The CBC’s role is to expose Government lies, not to promulgate them

This is also the role of the Official Opposition Party, the Liberal Party of Canada.

In a segment that aired on Friday February 26m 2010 the CBC had been charged with the task of exposing the Harper government’s lies about tax leakage in a segment entitled: “Ask a politician a question”. Never before was the CBC given a better opportunity to demonstrate its utility and independence as a public broadcaster in exposing government lies, than was presented to it in exposing the Harper government’s lies about tax leakage from income trusts.

Like knowing your bank account balance at the end of each month, tax leakage from income trusts can only have one answer. That is the hard reality of the situation. It is irrefutable. We can live with the truth, but it seems that others intent on destroying the income trust market for ulterior reasons are unable to. The CBC has allowed itself to become their pawn and the government’s pawn in promulgating the government’s lies about tax leakage.

The hard irrefutable truth is that income trusts DO NOT CAUSE TAX LEAKAGE. This was a known fact as long ago as the night of October 31, 2006 when Canada’s Minister of Finance was clearly engaged in telling all Canadians a lie.

Instead the CBC, when handed this easy assignment where all the proof had been laid before it, decided to go to a Professor Booth of the Rotman School at the University of Toronto who has NO EXPERTISE whatsoever on this matter since he has done NO RESEARCH of his own on the matter of tax leakage and got him to dutifully repeat the government’s lies about tax leakage to all Canadians on the CBC, when no air time was given to myself to expose these patent falsehoods for what they are, given that was the agreed upon format of the exercise. Then the CBC made things worse by aggravating the falsehoods of tax leakage by itself repeating the government’s patent falsehoods about the tax losses that would arise if Telus and BCE had converted to income trusts.

As such the CBC has opted to renege on its role as a public broadcaster and instead opted to promulgate the government’s completely warn out and discredited lies about tax leakage in February 2010 on the eve of a Budget, as if nothing had been learned in the 3 and half years since October 31, 2006.

In that period of time the following highly credible groups have completely rejected the government’s claim that income trusts cause tax leakage and not one single group has published any new studies that would support the tired old dogma about tax leakage that originated with Jack Mintz of the Rotman School and which the CBC went out of its way to get one of Jack Mintz’s former colleagues at the Rotman School, Professor Booth, to dutifully repeat.

Even Jack Mintz has admitted the gross error that is contained in the government’s patently false allegation of tax leakage when he wrote to me on November 26 , 2006 and stated:

“I do want to point out that there is a serious flaw in some analyses especially on the taxation of pension and RRSP accounts. Finance was not right to treat the impact as zero.”

So what does the CBC go ahead and report? The truth or the government’s lies? Sadly, the CBC decided to run with the lies and informed their viewers about something that even the source of these lies, namely Jack Mintz has admitted to is a lie and based on a “serious flaw”, over three years ago!!!

The CBC’s idea of reporting the news in 2010 is to repeat the worn out lies of 2006. Talk about time warp journalism,

Meanwhile the CBC completely avoided reporting on the real truth and ignored all of the findings of these highly reputable groups, all of whom have completed research on the matter of alleged tax leakage in a way that the CBC has not and Professor Booth clearly has not:

HLB Decision Economics: Tax Revenue Implications of Income Trusts. November 2005 Collaborative study with the Department of Finance. CONCLUSION: No tax leakage

BMO Capital Markets: The inconvenient truth about trusts. December 2006 CONCLUSION: No tax leakage, government’s analysis is flawed. REAL tax leakage will arise from takeover of trusts.

PricewaterhouseCoopers: Income Trust Report. December 2006. CONCLUSION: No tax leakage when RRSP taxes are included (as required by Auditor General’s rules of Accrual Accounting).

RBC Capital Markets: Aesop’s Warning Ingnored:”Much wants more yet oft loses all!”. April 2007 CONCLUSION: No tax leakage, government’s analysis is flawed. Real tax leakage will arise from takeovers of trusts.

CIBC World Markets: For sale: Trust takeover activity post October 31, 2006. April 2007 CONCLUSION: No tax leakage before, REAL tax leakage from ensuing takeovers

Canacord Capital: Income Trust Review: Foreign takeovers. April 2007 CONCLUSION: REAL tax leakage from ensuing takeovers

Deloitte: Income trust buyouts: Lots of activity, little tax revenue. April 2008. CONCLUSION: REAL tax leakage from ensuing takeovers

CAITI: Myth #3: “The sky is falling... the tax threat of BCE and Telus converting” shows the simple math behind the fact that Ottawa would have received billions more in tax from Telus and BCE converting to trusts, as opposed to corporations or LBO’s

So in the face of this abundance of evidence against the government’s PATENTLY FALSE CLAIM of tax leakage and the true circumstances of alleged tax leakage, what does the CBC do? The CBC repeats the government’s lies bout tax leakage and thereby MISLEADS all Canadians, which is completely contrary to honest journalism and is completely counter to why Canadians have a public broadcaster in the first place.

Canadian taxpayers are funding the CBC to the tune of $1 billion a year for what purpose? So that the CBC can engage in a cover up with the government about a policy that has CAUSED 51 Canadian companies totaling $59 billion to be acquired by foreigners and other non taxable entities over the past three years which has caused all taxpayers to lose $1.5 billion a year?

How is that for a “return on investment”? Spend a billion to fund a public broadcaster so the public brodactser can engage in a government cover-up that is costing those same taxpayers $1.5 billion more each year. It’s like having an employee who steals from you. That’s what the CBC had consciously turned itself into....an employee who participates in a cover up that serves to steal money from its employer....the taxpayers of Canada.....and puts it in the hands of foreigners, something that the CBC would have learned if it had done ANY RESEARCH on this matter, like this quote from RBC Capital Markets:

“Who gets burned? Canadian taxpayers. Retired Canadians.”

Well done CBC. NOT. What are you going to do for an encore?