Tony Merchant is fairly notorious in Saskatchewan circles, deserved or not. Many people react to the name with a an upturned eyebrow and a smirk. Anyone familiar with David Orchard’s reputation in the province is by default familiar with Mr. Merchant’s reputation.
He is, by all accounts, an excellent class-action lawyer and as such, richly deserves the rewards that our justice system allows in those types of suits. Whether they are justified or more akin to ambulance chasing is secondary. They are allowed in law and as such Mr. Merchant has every right and responsibility to make as much for his clients and himself as possible.
And that’s why the allegations regarding taxes and hidden money really gets my goat.
A prominent Canadian lawyer, husband to a Liberal senator, moved nearly $2 million to secretive financial havens while he was locked in battle with the Canada Revenue Agency over his taxes, according to documents in a massive leak of offshore financial data that were shared exclusively in Canada with CBC News.
Make a pile of money doing something most people don’t really want to be associated with, well done. Try and cheat the country out of it’s share; whose laws allowed the pile in the first place, very wrong.
(Note: Liberal lawyer in this story. Watch your comments.)
That list of 2,500 that the US obtained supposedly had the names of 400 Canadians on it, one has to wonder just how many Liberal Party of Canada connected individuals make up the 400 named?
Bronfman billions – http://nonprofits.accesscomm.ca/srvoice/news/Mar97No2.html
Old story I recall Chretien Liberals said they would fix Closing the Loopholes hahahaha
What an alleged scumbag.
If what he did is legal, then good for him! Taxes in this country are so onerous that any
way one can mitigate it has my vote. It’s called good asset management.
If legal-well done!
If not-shame on him.
I have to slightly disagree, I think it is your patriotic duty to save every penny you can and hide whatever you can from the rapicity of the kleptocrat state – as long as it’s legal or there is no law directly prohibiting it. I assume this guy isn’t stupid enough to break the law – in his position. If he can get some money out of the sight of the revCan vultures legally , more power to him.
That wouldn’t be so much of a concern if our income taxes weren’t so high. The lowest top-bracket is 39% and that’s in Alberta. It gets worse from there. Income tax should not exceed 25% combined for provinces and the feds.
I agree 100% with Occam’s first sentence and was about to say the exact same thing. I won’t assume what was said in the second sentence to be true though, Liberalism is a mental disease and stupid/smart has little to do with it.
I’m on the fence on this – I pay all the taxes that I owe but not one penny more. The problem that I have is that I don’t have the resources to hide millions from the government.
Yet at the same time, governments (at all levels) waste huge amounts of money. I was listening to CBC Radio Noon show (I was driving and that is the only station worth listening to in the car) and they were talking about the condition of the city streets and the need for more snow ploughs but that homeowners didn’t want to pay more taxes to remove the snow. What I hated about the whole conversation was the ASSUMPTION that the only solution was to increase property taxes – no thoughts to review spending at city hall – what are cities really responsible to provide? I suspect that it is NOT revamping Victoria Park in Regina so that traffic is impeded and parking spots are removed at a huge cost for what? It is that kind of thinking that drives me to consider hiding money from the governments.
Well, a guy who did okay by the courts, should have no problem putting putting his fate in the hands of the court….right?
I am bothered by the public broadcaster naming and shaming private citizens in the absence of allegations by the relevant prosecutorial authority. What if they’ve got it totally wrong–what if he disclosed and rectified his filings since 1998 (if it was even necessary for him to do so)? Will they have a report soon on every CBC executive who has at one time or another paid for services in cash without a receipt bearing an HST number?
Try and cheat the country out of it’s share
BARF. Every one of us has a moral duty to pay as little in taxes as possible by any means possible. ‘Illegal’ is just a word. Merchant is to be praised for starving the beast just a little-assuming that’s what he did.
Hades has no fury like CRA scorned. Lawyer or not, he’s screwed.4
I’m always gratified when I hear that supporters of a confiscatory state are caught trying to evade the confiscations.
Dude’s a slimeball who made most of his money bilking the government for “White-Guilt” money due to residential school lawsuits.
Taxes are high because slime balls like him exist to exploit the weaknesses of the system.
I don’t care how he goes down, just that he goes down makes me smile.
Well said and agreed.
I am trying to view this aside from how I personally feel about his legal activities. If he did not break any laws, it is alright. If he did break laws, then I hope he gets nailed and is unable to wriggle out of it.
What galls me about this story is that it was not carried by most Main Street Media other than CBC with headlines connecting Liberal Senator Merchant to the story in headlines like they would had a Conservative Senator been involved. The word Liberal was missing in all the stories as well as the fact that she was a Chretien appointment. They always seem to drag Harper’s name into any shady story.
At least they didn’t tack on at the end…”Stephen Harper was unavailable for comment.” ~8^D.
