Ah, Star letter writers rarely disappoint. Truth, rather than political spin, always improves my mood.
Liberal Party fundraisers held family millions in offshore trust, Nov. 6
From Panama to Paradise, we have a tiny glimpse into the realities dictating our lives: aristocrats and power brokers taking aim at record profits while burying the booty in faraway jurisdictions. I remember voting for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, drinking his Kool-Aid about helping us commoners. Meantime, Trudeau’s friends in high places helped the multi-generational political star with the winning script.
The truth matters not in politics, at least when it comes to speeches. We’re fed lines about a political spectrum, then we are asked to pick a team. The problem is that the rhetoric is irrelevant, it exists only to grease a discourse designed to secure votes. Once power is secured, anything is possible for the people that backed the winners. I’m now of the opinion our prime minister was born into a scheme, his life part of a plan to milk the system.
Mike Johnston, Peterborough, Ont.
The revelations of the Paradise Papers strike deep into the machinations of those corporations and individuals seeking to avoid taxation in Canada. It is estimated that billions per year are lost to the Canadian economy through these tax dodges. The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) has to close the loopholes that allow this drain of wealth to happen.
There are so many areas of the Canadian social and economic infrastructure that would benefit from the end of these tax dodges. Now is the time for federal and provincial governments to close the loopholes and bring back Canadian money to Canada.
Don Kossick, Saskatoon, Sask.
First, we had the Panama Papers. Now the Paradise Papers. What we need is the Purgatory Papers: a public list of tax monies recovered and fines levied from persons nefariously using offshore trusts for tax evasion. Otherwise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise of tax fairness is simply hollow electioneering.
Peter Pinch, Toronto
As has been pointed out, Lorne, none of these schemes is illegal. The people we have put in office have made all of them possible.
ReplyDeleteI guess it is only natural that they want to look after their own kind, Owen.
DeleteOnce again I fell back on Theodore Roosevelt today to explain why this tax haven culture implemented by decades of federal governments, Liberal and Conservative, is not victimless. TR laid bare how it undermines the nation itself and creates an entirely different class of money, "the swollen fortune," accompanied by influence and privileges not afforded ordinary citizens. Eventually, inevitably, it is "pushed too far" (again TR's words) and triggers a reaction, revolt.
ReplyDeleteA strong reaction, even a revolt, may be the purgative our political masters need, Mound.
DeleteAnd yet some Trudeau sympathizer blog blames it all on the Conservatives. The Dauphin can do no wrong.
ReplyDelete