Taxes owing…

April 4, 2016

Toronto Star – Robert Cribb and Marco Chown Oved
How offshore banking is costing Canada billions of dollars a year

$199 billion in foreign has been declared by Canadians but experts say that the amount is only a small fraction of what is actually there.  350 Canadians may have been exposed in recent documents coming to light from a Panama law firm records uncovered by international investigative journals and a German newspaper.  “The precise annual cost to Canadian tax coffers is unknowable. But credible estimates peg Canada’s tax losses to offshore havens at between $6 billion and $7.8 billion each year.”   http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/04/04/how-offshore-tax-havens-are-costing-canada-billions-of-dollars-a-year.html   Related article: Globe and Mail – Bertrand Marotte   Tax-evasion crackdowns promised over ‘Panama Papers’ revelations    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/nations-promise-tax-evasion-crackdown-over-panama-papersrevelations/article29508501/

CBC News – Solomon Israel
Bill C-51 anti-terror arrests without a crime concern legal experts – ‘The case hasn’t been made’ that special authority is needed, Canadian civil liberties leader says

One of the controversial provisions in C-51 allows police to arrest a terror suspect on suspicion that the suspect is about to commit or will likely commit a terrorist act.  The provision has legal experts uneasy in that it strikes at the presumed innocent basis of law and, say the experts, no one has shown the exceptional provision is needed.  There have been some 16 cases in which suspected terrorist have been brought to court for peace bonds since 2001.  http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/c-51-peace-bond-terror-arrests-1.3514030    Related article: Globe and Mail   Editorial   (March 31, 2016) How is the Liberal government using Bill C-51? Good question   http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/how-is-the-liberal-government-using-bill-c-51-good-question/article29482018/        Related article: Globe and Mail – Editorial   (April 3, 2016)    Why are the Liberals stalling on their promise to reform access to information?   http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/why-are-the-liberals-stalling-on-their-promise-to-reform-access-to-information/article29496212/

 Globe and Mail – Liam Caseypolicing, body cameras,
Strapped police forces moving towards costly body cameras

Police forces across the country are strapped to meet the increasing costs of policing but they seem determine to move towards providing officers with body cameras, despite alleged reports that say they cameras are unproven, expensive to acquire and perhaps even more expensive to maintain and tore the video footage.  Supporters say that the cameras provide better evidence, improve conviction rates and improve relations with the public.  Critics are concerned about invasion of privacy and the possibility that police will be re-routed from crime to administering the camera system.  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/strapped-police-forces-moving-towards-costly-body-cameras/article29508602/

Globe and Mail – Margaret Wente
Save us from hashtag justice

Reacting to the dismay with the entire justice system after the Ghomeshi verdict, Wente offers her assessment after an investigation into the normal course of affairs involving the legal system reacting to sexual assault.  Wente sees police laying charges almost always on a complaint, sees many false allegations, a wide discrepancy in what constitutes sexual assault, and mostly convictions when the matter does get to court. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/save-us-from-hashtag-justice/article29492360/  Related article: Windsor Star – Denise Ryan, Vancouver Sun   A story of rape, resistance and healing    http://www.windsorstar.com/news/crime/story+rape+resistance+healing/11824757/story.html

Globe and Mail – Ray Boisvert
A weak global economy the biggest threat to global security

Boisvert, a former assistant director of CSIS, has an unusual view of what causes and what to do about the security threats that make up the daily newscasts.  He thinks the threat is from within our democracy in the institutions that are “beset with economic uncertainty.” Boisvert draws attention to the rise of various political movements and says:  “So in assessing what drives that new line of political rhetoric and the mean-spiritedness that is at its core, one must look to economic dislocation.”   http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/a-weak-global-economy-the-biggest-threat-to-global-security/article29498708/

Montreal Gazette – Christopher Curtis and Charlie Fidelman
Beyond grief: An Innu community’s stories, Part One

This is the first of a three part series on two small sister Innu communities in the Sept Iles area of Quebec where there were five suicides over nine months last year.  http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/part-one-the-crisis   Part Two:  Special report: A First Nations community’s legacy of traumas and abuse    http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/beyond-grief-part-2-a-history-of-violence    Part Three:  New path for a grief-stricken Innu community   http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/special-report-part-3-new-path-for-a-grief-stricken-innu-community

Democracy gone astray – Blogger Azeezah Kanji
These borders kill: Canada’s lethal immigration system

Francisco Javier Romero Astorga, a father of four from Chile, died in Canadian immigration detention on March 13.  Melkioro Gahungu, a 64 year old refugee from Burundi, died in immigration detention while awaiting deportation, on March 7, just six days before the death of Astorga. All told twelve have died in detention since 2000 and there are no details released, no accountability by CBSA, not even the names of the dead.  http://democracyastray.blogspot.ca/2016/03/these-borders-kill-canadas-lethal.html