The government ignores a whistleblower important

Photo Jean-François Cloutier
The government did not see the relevance to meet the whistleblower, Brad Birkenfeld, and instead urged to use the reporting line.

Guillaume St-Pierre

Monday, 25 September, 2017 23:18

UPDATE
Monday, 25 September, 2017 23:18

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OTTAWA, The Trudeau government does not see the utility to meet an important whistleblower, which would hold information on hundreds of Canadians to be taken that frustrate the fisc. But he invites her to use his telephone line denunciations.

“I encourage you strongly to use the line of complaints which is accessible to all Canadians,” said minister of national Revenue, Diane called to order.

Photo Guillaume St-Pierre

The minister of national Revenue of Canada, Diane called to order, maintains that it is not possible to comment on the case of Canadians that have possibly evaded taxes.

The whistleblower in question, Brad Birkenfeld, is at the heart of a scandal global in connection with the tax havens in which have soaked hundreds, or even thousands, of Canadians.

In its edition of Saturday, The Newspaper revealed that Ottawa will fail since 10 years to recover billions of dollars in unpaid taxes.

In a decade, the Canada revenue Agency (CRA) has identified 500 potential fraudsters who have hidden some $ 270 million in switzerland at the bank UBS.

But it would only be the tip of the iceberg, according to Mr. Birkenfeld, a former u.s. employee of UBS, which estimates the fraud to be approximately $ 7 billion in Canada.

Asked to clarify if it considers that Mr. Birkenfeld may help the federal government to make it unlock faster certain cases, the minister has replied with an unequivocal ‘no’.

Gobsmacked

Reached by email Monday, Mr. Birkenfeld did was just not that the minister Lebouthillier does not consider it appropriate to meet.

“Several foreign governments have approached me for help to recover their money and to ensure that the swiss banks are responsible for their actions,” he wrote.

“I haven’t received any call Canada for the past 10 years. I guess they can’t afford a phone call, ” quips he.

Brooding the whistleblower, the Trudeau government made the “demonstration blatant that it tolerates the bandits to tie, and the tax havens,” believes the leader of the Bloc québécois, Martine Ouellet.

This last one is of the opinion that it is essential to invite Mr. Birkenfeld to testify before parliamentarians in Ottawa to shed light on the extent of fraud in the country.

Ms. Lebouthillier defends himself to stand idly by. She recalled that his government had invested record amounts in the fight against tax evasion nearly $ 1 billion over five years.

“The work is started since two years and it will continue,” she said, blaming the passage the former conservative government for its inaction in the matter.

But for the New democratic Party, liberals and conservatives have their share of responsibility.

US $ 5 billion

“We are extremely complacent and effete in Canada, plague the lieutenant of the party in Quebec, Alexandre Boulerice. […] The governments of both conservative and liberal in a row, including Mr. Trudeau, have always turned a blind eye to the people who made tax evasion. “

Thanks to Mr. Birkenfeld, the u.s. authorities have recovered US $ 5 billion in unpaid taxes, condemning many of the wealthy Americans to prison.

– With the collaboration of Jean-François Cloutier