By: Shawn Alli
Posted: November 20, 2017 (on http://www.shawnalli.com/)
In the past, the vile Conservative Harper government uses the slogan "Justin Trudeau, he's just not ready." And while I hate to agree with the horrible Harper government, more than 2 years into his first term, the evidence definitely leans to the fact that Trudeau isn't ready to be prime minister of Canada. Don't believe me? See for yourself.
Aga Khan Vacation
In December 2016 Trudeau, his family, and a few liberal MPs and their spouses goes to the Bahamas and stay with long time billionaire family friend and Islamic spiritual leader Aga Khan. The problem is that all of this is done with Canadian taxpayer dollars.
Yes, security details are necessary for the prime minister, but if it's not government business (which it's not), it should be on his 215K (total cost) dime. He's currently reimbursed the Canadian government about $5000.00 (Cdn). [1]
Sadly, Trudeau isn't intelligent enough to see that the optics of his luxury vacation is problematic in the eyes of Canadians. If he wanted to beat the cold, he would have fared better in British Columbia.
The larger problem with the Aga Khan situation is the conflict of interest, or more accurately the appearance of a conflict of interest:
That development network has been a significant recipient of Canadian foreign aid, receiving $310 million for 16 projects since 2004. Most recently, the Trudeau government granted the Aga Khan Development Network $55 million over five years to improve maternal and child health in Afghanistan. [2]
And then there's the fact that Khan advocates the celebration of Islamic art and culture. I've already digitized enough words on this matter (see The Conspiracy Against Women and The Media).
And then we have the ownership of the Aga Khan island (Bell Island).What's the problem? It's connected to tax havens:
The legal ownership of Bell Island involves a number of shell companies and nominee directors with links to Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse. A title search reveals that the legal owner of Bell Island is Island of Discovery Ltd. The directors of Island of Discovery are two other companies that were mentioned in the Panama Papers database of offshore tax haven documents.
A handwritten notation on the travel expenses for Privy Council technician Brad Cotten's trip indicates a $1,200 US payment for Cotten's accommodation on the island was to be remitted to a fourth company, Lexthree Ltd.
The reasons for the complex corporate structure are unclear, and officials working with the Aga Khan have refused to comment.
Setting up offshore companies is legal and there can be legitimate reasons for using networks of offshore companies with nominee directors.
However, experts say it is also the kind of structure often used by those who are trying to hide assets or avoid or evade taxes. While tax avoidance can be legal, evading taxes is not. [3]
While the Trudeau government does their best to screw over small business with new tax rules, they're actually profiting from it (see Tax Proposals below). Worse, they don't see anything wrong with it. This is how out of touch Trudeau is (and liberals in general) with the average Canadian.
While low-mid income Canadians have to bust their balls in their daily job, if they try to create a small business or make large chunks of money from real estate or investments (without using tax havens), they're screwed by tax authorities. That's not accidental. That's intentional (see The Banking State).
The fact that Trudeau doesn't see a problem with using taxpayer money to spend time with his friends and go to an island that's connected to tax havens is evidence that Trudeau doesn't know what he's doing.
He can't see the optics of his decisions. He's like a typical liberal who may have believed that Hilary Clinton was going to win because that's what they kept telling themselves. Sadly, like most people, Trudeau is lost in his liberal ideological bubble.
Trudeau's defense of Fidel Castro (another family friend), is evidence of his inability to understand perception and how out of touch his ideological perception is:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Fidel Castro was a dictator and he did not intend to minimize the former Cuban leader's human rights abuses.
The prime minister came under fire Saturday after issuing a statement of condolences for Castro in which he described the former president as "a remarkable leader" and family friend.
…Asked by CBC News senior parliamentary reporter Catherine Cullen whether he believes Castro was a dictator, Trudeau replied: "Yes." [4]
Umm...sorry, but you can't maintain that someone is a remarkable leader and a dictator at the same time. That's disingenuous. The truth is that Trudeau was caught off guard by the remark and forced to label Castro a dictator (even though he doesn't really believe that).
