The Star's James Daw attempts to defend Jim Flaherty's blatant self dealing, while covering up Flaherty's patent lies

Hey James. One thing you fail to realise and that is that I ran for office to represent the people of Whitby Oshawa,. The same people that Flaherty professes to represent in Ottawa. When canvassing the people of W-O in the 2008 election, the health issue that was most prevalent at the door and at the forefront of people’s concerns was funding for children with the learning disability known as autism. Autism is a terrible thing for a child to be inflicted with and runs the gammut from mild to severe. As the parent of three healthy children who accomplishments in life would make any parent abundantly proud, my heart goes out to these people whose children are inflicted with autism. Meanwhile there was local outrage in the community about all the sweetheart deals that Flaherty has done for himself, his wife and his family on the matter of his funding of the Wasdell Learning Center and all the money that he directed to this pet project of his, especially since there are direct monetary ties.

If you knew me, you would realise that I am at the complete opposite end of the person whose social values you hold more dear than mine. That is your choice to make and I have no desire to convince you otherwise. Since it is only a reflection of who you are and what you deem important.

Jim Flaherty’s interest in the Disability Savings Fund and these most recent enhancements to it, that might benefit no more than 20,000 people across the country is a worthwhile thing unto itself, but I can assure you that there would be no such thing if it did not directly benefit him, just as there would have been no private school tax break had Flaherty’s kids not gone to private school when he was Ontario’s Finance Minister. I had kids that were about to private school at the time, but I thought this was the most absurd use of taxpayers’ money known to man.

That defines the difference between Flaherty and me, and perhaps you and me, Flaherty is in this thing TOTALLY for himself and not the people he ostensibly represents. Are you saying that this latest refinement to an already generous Disability Savings Plan that might benefit a handful of Canadians at a cost of say “x”, is the greatest and best use of extremely limited funds available for such charitable causes, and that all others, like funding for autism that the people of W-O are screaming to get, is second fiddle? This is the same Jim Flaherty who ran for leadership of the Ontario Conservatives on a platform of “jailing the homeless”, which turned my stomach at the time, and no, not because I am homeless.

That’s my point. Not the silly argument you were falsely trying to pin on me. Shame on you. You seem to go out of your way to defend Jim Flaherty who is as indefensible a person as I have met or known. Evidently he is your soul mate?


On 3/5/10 9:40 AM, "Daw, James" wrote:



Final straw. Get lost.




Mean spirited? Your defense of Jim Flaherty with claims that I am being mean
spirited are ridiculous. Facts are facts, claims of mean spiritedness are
fanciful fabrications of your own easily offended and creative mind. As for
mean spiritedness and self serving people, how about all the reporters like
you who work for the Toronto Star who repeat like lemmings and propaganda
artists the patent falsehoods of this deceitful and grossly incompetent
Finance Minister who you are now rushing to defend. Let me remind you, this
guy ripped off 2.5 million Canadians from the investment choice of their
preference and $35 billion of their investment’s value based on a PATENT
LIE. A Patent lie that your paper went out of its way to falsely conjure up.


Need I remind you that I am not acting for what you refer to as “industry
friends” but rathe people like David and Lorraine Marshall> I have no idea
what “industry friends” you are talking about, as if “friends” was some
measure of anything. Unlike you I measure things by truthfulness and honesty
, something completely lacking in the Toronto Star as I am reminded of that
meeting in April 2 with your editorial board whose idea of mean spiritedness
takes the form of defending this Government’s use of blacked out documents
as “proof” of tax leakage, only serving as “proof” of your papers complete
lack of journalistic standards.

Give your head a shake and grow up. Stop with your childish critiques of my
completely valid obesrvations. Better yet, tell your readers the TRUTH for
once.


On 3/5/10 8:06 AM, "Daw, James" wrote:

