“In Politics, Nothing Happens by Accident”: Weaponized Feminism and the #MeToo Movement

Tweeden and Franken in a skit on the fateful USO tour

We begin our discussion of weaponized feminism with its ultimate manifestation–a joint call by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Harvey Weinstein accuser Angelina Jolie for NATO to commit its resources to defending women’s rights.

Note that they cite Kosovo as a salient example of their feminist “call to arms.” As discussed in FTR #161 , among other programs, fighters in the Kosovo Liberation Army were largely descendants of World War II fascist fighting formations, including the 21st Waffen SS Division–the Skanderbeg Division.

The irony in Stoltenberg and Jolie’s call for NATO to enforce women’s rights in Kosovo, among other places, could not be more profound: ” . . . . Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is facing a wide range of criminal allegations, including owning a harem with 52 female sex slaves . . . . According to the news agency, a Ukrainian woman escaped from Thaci’s harem and revealed damning information about sex slavery in Kosovo. The woman claims 52 female sex slaves are forced to work night and day to service the Prime Minister and his rich friends in business and government. . . .”  (more...)

“In Politics, Nothing Happens by Accident”: Weaponized Feminism and the #MeToo Movement

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Patrick Brown is better off away from the Ontario PC Party's nest of vipers

Ottawa promises crackdown on loopholes that let big banks avoid billions in taxes

The federal government has singled out Canadian banks for gaming the tax system to artificially reduce their tax bills.

In the budget released Tuesday, Ottawa announced it will tighten tax rules “meant to prevent a small group of taxpayers, typically Canadian banks and other financial institutions, from gaining a tax advantage.”

The measure was one of a slew of reforms to prevent tax evasion and avoidance that Ottawa estimates will bring in almost $1 billion per year.

An investigation published by the Star and Corporate Knights magazine in December crunched six years of corporate financial data to show that Canada’s Big Five banks avoided an average of $3.8 billion in tax every year.

Despite being the most profitable companies in the country, Canadian banks pay 1/3 the tax rate of other large corporations. They also pay a lower rate of tax than big banks in any other G7 country.  (more...)

Ottawa promises crackdown on loopholes that let big banks avoid billions in taxes

Background:

Are the Canada Revenue Agency tax evasion raids a public relations exercise?

Prominent Montreal writers investigated in Concordia sexual misconduct allegations inquiry

Concordia professors David McGimpsey, left, and Jon Paul Fiorentino, both
part-time teachers in Concordia University's English department, are the subject
of complaints in a probe into allegations of sexual misconduct at the university

Two established Montreal writers are the subject of complaints in a third-party investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct at Concordia University, CBC News has learned.

Both Jon Paul Fiorentino and David McGimpsey teach part-time in the university's English department.

They were assigned to teach classes this semester, but their classes were reassigned to other professors shortly after the semester began.

In January, writer Mike Spry published an essay describing a toxic atmosphere within the program. Spry has undergraduate and graduate degrees in English literature and creative writing from Concordia.

In his essay, Spry described widespread sexual misconduct without naming individuals. His essay was shared widely, and within days, Concordia's administration took several measures in response.  (more...)

Prominent Montreal writers investigated in Concordia sexual misconduct allegations inquiry

Background:

Another Concordia creative writing prof faces harassment allegations from former students

Scarborough teacher accused of sexually assaulting 10-year-old boy

A 24-year-old male teacher at a private Islamic school in Scarborough is facing charges after a 10-year-old student was allegedly driven off school property and sexually assaulted earlier this month.

Toronto police say that on Feb. 16 at about 11:15 a.m., a 10-year-old boy was taken from the grounds of The Islamic Foundation of Toronto School at Nugget Avenue and Markham Road.

Investigators allege the boy was driven to Neilson Road and McLevin Avenue in the Malvern area and sexually assaulted.

After the assault, the child was driven back to school.

On Tuesday, police arrested a suspect identified as Saleh Momla.

He was charged with one count of sexual assault and one count of sexual interference.

None of the charges have been proven in court.

Const. Jenniferjit Sidhu said Momla’s image was released as investigators believe there are other victims who have not yet come forward.  (more...)

Scarborough teacher accused of sexually assaulting 10-year-old boy

Patrick Brown is better off away from the Ontario PC Party's nest of vipers

In the end, in the immortal words of Groucho Marx, Patrick Brown didn’t want to belong to any club that would accept him as a member.

