Post 24--The Taxman: A Wild Canadian Bronco (1)

POST 24    The Taxman: A Wild Canadian Bronco (1)      

I am livid and furious with a level of indignation that demands serious restraint on my part lest I spew out a barrage of ugly epithets that are trying to burst out in the open. Doing so would be unfit for a Christian gentleman.  The focus of all this threatening violence? None other than Canada’s taxman, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

I readily admit that all this internal violence and turmoil is misdirected. It should really be directed at myself and my fellow Caucasian settlers in Canada for the way we have mistreated the Aboriginals, an issue that deserves an even uglier barrage than that which is currently threatening to unleash itself. But being human, the oppression that threatens me, even though less than that suffered by First Nations, outrages me more.  I feel it more. So, with apologies to my Aboriginal fellow Canadians, here goes.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is a highly respected and effective coalition of taxpayers that watch all levels of government in the country for the way they raise and spend public funds. When they take up a cause or issue, you can be sure they have done due diligence; nothing sloppy about them.

They recently sent me a circular featuring the outrageous mistreatment meted out to citizen Irvin Leroux from Prince George, BC over a period of  eighteen years, starting in 1993, when they began to audit him. In 1999, the CRA  informed him he owed them over $600,000 in taxes, interest and penalties. Leroux denied this as impossible and started legal proceedings that dragged on and on and, thus became very expensive. Well, let me just tell you in the words of CTF:

In 2005, the CRA conceded that Leroux did not owe them any money. But the damage was done. During this ordeal, the CRA took aggressive measures to collect on the bogus $600,000 tax bill (over $800,000 by the time this matter was settled).

They registered judgements against his house and other lands, and issued a Writ of Seizure and Sale against all his assets. The Business Development Bank foreclosed on the RV park he had built. He was forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on accountants and lawyers to vindicate himself.

The ordeal ruined Leroux. He lost his home, his business, his land, his savings and his future. To this day he owes roughly $300,000 to friends and family members who lent him money while he desperately fought to save his business and his life.  No wonder he has trouble sleeping at night, developed a hiatus hernia and suffers many of the symptoms of a man under extreme stress.

The CRA never offered him a penny of compensation for the ordeal they put him through. Not even an apology. 

But this tragedy doesn’t end there…. 

But that is for next time. Any more of this without a break could just give you a heart attack. 

A’a!  Without intending to do so, here I go, slipping in another promise! I’m discovering I can’t do without promises. Let me just promise to keep them to a minimum. And that’s two within just two lines of text!  And, to top it off with a third, I promise to let that subject rest—for a while, anyway. Even though promises are likely to keep cropping up. Can’t do without them!