Globe Editorial: End the discrimination. Tell that to Teachers'!

Why is this man (Jim Leech) smiling? Is it because he is a big fan of the Maple Leafs and gross discrimination?

You have to love the Globe. Not. Man are they ever hypocritical. Here they have a piece entitled “End the discrimination” about ending what they deem to be discrimination on Employment Insurance (EI).

Where was the hypocritical Globe Editorial on End the Discrimination on the matter of RRSPs being unable to own income trusts without paying a double tax at a rate of 31.5%, such that income trusts were being taxed at combined rates as high as 62%, and yet the pension funds like the Globe’s owner can own income trusts free of this tax? That’s an enormous act of discrimination that the Globe has been oblivious to. Such discrimination only serves to usher in Canada’s two tiered pension system, with the 25% with pensions at a DISTINCT advantage to the 75% without as reported in my Hill Times article of April 20th.

Why has the Globe not reported on this form of gross discrimination. EI is meant to be and is a temporary benefit, whereas pension income is required for the entire remaining period of one’s life.

I first made this point about the discrimination inherent in Flaherty’s so called Tax Fairness Plan on a taped interview with Michael Hainsworth on BNN on or about January 15, 2007 that was scheduled to air that night and was posted to be aired at 6:00 pm that evening. It was not, and NO reason was given despite the many viewers who inquired. Evidently this was incendiary news that BNN didn’t want to get out or their viewers, 75% of whom were being shafted, to know at that point in time.

The other act of gross discrimination on the Tax Fairness Plan is the act of giving Income Splitting to Seniors, AGAIN, only to those 25% with pension income and not the rest. It is costing taxpayers $3.8 billion to give 14% of Seniors a break that the other 86% will never see. This is Harper’s idea of a Tax “Fairness” Plan?

Meanwhile the Opposition parties are saying squat about this gross discrimination in Question Period or in the press, perhaps that’s because all MPs benefit? They should all be on Unemployment Insurance themselves, if that’s the type of advocacy they give to 86% of seniors and all taxpayers.

These are acts of GROSS discrimination, and yet are NOT BEING reported by the Globe or their Biased News Network. Why is that, especially when their part owner Ontario Teachers was given hoards of coverage by the Globe when Goodale was going to limit tha amount of income trusts that pension funds could own. There was no end of the outrage from Teachers’ and the Globe on that discrimination.

The only thing remotely “creative” (read: devious) that Flaherty did on his Halloween Massacre was to carve out the pension funds with a special break that did not discriminate against them......but rather the 75% of Canadians without pensions and also handed those with pension the huge tax benefit of income splitting. Gone were Teachers’ concerns with “discrimination”, since they were now on the receiving end of “discrimination”. That’s their idea of what’s bad with discrimination.....what disreputable jerks. Here was Teachers’ press release extolling the virtues of “discrimination”, followed by my piece in the Hill Times referring to mark Carney’s act of unconscionable self dealing by giving HIS pension fund a carve out from his draconian 31.5% DOUBLE tax on RRSPs and investments in Canada:

Teachers' response to new federal income trust policy
November 1, 2006
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has advocated for a taxation policy on income trusts that does not discriminate against pension funds, and we are pleased to see that this is the case with the government’s announcement yesterday (October 31, 2006).

The reality is that, in a protracted period of low interest rates, it is important to find alternate investments with yields that help make up the difference. Income trusts have allowed us to do that in recent years. The challenge will be to find the investment vehicles that will replace the income and cash flow that income trusts have represented to us, but we are confident that our investment team will find them. The four-year implementation period for this new policy will enable us to gradually make any necessary adjustments to our portfolio.

There is good news for pensioners and other seniors over age 65 in this new policy, which will help take the sting out of the new tax policy on income trusts for them: the age exemption tax credit will be increased by $1,000 and income splitting will be permitted.
Contact:
Deborah Allan
Director, Communications and Media Relations
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

Why the income trust issue REFUSES to go away...
Canadians refuse to accept a policy whose premises are all false, whose passage is inherently undemocratic.
Hill Times
April 20, 2009
By: Brent Fullard


End the discrimination
Globe editorial
The Globe and Mail
May 5, 2009