Sun Newspapers | 07Apr2009 | Brent Fullard
No income, no trust
Lie. Conceal. Fabricate. That was the theme our association used in
billboards across the country in the aftermath of Prime Minister
Stephen Harper's broken income trust promise.
You would think someone as litigious as Harper would have sued our
association for libel. Especially for the full page newspaper ads we
ran under the headline of: "Jim Flaherty, your tax leakage analysis is
fraudulent."
The reason these public statements did not invite a libel lawsuit is
because the best defence against claims of libel is the statements
being made are true.
After all, Harper did lie, conceal and fabricate when he broke his
election promise to "never" tax income trusts, with his demonstrable
lie that income trusts cause tax leakage.
An argument he fabricated by leaving out all of the taxes that are paid
to Ottawa by the 38% of income trusts held in RRSPs, and concealed
within his 18 pages of blacked out "proof."
Meanwhile our claim that Jim Flaherty's tax leakage analysis is
fraudulent is derived from the definition of fraud, which is "an
intentional deception made for personal gain or which causes damage to
another."
Based on this definition, Flaherty's income trust tax is a fraud since
it was based on the intentional deception of his fabricated tax leakage
claims, and the policy resulted in Canadians permanently losing $35
billion of their hard-earned retirement savings.
Scandals
These events have enormous relevance to today and the financial
scandals that have been perpetrated on an unsuspecting public by the
likes of the AIGs, Bennie Madoffs, and Bear Stearns of this world.
The income trust tax and the enormous havoc it created in Canadians'
retirement savings, and the massive number of takeovers that ensued
(worth $108 billion), mostly by foreigners such as Hong Kong
billionaires and middle eastern oil companies, is the real scandal
Canadians should make themselves aware of.
Unlike the present day financial meltdown Harper assured us during the
last election "would have happened by now" if it was going to happen at
all, or the raging debate over how much Harper is responsible for the
financial calamity all around us, the damage caused by the income trust
tax is something that is the sole consequence of a decision Harper made.
Today's financial meltdown has, no doubt, sensitized a larger number of
Canadians about what it actually means to lose half of your retirement
savings or to lose the very basis for one's retirement income.
The trust takeovers to date by foreigners have caused Ottawa and all
taxpayers to lose more than $1 billion in annual tax revenue, a number
that will soon climb to $7.5 billion. And for what? The privilege of
having foreigners own more of Canada and the privilege of imposing
enormous losses on Canadians saving for retirement?
Unlike today's other financial meltdown, this is an outcome Harper
owns, lock, stock and barrel, based on his policy of lie, conceal,
fabricate.