Sunday, January 31, 2010

CANADA IS A DEMOCRACY ..


CANADA IS A DEMOCRACY IN NAME ONLY
It is the unelected senior bureaucrats in Canada’s Department of Finance and The Canada Revenue Agency that actually dictate the conduct of Canada’s Prime Minister and Members of the House of Commons.

Victor Drummond ©
January 2010

At long last a Canadian Newspaper has published an article that should be a wake-up call to all Canadians. On Wednesday, January 27, 2010 the on-line Toronto Star contained an editorial with the title: “Time to address democratic deficit.”
Ref: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/756262--time-to-address-democratic-deficit#article

This report came as a surprise to me because, until now, it seemed to me Canadian News Media were mainly cowed into conforming to Canadian government guidelines forbidding publishing comments or articles unfavourable to the government. A kind of censorship.

The information presented came as no surprise, however, as I had already observed the transition of Canada’s government from a democracy to a dictatorship during my lifetime.

And it is not our elected members in the House of Commons, or our Prime Minister that are calling the shots these days.

When Stephen Harper suddenly did an about face and went completely silent, on the outrageous phantom tax issue, following the warning: “JDS deal dangerous precedent.” issued in December 2007, by senior “bureaucrats” in the Department of Finance and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), it became painfully obvious who is really running Canada’s government.

Prior to this directive Prime Minister Harper was a participant in getting the Gary Lunn, Tax Remission Order, (TRO), approved in order to revoke the tax on phantom income for 37 former employees of the defunct SDL Optics Inc (JDS Uniphase) plant in Gary Lunn’s riding of Saanich Gulf Islands, British Columbia.

Harper would not have approved this TRO if he had the slightest doubt the tax was totally unjustified, unfair and abusive to those honest, hard-working Canadians who were being victimized by it.

At the time this TRO was announced, with plenty political fanfare, Harper was asked by a Victoria Times Colonist Newspaper, Columnist, (Cindy E. Harnett) if his government would extend the tax treatment, provided by the TRO, to other Canadian victims of the tax on phantom income?

Harper’s reply implied he would take action to extend the fair taxation provisions of the TRO to all Canadians victimized in this way when he answered: “we’ll get it resolved – it will take a change of code.”

But following a directive issued by those unelected “senior bureaucrats” Harper did a prompt about face and began to stonewall all appeals for the equal treatment under the laws of Canada that are guaranteed under provisions of the (May 2007) updated “Taxpayers Bill of Rights”.

Having Canada governed by unelected senior bureaucrats might not be such a bad thing if those bureaucrats displayed any qualities of compassion, honesty, decency or fairness. But it is obvious from the fact they warned the Prime Minister against fulfilling his commitment to “resolve” the phantom tax issue they do not concern themselves with none monetary items. They are strictly business oriented. Integrity, honesty, dependability, compassion fairness or justice have no place in their value system.

Their primary concern appears to be to collect all the tax money they can and if possible produce a federal budget surplus which would provide the government with excess funds, some of which may find its way into their pockets in the form of bonuses and/or pay raises.

How about the Prime Minister being held accountable by those MP’s who have been elected to the House of Commons to represent and protect the best interests of all Canadians – especially their constituents? That is the way it is supposed to work – but it no longer does.

The recent Prime Ministers of Canada have created committees to address the concerns of MP’s and rule on any action to be taken to correct an issue. By appointing personal mandarins to head up the committees they have created -- the Prime Minister effectively controls Parliament.

If you doubt the validity of the foregoing statements try getting anyone in Canada’s government to give you a position statement on the phantom income tax issue. Not even the leaders of Canada’s Loyal Opposition parties will so much as reply to a request for that information.

Why? What are they afraid of?

Every Canadian has a right to this information in order to make an informed decision when it comes time to vote for a representative in Parliament.

If Canadians do not pay attention to the changes going on in our system of government, and take action to restore true democracy, they may wake up one day in the same position as the group of German students who found a time has arrived “When Truth is Treason”.

In spite of the loudly proclaimed statements by our Honourable James M. Flaherty MP, CP, Minister of Finance, telling us that taxation of phantom income is “fair”, nearly everyone who takes the time to understand this outrageous tax concludes it is not fair, or even justified in any sense of the word.

If anyone claims it is OK to apply this tax because the victims are all well heeled executives that made bundles of money during the Hi-Tech stock market boom and are now trying to avoid pay a legitimate tax – don’t believe them.

For every fat cat executive that fits that description there are hundreds of ordinary, clerks and production line workers caught in the same tax trap.

Just examine the Gary Lunn TRO victims to see the proof of that statement.

Even the few fat cat executives that did exist are entitled to a fair tax levy.

The U.S.A. government corrected their equivalent, defective, phantom income tax legislation, last October, and Canada has no excuse for continuing this travesty of justice. Ref: www.reformamt.org

Contact your riding MP and inform them you want the tax on phantom income stopped immediately and those already victimized by it to be fairly compensated – just as the Americans have done, or “No Vote” in the coming federal election.

See you at the voting polls in the next federal election O’Grady.

Victor Drummond ©

1 comment:

Allan said...

Very interesting article. I never thought about it this way.