In this, he showed excellent taste too, just as Groucho did when speaking about the now defunct Friars Club in Beverly Hills.

And the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario did want Brown — sort of, kinda, for a while, well a bit anyway, you know, until the first opportunity came along to dump him, and then they were merciless.

He was to be sure a flawed candidate for the leadership that was mere weeks ago his.

He has on his plate allegations (albeit much-called-into-question allegations) of sexual impropriety, a just-opened investigation into his real estate holdings by the provincial integrity commission underway (albeit prompted by a complaint from one of Brown’s most bitter antagonists, renegade MPP Randy Hillier), lingering questions about just how much he had grown the party membership (albeit raised by interim party leader Vic Fedeli, who quit the leadership race in 2015 and backed Christine Elliott over Brown, and briefly showed a raging hunger for the permanent job again, until caucus decided it wouldn’t just be handed to him) and constant sniping and leaking from other fellow Conservative MPPs.


No sooner had CTV aired its sensational story alleging Brown had acted badly with two unidentified young women (I phrase it that way because the allegations certainly didn’t rise to the level of criminal conduct, and as the story weakened over the ensuing days and weeks, it’s even debatable they rise to the level of that beloved modern #MeToo catchword, “misconduct”) on Jan. 24 than the party began the process of throwing their beloved leader under the bus.  (more...)

Patrick Brown is better off away from the Ontario PC Party's nest of vipers

It's difficult to overstate how odious this caucus is. Take as an example the closet Nazi Randy Hillier. Could Hillier's beef with Brown have been about his ethnic outreach program, responsible for so many new party memberships?

MPP Randy Hillier regrets retweeting so-called 'dehumanized' photo of NDP leader at mosque

The Friends Of Randy Hillier

What Does Calgary's Blood & Honour Hate Group Have in Common With MPP Randy Hillier and Ontario P.C. Leader Tim Hudak?

Paul Fromm's endorsement of a PC leadership hopeful suddenly comes into focus. Why would ANYONE want to lead this snakepit?

Coup leader

The Polish revolt for freedom -- Poland VS Germany and the Bolsheviks

Poland is a country that has fought against both Communism and Nazism. I [Theodore Shoebat] spoke with Slawek Janusch, an educated man from Poland, to discuss Poland’s history of fighting the Bolsheviks, the German nationalists (like Otto von Bismarck) and the Nazis (who were really just a continuation of German nationalism)

Paul Manafort Was Stupid or Unlucky. Most Money Launderers Get Away With It.

These days, a money launderer has to be either very stupid or very unlucky to get caught.

In fact, data suggests the U.S. government’s efforts to enforce America’s money-laundering laws fail 99.9 percent of the time. As financial crime expert Raymond Baker notes, “Total failure is just a decimal point away.”

All of which makes it all the more surprising that Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, President Trump’s former campaign chairman and his deputy, got busted last week. Special Counsel Robert Muller accused Manafort, with Gates’s help, of laundering approximately $30 million—an effort that, according to the indictment, began years ago but continued through their time on the Trump presidential campaign. The charges do not involve the president or his campaign.

Had Trump lost the election, Manafort and Gates might have gotten away with their alleged crimes. But now they’re caught up in Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and they have the misfortune of being pursued by skilled and motivated prosecutors with deep expertise in financial crimes and almost unlimited resources. Mueller’s team includes Andrew Weissmann, who no less than former White House strategist Steve Bannon has reportedly dubbed “the LeBron James of money-laundering investigations.”  (more...)

Paul Manafort Was Stupid or Unlucky. Most Money Launderers Get Away With It.

Nipster? Meet the Neo-Nazi Hipster

When you think of modern day nazis on of the first images that comes to your mind is probably that of a skinhead. Recently nazis have been trying to move away from this rough image and adopt a less threatening hipster aesthetic. These hipster nazis, or “nipsters" as they are often called have began using the internet as well as their usual festivals and concerts to recruit new members and spread their racist message. They have even started using youtube and the blogging website tumblr to get out their fascist message. Although these “nipsters” may seem less scary then their skinhead counterparts, the messages they are spreading are as angry and hateful as ever.

More on RT:

Tanya Granic Allen Rejects Endorsement For Ontario PC Leader From White Nationalist Paul Fromm

A candidate for the leadership of Ontario's Progressive Conservative party says she strongly condemns a white nationalist who endorsed her campaign.