> My children are not disabled, and I hope neither your children nor mine ever
> become disabled.
> Who are you trying to fool? How do you think such mean-spirited messages will
> help the cause of your former industry friends who profited from creating
> income trusts?
> Please delete me from your distribution list.
> And do it twice, because I now get every message a second time.
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brent Fullard [mailto:brent.fullard@rogers.com]
> Sent: Thu 3/4/2010 11:06 PM
> To: Daw, James
> Subject: Re: Flaherty feathers his own nest again
>
> Is that benefit available to you with your RRSP and your children? No, therefore it
> is a huge feather. Who are you trying to fool?
>
>
> On 3/4/10 10:50 PM, "Daw, James" wrote:
>
>> > He just has to die first. Some feather.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Brent Fullard [mailto:brent.fullard@rogers.com]
>> > Sent: Thu 3/4/2010 6:25 PM
>> > To: Brent Fullard
>> > Subject: Flaherty feathers his own nest again
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Notice there’s no rollover of an RRSP to a Marshall Savings Plan in Budget
>> > 2010, as that wouldn’t benefit self dealing Jim Flaherty, just this little
>> > gem of self interested self dealing:
>> >
>> >
>> > Rollover of RRSP Proceeds to an RDSP
>> > When the annuitant under a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) dies,
>> > the existing income tax rules generally provide that the value of the RRSP
>> > is included in computing the deceased's income for the year of death.
>> > However, preferential tax treatment is provided on RRSP distributions made
>> > after death to the deceased's surviving spouse or common-law partner, or to
>> > children or grandchildren who were financially dependent on the deceased
>> > RRSP annuitant. There are two aspects to this preferential tax treatment.
>> > * Distributions of the RRSP proceeds to the deceased's surviving spouse or
>> > common-law partner, or to a financially dependent child or grandchild,
>> > reduce the amount of the deceased's income and are included in the income
>> of
>> > the recipient (these distributions are referred to as "refunds of
>> > premiums").
>> > * If a spouse or common-law partner, or a child or grandchild who was
>> > dependent on the deceased annuitant because of physical or mental
>> infirmity,
>> > receives a refund of premiums, an offsetting deduction allows the refund of
>> > premiums to be transferred on a tax-deferred (or "rollover") basis to the
>> > RRSP of the recipient, or used to purchase an immediate life annuity.
>> > Similar rules also apply in respect of Registered Retirement Income Fund
>> > (RRIF) proceeds and certain lump-sum amounts paid from Registered Pension
>> > Plans (RPPs). For the purposes of this supplementary information, "RRSP
>> > proceeds" also refers to RRIF and lump-sum RPP proceeds and "RRSP
>> annuitant"
>> > also refers to a RRIF annuitant and an RPP member.
>> >
>> > Registered Disability Savings Plans (RDSPs) were introduced in Budget 2007
>> > to help parents and others save for the long-term financial security of a
>> > child with a severe disability. An RDSP is a tax-assisted savings vehicle
>> in
>> > which investment income accumulates tax-free. Canada Disability Savings
>> > Grants and Canada Disability Savings Bonds may also be paid by the
>> > government into the RDSP. Canada Disability Savings Grants, Canada
>> > Disability Savings Bonds and investment income are included in the
>> > beneficiary's income for tax purposes when paid out of the RDSP.
>> >
>> > Budget 2010 proposes to extend the existing RRSP rollover rules to allow a
>> > rollover of a deceased individual's RRSP proceeds to the RDSP of a
>> > financially dependent infirm child or grandchild.
>> >
>> > An individual who qualifies to be an RDSP beneficiary and who meets the age
>> > and residency requirements for RDSP contributions will be eligible to roll
>> > over RRSP proceeds received as a result of the death of their parent or
>> > grandparent to their RDSP if the requirements under the existing RRSP
>> > rollover rules are satisfied (that is, if the RDSP beneficiary was
>> > financially dependent on the deceased individual by reason of physical or
>> > mental infirmity). An infirm child or grandchild is generally considered to
>> > be financially dependent if the child's income for the year preceding the
>> > year of death did not exceed a specified threshold ($17,621 for 2010). An
>> > infirm child with income above this amount may also be considered to be
>> > financially dependent, but only if the dependency can be demonstrated based
>> > on the particular facts.
>> >
>> > The amount of RRSP proceeds rolled over into an RDSP will not be permitted
>> > to exceed the beneficiary's available RDSP contribution room. The lifetime
>> > contribution limit for RDSPs is $200,000. The rolled-over proceeds will
>> > reduce the beneficiary's RDSP contribution room, but will not attract
>> Canada
>> > Disability Savings Grants. These proceeds will be considered private
>> > contributions for the purpose of determining whether an RDSP is a primarily
>> > government-assisted plan (a plan where Canada Disability Savings Grants and
>> > Canada Disability Savings Bonds paid to the plan exceed private
>> > contributions made to the plan, and which is consequentially subject to a
>> > number of additional requirements). Since the amount of RRSP proceeds
>> rolled
>> > over to an RDSP will not have been subject to income tax, the amount will
>> > form part of the portion of a disability assistance payment that is
>> included
>> > in the beneficiary's income when withdrawn from the RDSP.
>> >
>> > The RDSP beneficiary or his or her legal representative will be required to
>> > make an election in prescribed form to transfer the RRSP proceeds to the
>> > RDSP on a rollover basis. The election would be made at the time of the
>> RDSP
>> > contribution and filed with both the Canada Revenue Agency and Human
>> > Resources and Skills Development Canada by the RDSP issuer.
>> >
>> > These measures will be effective for deaths occurring on or after March 4,
>> > 2010.