Canada has no business calling the Burma kettle black

Below is a press release put out by the Liberals yesterday that condemns the the continued house detention of Aung San Suu Kyi by Burma’s military junta, in which the statement is made: “Burma’s military junta has further underscored their illegitimacy through the show trial and sham verdict extending the unjust detention of Aung San Suu Kyi.”

This is an exercise in calling the kettle black. Canada has conducted itself in a similar contemptible way by creating and passing legislation that is based on patent lies (ie tax leakage) and conducting pathetic kangaroo court show trials, such as the Public Hearings on Income Trusts.

At those show trials, senior members of the Department of Finance were given the carte blanche opportunity to advance nonsensical arguments such as the one that advanced the notion that there must be tax leakage from income trusts because, after all, they lost $35 billion in value after the announcement of the punitive trust tax. Okay? Name one asset that wouldn’t lose value upon the announcement of a 31.5% tax. Is that proof of tax leakage or simply proof of the intellectually corrupt mindset of the senior members of Canada’s Department of Finance?

Another aspect of the Show Trial on Income Trusts which was contemptible, was to afford those who most benefited from the imposition of this tax, which served to kill their competition, was the opportunity it afforded then to deny involvement in lobbying for this policy change, such as this absurd statement made by the CEO of Manulife:

“The notion and the implication that somehow the government on this file is responding to initiatives that originated with corporations is not based on reality.”

If that isn’t bogus show trial testimony, then I don’t know what is.

Show trials are the means to deliver sham verdicts and unjust outcomes under the pretense of "a public process", as utterly flawed as that process might be.

Meanwhile, the fact remains that in Canada, we employ show trials to pass legislation that is based on patent lies. Patent lies that have caused many considerable harm. Tax leakage is a patent lie if not an outright fraud.

Burma is imprisoning Aung San Suu Kyi for another 18 months because it serves the purposes of a handful of self intereste parties. Canada meanwhile is dramatically reducing the retirement lifestyles and well being of hundreds of thousands of hardworking Canadians and imposing investment losses of $35 billion on millions of Canadians and foreign investors based on a complete falsehood, known as tax leakage. Why? Because it serves the interests of a handful of self interested individuals, whose goal in life is to kill the competition and to sabotage their investors as described in this Globe and Mail account of November 2, 2006:

“High-profile directors and CEOs, meanwhile, had approached Mr. Flaherty personally to express their concerns: Many felt they were being pressed into trusts because of their duty to maximize shareholder value, despite their misgivings about the structure. Paul Desmarais Jr., the well-connected chairman of Power Corp. of Canada, even railed against trusts in a conversation with Prime Minister Stephen Harper during a trip to Mexico.”

Canada has no business holding other countries, like Burma, to standards that it does not adhere to itself. And yes, imposing $35 billion of losses on 2.5 million Canadians is on the same scale of injustice as imposing another 18 months of house arrest on
Aung San Suu Kyi, since both are based on contrived and trumped up falsehoods, whose clear intent is to advantage some at the expense of others. The only difference is the actions against Aung San Suu Kyi were actions of Burma’s military junta and the actions against 2.5 million Canadians were the actions of Canada’s corporate junta, who control this country from top to bottom and from the inside out.

Why is the lie known as tax leakage not being thoroughly exposed for the patent falsehood that it is by the Liberal Party of Canada and by its new leader Michael Ignatieff? There is no better place to exercise your indignity for falsehoods and show trials than here at home on the issue of income trusts? You don’t need to go to Burma to take on military junta’s and impose your sense of moral justice. Try some of that here at home with Canada’s corporate junta and demonstrate what you stand for.....and what you don’t stand for?

Ditto the NDP.

Statement by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff on the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi
Published on 11 August 2009

Burma’s military junta has further underscored their illegitimacy through the show trial and sham verdict extending the unjust detention of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Leader of Burma’s National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi won Burma’s last legitimate election in 1990. Her voice is a beacon of hope for the expression of democratic freedom for repressed people in her country and around the globe.

It is now clear that the extension of Ms. Suu Kyi’s detention was designed to prevent her from taking part in Burma’s 2010 elections, exposing the military junta’s true intentions to the world.

For thirteen of the last twenty years, Ms. Suu Kyi has lived under military-imposed house arrest while maintaining a stance of peaceful, non-violent political involvement.

A Nobel peace laureate and honourary Canadian citizen, Aung San Suu Kyi has brought global awareness to the injustices suffered by the Burmese people under the rule of its military junta while standing for their rights and freedoms.

On behalf of the Liberal Party and our Parliamentary caucus, we condemn the sentencing and continued detention of Ms. Suu Kyi, and urge the Canadian government and countries around the world to press for her immediate and unconditional release.