Paul Fromm tweeted his support for Tanya Granic Allen on Friday. Fromm is the founder of several white supremacist organizations and has worked with the U.S.-based Council of Conservative Citizens. Dylann Roof, who murdered nine black churchgoers in South Carolina in 2015 with the intention of starting a race war, cited the group as an inspiration.

Fromm was stripped of his Ontario teaching licence in 2007 for using racist language, railing against multiculturalism and participating in public events with racist organizations.

He told The Toronto Star that he has a right to participate in the political process.  (more...)

Tanya Granic Allen Rejects Endorsement For Ontario PC Leader From White Nationalist Paul Fromm

Well, identifying her unwanted admirer as a "KKK guy" isn't entirely honest. It could be interpreted as clever diversion. You see, today's white supremacists don't really hang with the KKK anymore:

A 'hipper' brand of hate: The Ku Klux Klan is collapsing as racists reject its 'old-school' ways

They are more typified by the hipsters that coalesced around Michael Coren during his Sun News Network days and at Rebel Media. Tanya wasn't really on the scene back then, but old timers will remember Coren's bigoted digs at immigrant women in traditional attire and at First Nations struggling to obtain justice in a country colonized by his countrymen. She may not have witnessed his contempt for Catholics as he fraudulently impersonated us and tried to herd us into liberal homophilia. She may not have watched as her organization, the Catholic Civil Rights League, dined and honored him while fawning on his every duplicitous word.

Do Catholics suffer from a particular kind of self-loathing? Paul Fromm obtained teaching credentials from Catholic St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto. While there, he founded a chapter of the John Birch Society, an organization known for its connections to white supremacist militias and old Nazis. Ernst Zundel received much support from this mileau. Now we're shocked at the antics of Rebel Media alumni? At minimum, conservative "Catholics" suffer from a particular kind of blindness. If there are swamps to be drained, here is one that should top the list.

The roots of the tension between Israel and Poland

While Israel attacks Poland over the term “Polish death camps,” a horrific and violent nationalism, and Nazism, have been rising up in Ukraine, and is spilling over into Poland. This rising nationalism is a sign of another great war in Europe. To discuss more on the tension between Israel and Poland, and between Ukraine and Poland, I [Theodore Shoebat] talked with an educated Polish man named Sławek Janusch.

Are we witnessing a new phase of Operation Gladio? Is a corrupt faction of Jews coordinating with underground Nazis to provoke nationalist conflict?

U of T student group says racial violence and harassment a health and safety issue

The union representing University of Toronto teaching assistants is promising action after hearing a student group’s concerns over “multiple instances of racial violence and harassment” on campus and what they consider the university’s inadequate response.

The Graduate Student Union’s race and ethnicity caucus wrote a letter Feb. 6 calling on the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 3902 to address recent incidents of racism on campus that have created a “toxic workplace environment for U of T employees.”

CUPE 3902 is the local that represents contract academic workers at U of T, including roughly 7,500 graduate students employed as teaching assistants or in other campus jobs.

The letter pointed to a number of troubling incidents in the first half of the academic year.  (more...)

U of T student group says racial violence and harassment a health and safety issue

The culture of Nazi big men on campus is hardly new. It goes way back:

St. Mike's College Swish n Spit: The two faces of Paul Fromm

If direct confrontation doesn't achieve their ends, then they switch to appropriation of conservative causes, acquisition of proxies, and stealth:

White nationalist endorses Tanya Granic Allen’s Tory leadership campaign

This problem has been arduously cultivated and made part of the gatekeeping process. It isn't going away soon, just as the secret societies perpetuating it aren't going away.

CIA, Media & The Mind-Controlled Opposition

In this edition of Probable Cause Newsbud Founder and Editor Sibel Edmonds is joined by Douglas Valentine, author of several non-fiction books, one novel, and one volume of poetry. He has lectured and appeared on TV and radio talk shows, testified as an expert witness, served as a documentary film consultant and worked as a private investigator. His most recent book is The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World.  Edmonds and Valentine discuss the influence and operations of the CIA abroad and domestically, while controlling the Media.

Douglas Valentine's Website

‘Bully’ bosses issue ‘swept under the carpet’ until junior government lawyer sent email

Former assistant deputy attorney general Malliha Wilson left the ministry last year

A junior lawyer’s decision to speak out — with an email copied to dozens of government lawyers — about an allegedly “abusive” boss at Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General caused Queen’s Park to finally take notice of historic problems that were later called a “festering” sore in a government report.