Cash for Access
While I mentioned Trudeau's cash for access fundraisers in regards to China in the first article, it doesn't stop with China. Anyone who ponies up $1500.00 (Cdn) can have dinner with Trudeau. [5]
In Trudeau's mind, he probably believes that it's a great deal. The money goes into the Liberal Party bank and Canadians get to chill with the PM. It's all good, right? Wrong. Why? Because low-mid income Canadian taxpayers won't pay $1500.00 for a ticket. But $1500.00 is chump change to lobbyists and corporate executives.
$1500.00 to potentially influence Canadian policies by directly speaking with the PM? Yes please. Even if it doesn't work, it only cost $1500.00. Just so you know, some corporations spend hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on a simple commercial. Others spend the same amount of money to buy out a subway station's print ad space. $1500.00 for the potential to get your way (even if it doesn't work) is worth it in the mind of corporate lobbyists.
The backlash is too much even for Trudeau. In May/June 2017 he implements a new policy banning such cash for access ventures. [6]
Phoenix Payroll System
If you're not Canadian, you probably don't know what the Phoenix payroll system is. It's just a new software program used by the federal government to pay its employees. Sounds simple enough, right? In theory, yes. In reality, no. Why? Because the software doesn't work.
More than 1.5 years into it and the payroll system doesn't work. Federal employees are not getting paid on time, paid at all, or getting paid too much. While the Trudeau government promises Canadians and the world pie in the sky dreams, they can't even get their own payroll system to work. I know that this may seem like a small issue, but it shows the daily incompetence of the Trudeau government. Why are they incompetent? Because Trudeau wasn't ready to lead in the first place.
While many liberals around the world will say the same for Trump, at least Trump is trying to drain the proverbial swamp. And by Trump I mean Trump, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, and Alex Jones. Those are the real principals. Everyone else in Congress and the Senate are just the chess pieces to carry out the orders of the principals.
Trump even manages (more or less) to get tax reform passed in both the Senate and House. While Trudeau is gouging small businesses, Trump is offering all businesses tax breaks. Clearly, these two leaders are on very different pages...or different chapters...or even different books.
Do you think that the Phoenix payroll system isn't that bad? See for yourself:
Colin Barnard said he hasn't been paid since the end of February, except for $652 deposited into his bank account yesterday. He works for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans at the Pinkut Creek spawning channel in northern British Columbia.
"I've had to dip into my RRSPs twice already, and that doesn't make me happy, because that's supposed to be for my retirement. You know it's not a fun thing to have going on," Barnard said, adding that he knows five other people who have also had problems. [7]
"There are people retiring who aren't getting the right benefits, there are people who've gotten promotions that haven't been reflected in their pay, and there are a troubling number of families who are not getting their pay at all."
...The Phoenix system was introduced in early 2016 for some departments.
About 720 public servants — mostly new hires and students — have contacted the government about not receiving pay. Another 1,100 have not received parental, long-term disability or severance payments, while more than 80,000 employees entitled to supplementary pay for extra duties, overtime or pay adjustments have had problems. [8]
There are still at least 13,500 federal workers with pay problems as the public service continues to slog through its troubled transition to the new Phoenix payroll system, according to a government update Wednesday.
Of those 13,500 employees, 7,000 were from the original backlog identified last year, which has been chipped down from 82,000 over the past several months. The remaining 6,500 are workers who since last July have reported receiving the wrong pay after going on or returning from job leave...
Lemay said that, of the 7,000 cases remaining from the original backlog, many of them are "so complex" that they can't be automatically processed through a computer program. [9]
The backlog of complaints from federal public servants who have been overpaid, underpaid or not paid at all has ballooned by another 9,000 since the beginning of August, bringing the total number of cases waiting to be resolved to 237,000.
...The government recently settled contracts with unions representing 90 per cent of the public service workforce. It's now struggling to implement those negotiated changes which include raises, bonuses and retroactive pay, said MacKinnon.
...nearly half of all federal public servants paid through the problem-plagued Phoenix system have opened at least one file seeking redress for a pay issue. As of Aug. 8, there were 156,035 employees who had been waiting at least 30 days to have a pay complaint dealt with, according to data obtained by Radio-Canada. [10]
Federal payroll workers are falling back on Excel spreadsheets, Google and, in some cases, pen and paper to make up for the litany of problems with the Phoenix pay system which, several staffers say, is weakening the integrity of the entire compensation system.
