Justin Trudeau, King of Canada, has issued his first edict: the reinstatement of the long census form. Minister in charge of Canadian census Navdeep Singh Bains, will jail people who refuse to divulge personal information required by the long census form:
[The Liberal government] didn’t provide details on how it plans to make sure that people actually fill it out, although Navdeep Bains, the minister of innovation, science and economic development, said “the law is the law” and the Statistics Act hasn’t changed, which suggests penalties would include jail time. Bains said restoring the long form will mean a return to solid, high-quality data.
It seems lost on Bains that saying that “the law is the law” does not make any particular action of the government morally right. Putting old ladies in jail because they refuse to fill out a form is disproportionate to the alleged crime. That it is an invasion of privacy and a violation of universal human rights makes it all the more despicable. But the new Trudeau government seems to be carrying on the tradition of the elder Trudeau’s attitude towards law, as we discussed earlier (see, Burning down barns is not wrong because it is illegal; it is illegal because it is wrong).
In the past, the government found one woman guilty of refusing to fill out the long census form. She was 79-years old. I have seen how government persecution of senior citizens can lead to fear and sometimes premature death, as in the case of friend of the Isaac Brock Society Mark Pinetree, who lived out his final years in fear of the IRS. He was a psychiatrist who had moved back to Brazil after becoming a US citizenship, not realizing that the IRS would persecute him even though he no longer lived in the USA.
In any case, if we were hoping that the government of Trudeau the Younger would respect the privacy rights of citizens of Canada, we now have tangible evidence that the new King doesn’t really believe in privacy. This bodes ill for those hoping for the repeal of the FATCA IGA.
I think people are fixated too much on using epithets of royalty to the younger Trudeau. Certainly he is a king that we can be proud of, eh? He beat the crap out of Patrick Brazeau. He looks great without a shirt on. He is a real lady killer. The Elder Trudeau was PM and must have groomed his son to resume his duties once he came of age. We have a little mini-dynasty going on here. It is a dream in a dream.
No one criticized my suggestion that the new government may be sociopathic. Of course this is the fourth in a series of posts in which I discuss that our governments and our society are sociopathic. I would rather be called a king than a sociopath. The latter epithet is so much worse. But calling a sociopath who is in charge of a country “king” seems a propo. So folks, let’s please focus on the central points. Is Trudeau going to continue Harper’s policy of throwing grandmothers under the bus? I have no reason yet to think that he will do anything else. His first edict is the reinstatement of a forced violation of privacy using the terror of the state.
Those leaders who created and passed the IGA FATCA showed no feeling for the real suffering of the Canadians affected by FATCA. If the Trudeau the Younger does away with FATCA, I will write my congratulations and will have some reason for appreciation for the new government. If Young Justin does not get rid of the FATCA IGA, then he will deserve worse names than what I’ve called him thus far.
Here is Trudeau in a charity boxing match:
“No one criticized my suggestion that the new government may be sociopathic.”
Of course. Everyone agrees on that.
“I would rather be called a king than a sociopath.”
OK, though in this case you were the caller not the callee, and not everyone agrees about which kind of attack is worse.
You do have your additional point about the dynasty. Yes it resembles the dynasties of the US, North Korea, South Korea, and Japan in that way.
@Norman, Perhaps you are right. Sociopaths prefer the term “emperor” if Nero or Bokassa are any indication.
“He looks great without a shirt on.”
True that! ….. What were we talking about again?
He should have a boxing match with Putin.
Someone once wrote a letter to the Globe and Mail extolling the virtues of boxing. When two countries have an argument, each country should send their best boxer to fight it out and determine who wins. That way civilians wouldn’t have to suffer.
Is Russia enforcing its banking laws in Canada? Why not box Obama?
“Why not box Obama?”
Because we don’t know if Obama looks good without a shirt on?
Canada drew a map trying to teach Putin which territory was Russia and which territory was Not Russia.
Sweet video. Our boy can box. Good fitness– he looked like he was in good shape for the match.
With his height and that reach, I’d take him over Putin. Putin is a little guy– featherweight class I suspect.
Against Obama, I’m gonna pick our boy Justin again too. Obama hits the gym but is also a smoker– JT would wear him down with his fitness.
One thing I took away from the clip– JT could have done more than TKO the good Conservative senator. JT could have laid him out. JT, however, realized he had his opponent, held back, and allowed his opponent to lose with his dignity intact. Seems like a pretty stand-up thing to do. JT comes across as a good sport.
mr physic This is tinfoil-hat crap.
Statistics Canada has been exemplary in its policy of isolating the data it connects from ANY other data collected by the government, and has historically had strong and effective privacy guarantees.