“I write to express my profound disappointment and deep sense of shame in the organization I work for under your leadership,” the young lawyer wrote in November 2016 to then-deputy attorney general Patrick Monahan.

Seeking maximum impact, the junior lawyer copied her two-page letter of complaint to the executive management group and dozens of rank and file lawyers at the attorney general’s ministry. She was responding to Monahan’s glowing description in a staff email of Malliha Wilson, his assistant deputy attorney general who had just received a lateral posting to another part of the Ontario public service.

“Your memo is particularly distressing given that you and other senior leadership in government . . . are fully aware of this pattern of behaviour,” the junior lawyer wrote. “Yet you chose to sweep all of this under the carpet.”

Wednesday, the Star reported on a secret government report into the behaviour of “bully” bosses at the ministry. In short, report author Leslie Macleod found that the workplace at the Civil Law Division is a “toxic” cesspool where senior bureaucrats — male and female — bully, harass and discriminate against hundreds of lawyers and administrative assistants.  (more...)

‘Bully’ bosses issue ‘swept under the carpet’ until junior government lawyer sent email

Background:

Ontario government lawyers being terrorized by ‘bully’ bosses, secret report reveals

Former kids’ baseball coach faces more sexual abuse charges

A former baseball coach accused of sexually abusing children now faces new charges, Toronto police said Thursday.

Robert Humphrey, 51, had access to children through coaching and working at hockey rinks in Toronto, police said. The allegations of abuse span from 1993 to 2017.

Humphrey was first arrested by Durham police on Jan. 5. Investigators alleged he befriended a minor and sexually assaulted them several times between 2013 and 2017.

Some of the alleged abuse involved a second minor. Investigators said Humphrey threatened to release photos of the victims if they went to police.

Durham police charged him with three counts of sexual assault, invitation to sexual touching, sexual interference, two counts of possession of child pornography, two counts of making child pornography and two counts of extortion.

Humphrey was arrested a second time Jan. 19, this time by Toronto police.

Days after Durham police announced the charges, a 33-year-old woman told Toronto police she’d been sexually assaulted repeatedly between 1994 and 1996, when she was roughly 9. Days later, police arrested Humphrey and charged him with sexual assault and sexual interference.

Toronto police arrested the former coach again Wednesday evening after a new alleged victim came forward. The victim, a 35-year-old man, alleged he was sexually assaulted several times between 1993 and 2001.

Humphrey is now charged with another two counts of sexual assault, a count of sexual exploitation and two counts of uttering threats.  (more...)

Former kids’ baseball coach faces more sexual abuse charges

Is Trudeau ‘hobnobbing’ with terrorists? Why India doesn’t trust Canada all that much

It’s pretty clear by now that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not having the most productive time in India. His itinerary is unusually light and, according to Indian media, high profile politicians seem to be actively avoiding him.

And that was before Sophie Gregoire Trudeau posed with a Surrey businessman, Jaspal Atwal, convicted in a 1986 terrorist shooting in B.C. during the family’s trip to India.

It’s nothing new that Canada and India aren’t on good terms. Below, a brief summary of all the other signs of our strained relationship with the world’s largest democracy.

It’s never a great sign when a visiting foreign leader feels the need to state that he thinks the potentially violent breakup of their country is a bad thing. “We support one united India,” Trudeau said in Mumbai this week. He had to say this due to Canada’s long reputation as a home for a diaspora of Sikh fundamentalists who seek to carve an independent Sikh homeland, Khalistan, out of India.  (more...)

Is Trudeau ‘hobnobbing’ with terrorists? Why India doesn’t trust Canada all that much

Related:

Liberals have a high tolerance level for convicted Sikh terrorists

Background:

Blowback: Sikh Freikorps and Mass Murder in Canada

Ontario government lawyers being terrorized by ‘bully’ bosses, secret report reveals

Ontario’s Liberal government has kept secret an explosive report that paints some of its most senior bureaucrats — male and female — as bullies who have harassed and discriminated against hundreds of provincial lawyers and administrative assistants for years.

The workplace for 600 government lawyers and several hundred administrative staff at the Ministry of the Attorney General is described as a “toxic” cesspool where fear and retribution rule the day, ironically at an Ontario agency branded with the logo “Better Justice Together.”

One high-ranking government boss is described by a complainant in the report as “a classic bully drunk on her own power.” Crown lawyers working under another executive said he created “an extremely unhealthy and intolerable environment.”

