No Taxation Without Representation
Update - 24th March
In case you missed it yesterday, Justin Trudeau proposed a new law that would give the federal government the power to tax Canadians, without Parliament being able to have any say or exercise any scrutiny over the Prime Minister and his cabinet.
Worse still, they propose to give themselves these powers until 2022! Why?!
(You can scroll down to read yesterday's post about the law).
Today, Justin Trudeau has announced that the law will not include Part 2 - the ability for the government to raise taxes without approval by Parliament.
Don't be fooled... this is only a minor change.
The legislation still includes numerous other provisions that allow the government to make all sorts of decisions without oversight by our elected officials, including the ability to spend as much money as they want, on anything urgent (and of course they decide what is urgent!)
In many ways, this feels like the classic trick that politicians always use where they propose something so obviously objectionable only to 'compromise' on what they wanted all along.
Meanwhile, after the 'compromise' everyone relaxes and allows the remainder of the proposal to go ahead unscrutinized.
We can't allow that to happen.
Even with the removal of Part 2, this would still be an incredibly draconian and anti-democratic law, previously unimaginable in Canada.
Of course, in these unusual times, certain accommodations should be made to ensure that our democracy is able to function without putting Members of Parliament, staff, and citizens at risk!
But, these accommodations should not including suspending the Legislature entirely and ceding power to Cabinet for literally years.
You can't maintain democracy by suspending it!
Groups in every province of Canada are sharing this petition and it has already received more than 8,000 signatures, even though we only launched it late last night.
Please add your name, and then pass it on to as many friends, family, and co-workers as you can.
No Taxation Without Representation
Justin Trudeau and his minority Liberal government in Ottawa have just announced an astonishing and outrageous power grab.
The minority federal government intends to introduce a law giving them unilateral power to make changes to government spending, to raise taxes, and to implement all sorts of measures *without Parliamentary approval* until 2022!
Their excuse is that they need these powers to be able to deal with the current COVID-19 emergency, but if that is the case, why on earth would the power last until 2022?
As Global News reports:
The legislation grants Finance Minister Bill Morneau extraordinary new powers to spend, borrow and tax without having to get the approval of opposition MPs until December 2021.
The Canadian Constitution enshrines taxation as a power of the parliamentary branch.
Because of that, granting those powers to the federal cabinet alone is highly unusual – even the Emergency Powers Act does not do so.
This is almost literally the definition of taxation without representation.
For context, the Income War Tax Act of 1917 was the law that first introduced the income tax as a temporary (ha!) wartime measure.
But even the Income War Tax Act of 1917 was presented to and approved by the House of Commons!
This law would give the federal government the power to tax Canadians, without Parliament - those entrusted with representing the people - being able to have any say or exercise any scrutiny over the Prime Minister and his cabinet.
This is made even worse by the fact that the current government is a minority government that doesn't even command a majority in the House of Commons.
Justin Trudeau and the minority Liberal government must immediately drop their plans to grab sweeping powers to unilaterally spend money and raise taxes without Parliamentary approval until 2022!
We've partnered with groups across the country to launch an urgent petition to stop this outrageous power grab.
Please sign the petition and then spread the word to Canadians right across the country.
It's not to late to stop this!
Showing 11608 comments
Why don’t the fuckin’ idiot Canadian politicians from any political party or the fuckin’ idiots at CBC & CTV broadcast some perspective? I’m a heavy haul, commercial truck driver. I haul heavy equipment all over Alberta. I constantly see people distracting themselves with various types of phone technology while driving. For the record, I never drive while UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF CELL PHONE or RADIO. Co-workers and, especially, employers are always bitching and moaning that I’m not easy to contact during the day. I was nearly run over by a driver of a passenger vehicle, with a cell phone in hand, after my truck broke down along Highway 2. To avoid being killed I had to jump over the guard rail into the center meridian. Why are COVID-19 statistics not being compared to daily traffic injury/death statistics in Canada, or anywhere else in North America? Why not, every day, compare COVID-19 to daily flu, cancer, smoking, ebola virus, hanta-virus, bird flu, aids or any other form of illness and death under the sun? Why not publicize, daily, that death is a part of life? The international medical industry has served, very well, to overpopulate planet Earth with cancerous, industrialized humanity. Doesn’t illness and disease exist to naturally control humanity’s population while naturally strengthening humanity’s immune system? Is a large percentage of people afraid of death because no one ever talks publicly about it?
Seems to me, with every new illness that comes along all types of media quickly develops tunnel vision while dropping multiple point-of-view journalism; effectively censoring public information, creating unjust fear and panic.
Politicians see and use fear of the unknown to get what their party wants, even if what they want is not good for Canada as a whole or its long term. Rules for the Political Party system are made by politicians for politicians, not for the average person of any country. That’s why they lie so much. That’s why politicians enjoy, in my opinion, over inflated annual wages and retirement packages while raising taxes on everyone else, except the rich because of the many tax loopholes. While Canada’s workforce is sitting at home losing wages, being over taxed and surrounded by paranoia, politicians won’t have to apply for wage benefits because they get fully paid whether they work or not.
What would Canadian politics be like if the political party system was abolished and replaced with independent politicians who don’t have to keep in agreement with a political party? I don’t remember how many Conservative MP’s fuckin’ idiot Steven Harper sent to the back-bench because they weren’t going to vote how he wanted them to. Anyone paying attention already knows Justin Trudeau has turned into a sneaky liar because of a corrupt political system. Just like many of his predecessors and some current colleagues. Those in support of him maybe don’t understand the harm some of his decisions have made to Canadian democracy or don’t give a shit because, in the end, they will get what they wanted all along.
Paranoia, paranoia… all I hear is paranoia. If one is sick, stay home and practice good hygiene; just like a reasonable, responsible, informed person would do with a defeatable sickness. Why shut down the whole world? People die everyday, regardless.
Fact: If I don’t die in an avoidable traffic collision created by a distracted driver, an illness will get me, regardless of age.
claim to be defenders of democracy would stoop so low as to attempt to sneak a bill like this through under cover of the crisis we are dealing with.