out a number of shortcomings based on what exists today, such as the limited public amenities and lack of vibrant street life. However, given the still evolving nature of the development context, it might be wise to wait at least another 10 years before one can reasonably assess the success or failure of the city’s vision for this neighbourhood.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• io9 argues that it's time to survey Uranus, notwithstanding its name.


• blogTO describes the attractive-sounding art-friendly Harbord Laundry.


• The Dragon's Tales notes archeological evidence suggesting that Vanuatu was settled three thousand years ago.


• Joe. My. God. has comments about the Burger King-Tim Horton's merger that really bring American outrage over the shift of the resulting company to Canada for tax purposes home.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the creepy locker-room homophobias of ESPN.


• Marginal Revolution notes that China is now officially building much more housing than it actually needs.


• The Planetary Society Blog considers various designs for probes to Jupiter's moon of Europa.


• Torontoist and blogTO note that Yorkville institution the Coffee Mill is closing down.


• The Volokh Conspiracy reacts critically to a survey claiming three-quarters of whites have no non-white friends.


• Window on Eurasia notes Russian concern that support for federalism in Ukraine might spread to Russia, observes the prominent role of Tatars in fighting for Russia in the First World War, and refers to the explicit concerns of Nazarbayev that Kazakhization not be carried too quickly lest the country risk Ukraine's fate.