“Many employees work in an atmosphere of constant fear of retribution and a culture of silence prevails,” said report author Leslie Macleod, a lawyer and former senior Ontario bureaucrat. The report was concluded in the summer of 2017.  (more...)

Ontario government lawyers being terrorized by ‘bully’ bosses, secret report reveals

Funny how this came out just as the opposition lost its mind. Convenient, yes? Watch it go down the memory hole.

How the Media Works with the CIA & NSA to Intercept & Censor Whistleblowers Exposed!

Newsbud Founder and Editor Sibel Edmonds is joined by Investigative Journalist Whitney Webb to discuss Webb’s recent three-part investigative report exposing billionaire founder of The Intercept- Pierre Omidyar. Webb delves deep into Omidyar’s long-ongoing multi-billion dollar partnership with government agencies, including the CIA and NSA, questionable coincidences and ties between Omidyar-Snowden, Glenn Greenwald’s hushed contract and arrangements with Omidyar to privatize Snowden’s 500+K page leak, Freedom of Press Foundation’s betrayal of Wikileaks’ Julian Assange, and much more. Do not miss this explosive interview exposing the new trend in intercepting and neutralizing whistleblowers and their information.

In depth:

Billionaire Omidyar’s “Intercept”: Government-Silicon Valley Nexus to Intercept & Censor Whistleblowers

Catholics, if the CIA/NSA can appropriate The Intercept to engineer modified limited hangouts for their Wall Street masters, why would they leave Rebel Media, LifeSiteNews, or EWTN untouched? How could popular "alt" media evade the net of pervasive media manipulation? The answer is, they don't. You will see George Weigel and Stephen Covey promoted as authentic spiritual guides. You will see the Catholic clergy slammed while equal scandal in the Cathevangelic sphere is passed over silently. In short, you will see the CIA's Doctrinal Warfare program chugging merrily along. You will see the Catholic Church used as a proxy for a new Cold War. The Globalists are just that... global. They will find you no matter where you think you've found safety. Canadian media, in particular, are wholly owned by the Tavistock Institute and the Frankfurt School. Guard your eyes and your ears.

British woman whose Nigerian father was killed by an IRA bomb has been driven from her Northern Ireland home by racists

The daughter of a man killed in an IRA bombing has told how she was later forced from Northern Ireland by racism.

Jayne Olorunda is the daughter of Nigerian-born Max Olorunda, who was killed by an IRA incendiary bomb which detonated aboard a train in Dunmurry in 1980.

She grew up in Belfast but recently moved to England due to racism in Northern Ireland.

As well as coping with the death of her father, Ms Olorunda and her family have been subject to racism, with 'stares and taunts' commonplace while she was growing up.

The 39-year-old, who was just two when her father was killed, has now told how she was confronted by a group of men. 

After launching a new book about her experiences in Northern Ireland, she said: 'Racism has been a huge factor in my life and even occurred towards my parents before I was born.

'My mum Gabrielle told me about an incident which happened when she was carrying my sister and was told 'how dare you bring another black b*****d into the world'.

'As I grew up I got sick of being told "go back home" and being asked "where were you from before here" - people just wouldn't believe I was born in Northern Ireland.

'Racism has always been an issue in my life, after all we are a mixed race family and don't always blend in. Growing up we became used to stares and taunts, but that was all we had.'  (more...)

British woman whose Nigerian father was killed by an IRA bomb has been driven from her Northern Ireland home by racists

Related:

A State in Denial: British Collaboration with Loyalist Paramilitaries

Chinese Nazis? Anti-immigration groups at Parliament Hill protest demand apology from Trudeau

Hundreds of Asian-Canadian protesters, supported by several white, far-right, anti-immigrant groups stormed Parliament Hill on Sunday afternoon to demand an apology from the prime minister.

According to plans for the protest on voteforright.com, members of the Asian-Canadian community feel victimized by a Toronto girl’s false claim in January that an Asian man cut off her hijab and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s apparent rush to view the fictitious incident as a hate crime.

“As the real victim of the hijab hoax, our Asian community was completely ignored by PM Trudeau,” reads a statement on the website.

The group, an unlikely ally for the far right, was met with counter protesters from anti-fascist and anti-racist groups, many of whom covered their faces as they protested.

A man who identified himself as “Yuanyuan” said, “There are some out-of-town conservative Chinese racists and they are collaborating basically with some white nationalist groups here in Canada. As a Chinese Canadian, I’m pretty ashamed about that. That’s why I’m here.”  (more...)