I wonder how I would feel if I turned the TV on and my dealings with RBC were being made public–In spite of the fact that I am not being charged with anything at the time–and in spite of the fact that I have not broken the law.
There are legal offshore investments. Nothing as of yet says that Mr. Merchant`s are illegal.
Indeed. There seems to be plenty of money to catalogue every tree in my city. That includes photos, identification, and measurement of the trunk. What is the purpose of this? But, if you want the potholes filled, our taxes have to go up.
City hall has even donated to the mayor’s favourite political party. Tax payer money well spent when you have political ambitions.
Who cares what party
Who cares how much
Who cares where
Who cares who
Who cares when
Who cares why
Who cares why not
Who cares !!!!!
All I want is MY Revolution !!!!
Not sticking up for tax cheats, but just mentioning – CRA has plenty of muscle to nail anyone they want for any amount of tax they want.
The General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) in the Tax Act basically says that CRA can deem any transaction a sham and tax through it simply on the basis that CRA believes that one of the major reasons for undertaking the transaction was to avoid taxes that would otherwise be payable.
In other words, even if you do something 100% legal, if its primary benefit is to reduce taxes CRA can look through the transaction and tax you as if it had not been done.
With tools like that at their disposal, just remember anyone who manages to avoid a large amount of tax has more on their side than meets the eye…
I think Tony is suffering dementia. He spent an hour on the phone, last spring, questioning my trenching practice (He did not have an identifiable client). If I had not known his mother “Sally” CFQC Saskatoon and that she had a son that needed medication.., Tony.. The grandfather Judge Smith (Yorkton) I would have filed a malpractice complaint with the bar
IMHO He has lost any smarts he had and is dancing on one leg!
“I’m always gratified when I hear that supporters of a confiscatory state are caught trying to evade the confiscations.”
Yes, when it comes to feeding Leviathan you would think that Mr. Merchant would be first in line. It doesn’t seem to work that way though.
So where are the rest of the names..
I for one will not watch my comments. One can tell it like it is and not even get to the rot of Tony Merchant. Disciplined by the bar on many occasions. Taken to court by former clients after Merchant did things Judges ordered him not to do. Being a Liberal, that says it all there. But this, takes the cake. If the allegations are true, then Merchant has crossed the line. He is trying to cheat you and I out of dollars needed to run programs we all benefit from. Remember, he is a multi millionaire. This is pure greed. It is not illegal to invest money in offshore accounts, you must declare to CRA that you have them and pay taxes on the profits made on the investment. As for his Liberal Appointed Wife, Pana, She being named a beneficiary of the trust, had to declare this to the Senate. If not then she is in violation of the rules. How dare her vote on Tax bills while her husband tries his hand at screwing Taxpayers out of what is due. Can any of this surprise you people. If all this is proven true then, Tony Merchant should go to jail, have the bar ban him for life, and his wife should be kicked out of the Senate. Remember people, Tony and his wife get all the privileges you and I receive, his children and grand children receive education and healthcare, social programs when needed, and all the other niceties this society provides. He must pay his fair share and live by the same rules you and I live by. This all hinges on the allegations being true.
Personally , I hate the bastards at the CRA.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/horror-stories-when-dealing-with-the-taxman-1.603824
I welcome Tony’s date in Federal Tax Court… or whichever court hears this sort of thing, if ever… whatever…
Tony’s history as a lawyer includes a reputation as one who does not “settle” out of court.
🙂
For an insight into the story of Tony & Pana:
http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/04/04/white-mans-windfall-a-profile-of-tony-merchant/
Nope. Taxation is theft. Always and everywhere. ANY effort to outwit and outrun the wolves is to be condoned and congratulated. Good for you Mr Merchant, whoever you are.
Mr Merchant is your typical shark. Never in history has a lawyer been bitten by a shark. Professional courtesy. Amazing how many natives had never been abused until they talked to a lawyer.
There’s colonoscopies……and then there’s colonoscopies performed by a CRA auditor. Boy, I don’t ever want to get one of those again!
Mr Merchant will likely be hearing from CRA and it will be up to them to determine what’s going on.
Anything prior to that point is pure speculation.
Will have to wait awhile I’m sure before anything solid is known.
E. F. “Tony” Merchant will have a “stoke” if his ill-gotten gains from the residential schools litigation are paid directly to the Canada Revenue Agency.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/Merchant-trust-note-alerts.pdf
It doesn’t matter where you store your money, but as a resident of Canada you’re required to report all “world income”.
I find it odd that anyone would laud a tax cheat because he’s “only stealing from the rapacious Government”; does this mean that shoplifting is OK if it’s from a big rich company?
I don’t care if it $1 or $1 million. If the money is earned in Canada and the tax paid then an individual should be able to take that money outside the country and not have to pay Canada further taxes on whatever income it generates. That money comes under the jurisdiction it resides in. If there is no taxes charged then none is paid. Cradle to grave taxation is BS in my opinion.