Here, on how Canada is falling further behind the rest of the world on ensuring corporate transparency and recovering income stashed offshore. For further reading…– Transparency International’s most recent report on beneficial ownership is here.– Zach Dubinsky reported on both the UK’s move toward transparency in its offshore territories, and
Continue readingTag: canada revenue agency
Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Anna Coote discusses some of the potential problems with a universal basic income on its own – particularly to the extent it takes momentum away from the prospect of universal basic services. – Scott Sinclair examines how little has changed – and how
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Gwynn Guilford discusses how dependence on coal and other resources has left the U.S.’ Appalachian region both poor and ill-equipped for the future after enriching a few corporate owners. And David Dayen notes that a national tax giveaway to the rich is leading
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jerry Dias writes that a new year has already seen far too many examples of corporate greed rampaging out of control. Elizabeth Bruenig highlights the contrasting treatment of poor people who face increasingly stringent requirements to access even meager benefits, and the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Evening Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Brian Bethune interviews Joseph Stiglitz about his longstanding recognition that an international economic system biased toward capital could lay the groundwork for Trump-style demagoguery. – Kristin Annable reports on the Manitoba PCs’ steps toward for-profit health care as an alternative to properly funding
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Tom Parkin writes that the Trudeau Libs and Bill Morneau have taken the side of wealthy shareholders over workers who want only the secure retirement they’ve already paid for through deferred wages: Morneau should be requiring companies to tell Canadians’ pension regulator
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Two Faces of the Shameless Andrew Scheer
As we all know Andrew Scheer likes to pose as a nice guy with a glued on smile, who is always inviting Canadians to hear what he calls his "positive message."But let nobody be fooled, even some of his own Cons admiringly call him Andrew Smear.Some of his opponents claim that he gets
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Is the CRA Helping the Cons Smear the Liberals?
During the dark years of the Con regime, the Canada Revenue Agency was accused of acting as Stephen Harper's secret weapon.A weapon he used to harass and intimidate his enemies, from environmental groups to a group of birdwatchers who had dared criticize two of his ministers.The Cons needless to say did nothing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Danny Dorling sets out how a more equal society leads to benefits for everybody. And Annie Lowrey discusses Richard Reeves’ take on the separation between the top 20% of the income spectrum and the rest of the U.S. – particularly in preventing social
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Michal Rozworski highlights how UK Labour’s platform provides for a needed move toward the democratization of economic activity along with an end to gratuitous austerity. And a distinguished group of economists has signed on to support the plan. – Charlie Skelton examines how
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen and Gabriel Zucman examine (PDF) the size and distribution of tax evasion and (not surprisingly) find it clustered at the top – with the wealthiest .01% dodging 30% of its obligation to society at large. And Marco Chown
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the importance of governments matching their talk about enforcing tax law with action – and the reason for concern that the Libs are headed in the opposite direction. For further reading…– Harvey Cashore, Nicole Percy, Nicole McCormick and Patrick Butler reported here on Colin Campbell’s participation in a
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada Revenue Agency suspends controversial Harper-era audit of charities
The Canada Revenue Agency has suspended the controversial Harper-era auditing of Canadian charities’ political activities. But some targeted organizations such as the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a respected left-leaning think-tank, still await closure on their audit. The post Canada Revenue Agency suspends controversial Harper-era audit of charities appeared first
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Nick Bunker points out that the worst of the U.S.’ growing inequality since 2000 has come from the growing share of income going to capital concentrated in the .01%. And Lynn Parramore highlights Peter Temin’s case that the U.S. is regressing into
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – Brian Jones rightly argues that a fair tax system would go a long way toward eliminating any serious concerns about government deficits. And Marco Chown Oved offers some reason for optimism in the Canada Revenue Agency’s response to the Panama Papers. – David
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Frank writes that a progressive party can only expect to succeed if it places principles of equality and workers’ interests at the core of everything it does – rather than serving mostly as the voice of a wealthy professional class: Somewhere in
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: CRA seeks Canadians’ feedback on its controversial auditing of charities’ political activities
The Canada Revenue Agency wants to hear from Canadians regarding its controversial auditing of charities’ political activities. The public’s feedback will lead to “the development of new guidance or educational resources for charities on the rules governing political activities.” The post CRA seeks Canadians’ feedback on its controversial auditing of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
– Paul Wells argues that climate change and First Nations reconciliation – two of the issues which the Libs have tried to turn into signature priorities – look set to turn into areas of weakness as Justin Trudeau continues his party’s tradition of dithering. And Martin Lukacs writes that Trudeau’s handling of continuing injustice facing First Nations has involved an awful lot of flash but virtually no action:
The extractivist worldview—bent on treating everything as a commodity—that lay behind Stephen Harper’s resource agenda just as powerfully shapes Trudeau’s. In fact, the Liberals’ attempt to wrap themselves in the UN Declaration without embracing its central right may constitute a new, more subtle form of extraction: the extraction from Indigenous territory of consent itself.
Liberal moves to extract and manufacture consent and support for outdated policies are evident elsewhere: restoring funding to the Assembly of First Nations, a government-dependent organization that has since plumped frequently for them; appointing an Indigenous Justice Minister, even though Indigenous critics argue she has sided with the government agenda throughout her political career; and agreeing to call an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women, but with a mandate far short of what impacted families wanted. As the weight of reality presses against Trudeau’s rhetoric, the ability to generate consent is crumbling.
Reconciliation is a powerful hope, an uplifting prospect, a deeply desired new relationship that Trudeau has compellingly invoked. But if reconciliation does not include the restitution of land, the recognition of real self-government, the reigning in of abusive police, the remediation of rivers and forests, it will remain a vacant notion, a cynical ploy to preserve a status quo in need not of tinkering but transformation. It will be Canada’s latest in beads and trinkets, a cheap simulation of justice.
– Guy Caron discusses the CRA’s role in Canada’s two-tier tax system. Stephen Punwasi comments on the connection between Canada’s willingness to facilitate tax avoidance, and the real estate bubbles driving housing prices far beyond what working-class Canadians can afford. And Marc Lee then highlights the connection between soaring urban real estate prices and increased inequality.
– David Ball notes that many municipalities are retaking control over their own services after learning that the promises of efficiency through privatization are entirely illusory.
– Richard Orange points out Sweden’s intriguing idea of reducing taxes on repair services to discourage people from throwing out consumer goods. But I’d wonder whether that step alone would make a dent if it isn’t paired with a concerted effort at training potential repair workers for a job which the corporate sector would prefer to eliminate.
– Finally, Paul Mason makes the case for economics to be based on real-world observations of human behaviour, rather than insular mathematical models whose assumptions about market efficiency bear no relationship to reality. And Branko Milanovic discusses the need to measure and reduce inequality as part of a global development strategy.
Continue readingMontreal Simon: How the Canada Revenue Agency Went After An Anti-Harper Group
During the dark days of Stephen Harper's monstrous rule, the activist group Shit Harper Did (SHD) was one of the liveliest members of The Great Canadian Resistance.It mocked Harper, it produced all kinds of videos, some funny some serious. And it j…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: How the Canada Revenue Agency Went After An Anti-Harper Group
During the dark days of Stephen Harper’s monstrous rule, the activist group Shit Harper Did (SHD) was one of the liveliest members of The Great Canadian Resistance.
It mocked Harper, it produced all kinds of videos, some funny some serious. And it joined with others in the successful campaign to get more young Canadians to vote.
So what happened to it not long before the last election couldn’t be more disturbing.
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