Anti-immigration groups at Parliament Hill protest demand apology from Trudeau

Something doesn't smell quite right about hundreds of Chinese-Canadians getting this riled up about a school-girl's prank. It's even weirder to see them standing shoulder-to-shoulder with neo-Nazis. This CANNOT possibly be a representative cross-section of the Chinese immigrant community. Where might this astro-turf have been manufactured?

Fascism in China Today: Ancient Roots and Modern Realities

Chinese Fascism's Global Consequences

Chiang-Kai Shek's army was trained and equipped by Nazi Germany

Look into the roots of the John Birch Society.

Inebriated Bircher

Conservative Ship of Tools

The unstoppable zombie

The Lolita for Life

The crack dealer

The other zombie

The Princess

Champagne Siphon Fiction has been pushing all your buttons, and you want to fall for the big-eyed waif, but wait... These political lobbyists aren't the crew that Fr. de Valk founded. They've spawned a jack-booted parade of Nazi mind-slaves with brainwashing techniques refined since Josef Goebbels' crack at world dominion. The present conservative anarchy echoes the conditions that brought Adolph Hitler to power. Time to slap the power cut-off, turn off the money spigot, and rip the madmen away from the steering wheel. You owe it to the kids. They're the ones who will have to live through this wreck.

Halton board occasional teacher facing sex-related charges

An occasional teacher who instructed at more than one school within the Halton public school board is facing a slew of sex-related charges involving children.

Waterloo Regional Police says that on Feb. 14, as a result of an ongoing investigation by its Cybercrime Branch — Internet Child Exploitation Unit, a search warrant was executed at a Kitchener home, following contact from the National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre regarding allegations that a male was exploiting children over social media platforms.

Waterloo investigators say officers seized digital devices.

Police say there are three alleged victims, ranging in age from 8-12.

Victor Ly, 32, of Kitchener is charged with three counts of luring a child, three counts of possession of child pornography, two counts of making sexually explicit material available to a child and extortion.

Waterloo police say that at the time of his arrest Ly was an occasional teacher with the Halton District School Board.

They say he also has experience teaching in Waterloo Region private schools as well as internationally.  (more...)

Halton board occasional teacher facing sex-related charges

Province halts Toronto Catholic board's controversial land deal

The province has stepped in to block a controversial North York redevelopment that would have housed a Catholic high school and the storied Columbus Centre under one roof.

The $70-million proposal, which sparked months of protests and public feuding in the neighbourhood, was a joint venture between the Toronto Catholic board and Villa Charities Inc., which runs the Columbus Centre.

Opposition reached a fever pitch within months of the announcement last spring among those fearing it would mean the demolition of the centre, built 40 years ago by the Italian community and considered a vital part of its history.

But the province, which allocated $32.8 million to the Catholic board in 2011 for a new high school, drew the line on Wednesday, saying it won’t provide funds for any project that will destroy the Columbus Centre.  (more...)

Province halts Toronto Catholic board's controversial land deal

Background:

Residents decry planned Columbus Centre redevelopment

Are the Canada Revenue Agency tax evasion raids a public relations exercise?

OTTAWA, February 15, 2018 – Tax experts say yesterday’s highly public raids by the Canada Revenue Agency, in connection with Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca and the Panama Papers data leak, are “incredibly rare,” and they question whether the CRA’s “extraordinary measures” are an exercise in public relations.

“While I agree that the public needs to know that tax enforcement is taking place, I can't help but think this news release is largely a PR exercise,” says tax lawyer and accountant David Rotfleisch of Toronto-based Rotfleisch & Samulovitch. “After two years, three search warrants are served. Is this really significant news?”

On Wednesday, approximately 30 criminal investigators from the CRA, assisted by the RCMP and local police officials, executed search warrants in Calgary, West Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area. In a press release, the CRA stated that, during the course of an offshore tax evasion criminal investigation, it “identified a series of transactions involving foreign corporations and several transfers through offshore bank accounts used allegedly to evade taxes.”

CBC News reporter Zach Dubinsky told national viewers on Wednesday that, “For offshore tax evasion cases, experts tell us it’s incredibly rare that the CRA takes the kind of extraordinary measures we see in a more typical criminal investigation. If you ask the CRA, they’ll tell you that they have already executed a number of search warrants with respect to the Panama Papers. But I’ve pressed for details on that for more than a year now and have never been able to verify any of their claims.”  (more...)