Workers from offices in Winnipeg, Edmonton and the central pay centre in Miramichi, N.B., who spoke to CBC News on condition of anonymity, said they're often forced to come up with creative solutions to the pay system's glitches.
Some were even using Google to try to find answers to their Phoenix questions in the pay system's early days, she said. Since its debut 18 months ago, tens of thousands of public servants across Canada have been improperly paid.
One staffer, who has worked in the federal pay system for more than 25 years, told CBC she questions all the transactions coming out of Phoenix.
"We are nowhere near as comfortable with the integrity of the information and the integrity of the amount of pay and everything," the staffer said.
"Phoenix is very unreliable. It's almost volatile. Whatever we put in, I'm never 100 per cent sure that is what the outcome is going to be." [11]
The federal government's underestimation of the complexity of overhauling the public servants pay system led to the failure of the Phoenix rollout, according to the findings of an independent consulting group's report.
The government first rolled out the new Phoenix pay system for approximately 300,000 employees in February, 2016, and by summer that year, there were 82,000 cases of public servants either receiving no pay, or incorrect pay.
The initial promise from the department was to have the backlog of problematic pay cases resolved by Oct. 31, 2016. As of Sept. 20, there were 257,000 cases of employee pay issues left to be resolved, an increase from the month before due to an influx of new collective agreements that had to be processed.
...Goss Gilroy Inc. was commissioned by the Treasury Board to take on a "lessons learned" study of the government’s introduction of the Phoenix pay system's two-part rollout: replacing the old software; and moving pay from within each department into one centralized centre in Miramichi, N.B.
The $165,000 study identified 17 key lessons that it says the government should take into consideration, as Public Services and Procurement Canada continues to pay people through Phoenix. [12]
The Trudeau government is now studying their incompetence. Sigh. God help Canadians in our time of need under the incompetent Trudeau government.
Tax Proposals
And now we get to the ongoing Trudeau drama know as tax reforms. While US President Trump succeeds (more or less) in lowering the corporate tax rate, the Trudeau government is attempting to make it more difficult for small business owners to save money.
Due to the massive blowback from Canadian small business owners, the Trudeau government offers an olive branch by lowering the small business tax rate by 1.5% by 2019. [13] Sorry, but that's not enough to pacify the anger of most Canadian small business owners.
And then we have Trudeau's finance minister and his shady corporate structures:
Finance Minister Bill Morneau waited two years to disclose a private corporation that owns a villa in southern France that he shares with his wife to Canada's ethics watchdog, CBC News has learned.
...Morneau's wife, Nancy McCain, a member of the wealthy family that owns McCain Foods, is named as a partner.
...The proposed tax changes also won't affect Morneau's company in France. Finance Department spokesperson Jack Aubry said the proposed changes will not affect private corporations owned by Canadians.
...Cullen also contrasted Morneau's decision to hold the villa through a company, potentially saving his family money in the future on inheritance taxes, with the changes he is proposing to the tax rules governing private companies in Canada that are incorporated in other countries. [14]
Opposition critics are hammering Finance Minister Bill Morneau's decision to retain shares in Morneau Shepell, the big pension firm he used to run, saying he faced a "minefield" of potential conflicts.
Those may have included the Liberal government's decision to financially back Bombardier last winter to the tune of $372.5 million in interest-free loans for its CSeries and Global 7000 aircraft programs. [15]
At least most Canadian Conservative politicians have the decency to disclose their corporations to the ethics commissioner. [16]
And finally, we have friends of Trudeau:
One of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's closest friends is benefiting from an exclusive agreement between his data analytics company and the Liberal Party of Canada.
Data Sciences Inc, run by Trudeau's boyhood friend, Tom Pitfield, is providing the party with "digital engagement" and support services for its powerful voter-contact database, Liberalist.
...Pitfield’s wife, Anna Gainey, is the president of the Liberal Party and also a close friend of Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire. The two families vacationed together at the Aga Khan's resort in Bahamas over the Christmas holidays.
...Two current Data Sciences Inc. employees are on the Liberal Party's board of directors: Sebastien Fassier is the Liberal's national vice president (French) and works as Data Sciences vice president of corporate services.