You are so right.
Petros. No one criticized my suggestion that the new government may be sociopathic.
in case you missed it the first time your suggestion is pure ‘tinfoil hat crap’
MB the Founding Fathers of the USA came up with a pretty good Constitution and Bill of Rights by simply using their intellect and thinking it through and If a person’s thinking processes are still intact, the problem is obvious.
Sure! Right on !. And slavery was permitted for another 100 years. Women were denied the vote for another 150 years and they still can’t get an ERA in their bill of rights.
@Embee re: “There should be no need to extract more personal information from people who are already suffering from the harm of FATCA’s attack on their personal privacy ”
We are suffering from a dis-connect. I was not referring to the FATCA problem when I suggested that the census data helps identify problems.
@ Duke of Devon
Yes, I hear your sarcasm and in the same vein I would say … and of course all of those injustices would have been quickly addressed had there only been a long form census. Sure, right! Basically, the USA was build on pretty solid foundations, although it most certainly needed to add additional moral bricks, over the course of time, to those foundations. It did so but over the past few decades politicians, led by the nose by lobbyists, have been ripping away at those foundations and that is most alarming. I’d like to see a reversal of this trend, based on moral principles and not reliant on further loss of privacy.
The government needs money AND information to do its job property. What is the source of these two requirements? – residents of our country. Most of us agree that we are pretty lowly shits if we don’t live up to our tax obligations. How is the census any different?
@ WhiteKat
I think the suggestion (granted not yours) was out there that the government would need more data to finally realize FATCA is a problem … like our letters and lawsuit aren’t enough. Sorry if I misinterpreted what you meant.
Is taxing residents under threat of fines and jail time also a sociopathic act? Just wondering….
It is not lost on me nor will it be forgotten that those urging me to be nice towards the young PM, are throwing insults at me. Still such attacks are pure ad hominem because they are completely without any attention to the violation of privacy now proclaimed via edict as the younger Trudeau first act as roi du Canada.
I checked to see if I was called infantile when I mocked Mr. Harper. I found no instances of similar displeasure. I do not see why the young handsome prince should now be exempt from similar treatment, since he likely has no intention to repeal FATCA. Canada has thus become even less free than under the Eunuch.
@Embee…no problem. Many points get lost in translation here.
” I do not see why the young handsome prince should now be exempt from similar treatment, since he likely has no intention to repeal FATCA.”
Would it be OK, if we humour ourselves with our letter writing fantasy first?
In return for my living up to my tax obligations I’d like to see the government living up to its obligation to protect everyone’s privacy rights and stop loading more and more information obligations onto all of us. Meanwhile the government dons a thicker cloak of secrecy and sharpens its redaction skills. It’s government that should be transparent, not us. Anyway, Justin Trudeau has promised more government transparency so we’ll see.
@Whitekat, By all means write letters! But you already know his answer: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/01/29/jt-says-duals-fall-under-usa-authority/
By the way, when I do a google search of FATCA and Justin Trudeau, your post of Northernstar’s letter from our good prince is the first post. So thanks for that!
@Petros JT is stating Canadian law as embodied in the Tax Treaty. Acquiescence by not asserting otherwise with agreement to perverse US Treasury Dept definition of preventing double taxation.
@ Petros and WhiteKat
The way I look at writing these letters is that they do NOT make me feel crappy … like I might feel if I didn’t write them. Will they do any good? I don’t know. It depends on how receptive the receivers are. BTW, when I do a StartPage search for “Justin Trudeau + FATCA” I get the “Liberal Party Position on U.S. FATCA” from Darell Samson’s site first … after that it’s Sandbox and Brock posts. If it hadn’t been for the latter mentioned, there likely would not have been any results for this search.
@Petros, you mean politicians never change their tune after they are elected? I hear that JT has a high emotional quotient whereas his father had a high intelligence quotient (i.e. JT is likely not a sociopath). Maybe if we cry loud enough at this particularly moment in time, we just might be heard. Certainly we turn a lot of people off, by crying fowl before the game even starts.
Petros, would love to know your answer to my question above,
“Is taxing residents under threat of fines and jail time also a sociopathic act? “
When Pierre Trudeau did a pirouette and turned his back on the Queen, people mocked him but didn’t call him a king. Though as mentioned Petros does have a point about dynasties.
Though I’m not Petros, I’ll weigh in on this one:
“Is taxing residents under threat of fines and jail time also a sociopathic act?“
No but some of the forms are. Twice upon a time the US Supreme Court ruled on US v. Sullivan and Garner v. US for exactlyt that reason.