Are the Canada Revenue Agency tax evasion raids a public relations exercise?

Background:

CRA raids locations in Toronto, Calgary and West Vancouver in Panama Papers probe

Money mom wags her finger

We're famous: Ontario experience provides ample rationale for axing school boards

With all due respect to former Education Minister Marilyn More who wrote, “the Glaze report does not offer evidence to justify the extreme leap to disbanding elected school boards,” there is more than enough evidence to justify the move.

One need only look as far as Ontario to see why the recommendation is spot on.

In 2015, the Toronto District School Board was almost paralyzed by constant scandals involving trustees and senior staff. Over the course of two years, there were concerns about of fiscal mismanagement and a forensic audit. Also, there was a police presence at board meetings, harassment allegations were made against a trustee, breach of standard practice, yelling matches, and revelations of a shady deal with a Chinese government agency.

Education Minister Liz Sandals ordered a review of the board and placed Margaret Wilson, a former registrar at the Ontario College of Teachers, in charge.

In her report, Wilson wrote, “Co-operation between trustees is too often focused on making deals for mutual support. The level of trust between the senior administration and the trustees is low…there has, to date, been no attempt to review the Board’s governance model to remove the trustees from day-to-day operational decision making and to prevent interference on the part of many trustees, in the operation of ‘their schools in their wards.’ ”  (more...)

Ontario experience provides ample rationale for axing school boards

A case study in disfunctionalism?

How tax havens like Delaware help traffickers sell children for sex

Backpage.com is the world’s second-biggest classified advertising website. It is also the world’s “top online brothel” and a hotbed of human trafficking, according to US law enforcement.

In the US, the website is involved in seven out of ten reported child trafficking cases. In California alone, 2,900 suspected cases of child-trafficking were linked to the site between 2012 and 2016. There are several open lawsuits against Backpage.com, including one by the California attorney general’s office for 26 counts including money laundering, but US law law enforcement officials have so far failed to shut it down.

Backpage doesn’t deny that people use its site to traffic children for sex, but it is protected by court rulings that say a site isn’t responsible for what users post on it. It also cites first amendment defenses of free speech. The firm operates in 97 countries and 943 locations, but in the US it is formally registered in the tiny state of Delaware, where authorities said last week that it is a company “in good standing,” and that they don’t have the power to shut down because it doesn’t have a physical presence in the state.

Delaware, which has 1.3 million businesses and less than one million people, is beloved of nefarious businesses. While a lot of firms flock to the state for its low corporate tax rates, a Senate investigation found that Backpage picked Delaware for another reason: secrecy. Delaware law allows companies’ owners to hide their true identity. This makes it very difficult to crack down on criminals who launder money through them.  (more...)

How tax havens like Delaware help traffickers sell children for sex

Football's Wall of Silence

Former youth football coach Barry Bennell, one of the top talent spotters in Britain with ties to major clubs like Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra, spent his days coaching children and his nights abusing them.

Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit profiles six men, all victims of Bennell, and explores the long-term impact of his serial abuse.

Deborah Davies first reported on Barry Bennell’s crimes 20 years ago. She has befriended his victims and has a rare insight into their plight.

In a powerful and heartbreaking documentary, she describes how some have turned to substance abuse and even attempted suicide.  More than a few have not survived, one likely victim being his most famous player, former Wales international and manager Gary Speed.

The investigation uncovers new evidence that, according to teammates, Speed was abused by Bennell. 

The programme also reveals that high-profile clubs, as well as Britain’s Football Association, failed to protect children and in some cases failed to act on warnings.

After this film was made,  Crewe Alexandra said that the Club was not aware of any sexual abuse by Bennell nor received any complaints about sexual abuse by him.

They say the police investigated the Club's knowledge, including interviewing Hamilton Smith and found no evidence to corroborate that it was aware of Bennell’s offending.

Related:

Inside world of serial paedophile Barry Bennell who lured young footballers into his home with a monkey and a puma

Political Lobbyists and Bastardized Christianity

They led you down this dead end path

They assassinated the characters of those who exposed and decried this

They affirmed and legitimized this chameleon

Although they've found a winsome candidate to front their new campaign, the underlying problems with the Cathevangelic political machine remain and will corrupt those who get drawn into their orbit. Study the Luciferian cabal at the heart of the so-called "Christian Right":

And, listen carefully to their false prophets:

A lucrative racket