Mira Ahmad, sister of the prime minister's press secretary Cameron Ahmad, sits on the board as president of the Young Liberals of Canada and works as Pitfield's executive assistant at Data Sciences, according to a profile of her in Power & Influence magazine. [17]
This is one reason why rich liberal families send their children to private schools. So their kids can become friends with other rich kids who will occupy positions of power in the future. And it makes perfect sense to do so (but still hypocritical for liberals).
Contrary to what you may believe, Trudeau and Morneau are not men of the people. They're white privileged men who own millions of dollars (either in cash, stocks, or other investments) and have super rich friends. They're completely out of touch with the average person and the visible minority small business owners striving to go beyond the debt slave system.
I'm reminded of the bullsh*t distinction between tax avoidance being legal and tax evasion being illegal. Sorry, but it's really the same thing. It's just slippery wording for legal purposes. Avoidance is just the ideology for the implementation of tax evasion.
Allow me to be clear. There's no significant reason for a Canadian or a Canadian company to create an offshore company in order to do business overseas. Any reason you can think of is tax evasion. Transferring money is not the issue. Global wire transfers happen every day. Creating an offshore company is solely about tax evasion. If anyone tells you otherwise, they're bullsh*tting you.
If Trudeau wants, he can end the tax loophole that allows the creation of offshore companies/ incorporating businesses overseas. He has the power to end that with legislation, as well as taxing foreign companies doing business in Canada.
Trudeau doesn't need to pump more money into Canada Revenue Agency audits. He just needs to introduce new legislation banning Canadian corporations from creating offshore accounts. Like Hollywood accounting, it exists because the US government (via the IRS) allows it to exist. And that's not accidental. That's intentional.
Offshore companies setup by Canadians or Canadian corporations should definitely be illegal. You would think that the Panama Papers and the newly disclosed Paradise Papers would be enough for Trudeau to act on this. But he doesn't. Why not? Because he's a shill for Global Special Interest Groups (GSIGs, see The Deep State and Justin Trudeau, A Shill for Global Special Interest Groups).
He's just implementing a GSIG script that enables corporations to cheat governments and allow you, the honest taxpayer to fork over more than 50% of your income if you reach the highest tax brackets. Giving away more than 50% of your income to a government that's done nothing to earn it? Really? That's not justice or democracy. That's just a mobster taking his cut.
Even after the 2013 offshore leaks, the Luxembourg Leaks, the Panama Papers, and now the Paradise Papers...4 years and 25 million documents later and not a single WE government is calling for an overhaul on offshore tax law, closing tax loopholes, and ending offshore companies. Why not? Because that's not part of the GSIG script.
I know it's hard to believe. But when you realize that Wall Street and financial corporations serve GSIGs, you'll begin to understand how the larger financial events in the world work (see The Banking State). Contrary to what you may believe, WE governments are more or less puppets for GSIGs (see The Deep State).
An overhaul of a WE government's offshore tax code, closing tax loops, and making offshore tax havens illegal is not in the interests of GSIGs. How long are you going to stay in your ideological bubble and pretend that government and industry care about you and have your best interests at heart? Stop maintaining this illusion for the sake of social norms and your ideological bubble.
Trudeau's Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) won't go after multinational corporations with an army of lawyers. But they'll audit you and your 50K salary. Why? Because you're nothing to them.
You're just cattle to be exploited for everything you have. It doesn't matter what political party is in power. The infrastructure is created by GSIGs. Changing the guard means nothing to them. Even Trump is now becoming a GSIG puppet.
It doesn't matter how good or combative the intentions of politicians are. They have to go through the proverbial system. And the system is designed by GSIGs. Again, I know it sounds ludicrous. But when you realize and understand the GSIG conspiracy (see The Conspiracy Theory series) everything fits into place.
Sadly, Trudeau chooses to engage in class warfare. He doesn't attack people living a debt slave job. No. He goes after people who don't want to play the debt slave game. The small business owners and people who invest in real estate or stocks. And that attack is not accidental. It's intentional.
In order to deflect his crony GSIG role and lack of understanding of politics, Trudeau leans back toward PR stunts. And when you're a handsome white male, most people will swoon over you. Trudeau knows this and takes advantage of it. But at least Canadian media outlets are starting to get wise:
And CBC, it must be said, also covered it: "Trudeau Jogged Through a Vancouver Prom on the Seawall." International media, naturally, picked up the story, too.
