Few people do it as well as Robert Reich. And there are lessons here for Canada as well: I don't know who needs to hear this, but refusing to disclose the corporations receiving $500,000,000,000 in taxpayer-funded bailouts is the real looting in America. pic.twitter.com/jg5kkDSGUh — Robert Reich (@RBReich) June 12,
Continue readingTag: offshore tax havens
Politics and its Discontents: Friends In High Places Are Good (For Some)
Having friends in high places is certainly something the wealthy must savour as they continue to hide money in offshore tax havens. Yes, the very same havens the Trudeau government promised to crack down on. And the very same tax havens that, as I recently posted, seem to inspire timidity
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Our Timid Canadian Revenue Agency
Over a year ago I posted about the sad record of the CRA in pursuing offshore tax cheats as revealed by the Panama Papers. It seems that little has changed since then. In a Policy Options article, Senator Percy Down asks, Why can’t the Canada Revenue Agency catch tax cheats?
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh wins Burnaby South by-election, clearing key hurdle ahead of federal campaign
Jagmeet Singh will soon take his place as leader in the House of Commons. This is where the puck hits the sidewalk. With Trudeau on the ropes over the SNC Lavalin controversy, and Read more…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Less Than Meets The Eye?
Given its recent rather dubious pursuits of lost tax revenue, I readily admit that I don’t know what to make of the latest report that the CRA has actually begun to pursue monies lost to offshore tax havens. Zach Dubinsky reports the following: Canada Revenue Agency officers, backed up by
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Seeking Some Substance – Part 2
In Part 1, I tried to establish that there is a gross discrepancy between the rhetoric and the reality of Justin Trudeau’s promise to makie sure corporations pay their fair share. Indeed, if truth be told, his government has done little or nothing to alter the CRA ethos, imposed during
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada’s financial system one of the most secretive in the world: Report
The Tax Justice Network’s 2018 Financial Secrecy Index says Canada’s financial system is less transparent than that of notorious tax havens and countries often portrayed as corrupt by the mainstream media, such as China, Russia and Kenya. That makes Canada one of the key facilitators of illicit financial flaws, global
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Seeking Some Substance – Part 1
In yesterday’s Star, Christopher Hume had occasion to call Prime Minister Trudeau the princeling practitioner of the politics of appearance. In light of an alarming shortfall in revenues that is crippling our services thanks to the government’s anemic corporate tax policies, that struck me as a particularly apt description. Indeed,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Trudeau Town Halls: Baubles Of Distraction, Not Questions Of Substance
Prime-Minister-For-A-Day Kim Campbell is probably best remembered for saying, “An election is no time to discuss serious issues.” She might just as well have been talking about town halls, particularly the kind our Prime Minister is currently in the midst of. Justin Trudeau’s meet-and-greet will undoubtedly constitute a public-relations success.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Tax Fairness
Ed Broadbent recently wrote on the need for real tax reform, calling for an end to the various favours our government bestows on the ultra rich. His thesis was compelling: Tax avoidance and evasion by the rich ultimately undermines democracy: it starves social programs and public services, increases after tax
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Canadians React To The Paradise Papers
If you aren’t yet outraged over recent revelations, check your pulse to make sure you are still amongst the living. Happily, signs of life are plentiful among Toronto Star readers: Liberal Party fundraisers held family millions in offshore trust, Nov. 6 Coverage of the Paradise Papers’ celebrity tax evaders has
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Point Is
In her latest iPolitics article, Kady O’Maley offers the view that the revelations of The Paradise Papers do not constitute a scandal for Justin Trudeau and his government. And while the Scheer-led Opposition is making every predictable effort to connect non-existent dots, few are suggesting that Trudeau had any personal
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Politics and its Discontents 2017-11-08 20:20:00
PM Justin Trudeau says he’s satisfied with Liberal fundraiser Stephen Bronfman’s explanation of his ties to offshore accounts, but Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer calls those remarks inappropriate. The Prime Minister is either tone deaf, intellectually challenged, or truly and inextricably linked to the values represented by the world of the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Behind The Curtain
Ah, Star letter writers rarely disappoint. Truth, rather than political spin, always improves my mood. Liberal Party fundraisers held family millions in offshore trust, Nov. 6 From Panama to Paradise, we have a tiny glimpse into the realities dictating our lives: aristocrats and power brokers taking aim at record profits
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Paradise Lost
“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”-Leona Helmsley “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”– Mark 10:25 This morning’s Star gives comprehensive and very comprehensible coverage of the latest
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Paradise Papers
The prospect of real tax reform in Canada just got a lot dimmer. Today’s release of the Paradise Papers suggests why. CBC News is reporting this about Justin Trudeau’s chief fundraiser, Stephen Bronfman: In the early summer of 2015, Justin Trudeau was the star attraction at a private fundraiser in
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Enemies Of The People
I hardly think that is too harsh a description of both those who park their money offshore to avoid taxes and those who facilitate such evasions. Indeed, an open letter signed by some of the world’s leading economists makes the cost of such selfish and…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Wisdom From A 91-Year-Old
Don’t worry. This is not one of those bromides on how to live a long and happy life. It is, however, a realistic recipe for social cohesion and progress. The letter, from Joy Taylor of Scarborough, was published in today’s Toronto Star: Today I turned 91. My friends and I
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A More Realistic Appraisal of Jim Flaherty
If, like me, you were rather appalled by the hypocritical yet predictable enconiums offered to Jm Flaherty by his political foes, you will likely enjoy this letter from Ottawa Star reader Morgan Duchesney, who renders a far more realistic appraisal of the departing Finance Minister: Re: Chance for a fresh
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Harper Lies: The Dismal Truth About Corporate Tax Evasion
My friend Gary recently alerted me to this, which should sicken all Canadian citizens. It is a story of corporate greed, massive amounts of lost tax revenues, and a government that aids and abets both. After viewing it, be sure to read the missive from Star letter-writer Robert Bahlieda that
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