Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your year-end reading. – Allison Maher et al. study how COVID-19 causes fundamental changes to a person’s immune system, resulting in far greater vulnerability to other infections.…
CRA
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…
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…
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…
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…
Green Party of Canada asks CRA to revoke Jewish National Fund’s charity status
The Green Party of Canada is calling on the Canada Revenue Agency to revoke the charity status of the Jewish National Fund on the grounds that the organization discriminates against…
Remembrances Of Things Past (And Present)
I suspect it is only the very young and the profoundly naive who believe that justice is blind, that all are treated equaly under the law. While a pleasing fiction…
Bogus CRA Con Artists Are Out To Scam You
I had a call this morning was amusing, but only because I knew it was a scam. The caller, with a thick foreign accent, identified himself James Anderson from the…
Trudeau: CRA must allow charities to do their work “free from political harassment”
In his recent Ministerial Mandate Letter to Diane Lebouthillier, the Minister of National Revenue, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) must allow charities to do their…
Trudeau Government Blocks Harper’s Draconian Bill C-377
The Liberal government has announced what appears to be Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's first step towards repealing Harper's Bill C-377, a draconian law that sought to weaken Canada’s labour movement.…
Suspicious Deletions At CRA
While it may not qualify as a smoking gun, a series of text-message deletions at Canada Revenue Agency looks decidedly suspicious. Given what many see as the Agency’s Harper-directed war…
400 Canadian Academics Demand CRA Stop Auditing Progressive Think-Tank
More than 420 Canadian academics have written to the Minister of National Revenue demanding an immediate stop to the CRA’s audit of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The post…
Harper’s War on Charities is a War on All of Us
Never underestimate the scope and impact of the Harper regime’s war to gag our charities. Oxford student and 2013 Rhodes Scholar, Joanne Cave writes in today’s Times Colonist that the…
Denial And Outrage
During my teaching career, it was occasionally my unpleasant task to confront a student with evidence of his or her cheating; most situations revolved around plagiarizing essays or having skipped…
Gruending On The CRA Audits
From his latest: The government, however, has sent unmistakable signals that it wants a crackdown. Recent federal budgets have provided the CRA with an additional $13 million in special funding…
More Totalitarianism From The Harper
Just as Harper has been tearing down the apparatus of scientific research that would ordinarily be used by governing parties to make informed policy decisions, the next prong of his…
After all, what would a Minister of Revenue know about taxes?
Committee studying offshore tax evasion will not question revenue minister A finance committee study on tax havens will be written without input from National Revenue Minister Gail Shea after the…
Canada Revenue Agency asks CBC to submit data on tax havens
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: The use of tax havens is at an all-time high in Canada and it’s costing Canadians an estimated $7.8 billion annually, the executive…
Bill Kristol Mocks Idea of CRA Causing Housing Crash
The zombie lie that the Community Reinvestment Act was substantially or primarily the cause of the 2008 economic crisis may just have taken a mortal blow; Bill Kristol has apparently…