If this had been the first time the media got suckered into turning a staged Trudeau photo-op into a story, it would be a little more forgivable. But we've seen it plenty of times before: when Trudeau posed with a bridal party during a 2014 wedding, for example, or balanced his son Hadrien on one hand, or took the Montreal subway after his election win.
Governments will always try to manufacture certain images and impressions. That was clearly the strategy behind former prime minister Stephen Harper's 24 Seven videos, which were nominally about giving Canadians a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the life of the prime minister, but veritably about softening Harper's rather stoic public image. [18]
One of the reasons why these three articles take so long to write is because every day is a new opportunity for the Trudeau government to show its incompetence. In November 2017, Trudeau's new Governor General Julie Payette says that divine intervention plays no role in the creation of life. [19]
Umm...regardless of what you believe, it's still an open question in science how complex life originates. Contrary to what you may believe, going from chemistry to complex biology is more difficult than it seems (see Philosophy of Science in Philosophy Reborn Part I: Purpose). As of right now, it's just theoretical physicists and biologists make unfalsifiable ideological theories that sound scientific and correct.
But at the very least, we know that divine intervention didn't play a role in Payette's killing of Theresa Potts when she hit the pedestrian in her car [20]. But then again, the opposite may be true. Divine intervention may have played a role in Payette's ability to escape justice from that situation.
All I can say is that the 2019 Canadian election will be an interesting one. If the charismatic NDP's Jag Singh can chip away at Liberal seats, the Conservatives may be able to take a minority government.
References:
[1] Thompson, Elizabeth. Trudeau's Bahamas vacation cost over $215K — far more than initially disclosed. CBC News. September 13, 2017.
[2] Akin, David. Trudeau and family were New Year's guests of the Aga Khan on his private Bahamas island. National Post. January 6, 2017.
[3] Thompson, Elizabeth. Trudeau under renewed attack for Bahamas vacation. CBC News. May 16, 2017.
[4] Fidel Castro was a dictator, Trudeau says. CBC News. November 27, 2016.
[5] Harris, Kathleen. Ethics watchdog to question Justin Trudeau on 'concerns' about fundraising events. CBC News. December 15, 2016.
[6] Bryden, Joan. Liberals to introduce legislation banning private cash-for-access fundraisers. Canadian Press. May 31, 2017.
[7] Crawford, Alison. New payroll system leaving thousands of public servants in the lurch, says PSAC. CBC News. April 21, 2016.
[8] Nease, Kristy. Trudeau calls Phoenix pay problem an 'unacceptable situation.' CBC News. July 20, 2016.
[9] Ballingall, Alex. At least 13,500 federal workers still have Phoenix paycheque problems. Toronto Star. January 26, 2017.
[10] Burke, Ashley. Phoenix problems worsen in wake of labour deals, MP says. CBC News. August 28, 2017.
[11] Ireton, Julie. Chaos inside the Phoenix pay centres — Is anyone's pay right? CBC News. October 10, 2017.
[12] Aiello, Rachel. 'Ours to fix', say feds following report on Phoenix rollout fiasco. CTV News. October 5, 2017.
[13] Morneau's latest 'step back' on tax proposals seeks to ease concerns from family farms, fishers. CBC News. October 19, 2017.
[14] Thompson, Elizabeth. Finance Minister Bill Morneau waited 2 years to disclose company that owns his French villa to ethics watchdog. CBC News. October 13, 2017.
[15] MacCharles, Tonda and Ballingall, Alex. Morneau Shepell ties to Bombardier flag 'minefield' for finance minister: Opposition critics. Toronto Star. October 23, 2017.
[16] Tasker, John Paul. Andrew Scheer's use of 'super lucrative' tax shelter hypocritical, Liberal MP says. CBC News. October 31, 2017.
[17] McGregor, Glen. Liberal Party's exclusive deal with data company benefits Trudeau friend. CTV News. March 29, 2017
[18] Urback,Robyn. The media should know better but we keep falling for Trudeau's PR: Robyn Urback. CBC News. May 25, 2017
[19] Wherry, Aaron. Julie Payette dares to be interesting with comments on climate, astrology, and divine intervention. CBC News. November 2, 2017.
[20] Donavon, Kevin. Future Governor General Julie Payette involved in fatal collision months before assault charge in Maryland. Toronto Star. July 19, 2017.