Some more installments in the Excellent Adventures of our Freeman Freeloader and aspiring Guru Jean-Marc Paquin. Unfortunately both are disasters for his credibility as the nascent leader of the Quebec Freemen. First up is the more minor of the two problems and even that involves a court loss and punitive damages against him! He pulled the usual Freeman scam of borrowing money to buy a car, a Porsche Cayenne;
then refusing to pay the money back on the basis, essentially, that he didn't have to because he was special. You know the Freeman drill. The Bank of Nova Scotia siezed the vehicle and Freddy the Freeloader then sued the bank for $1,400,000 for unlawful seizure. The bank, not surprisingly won and had costs awarded in its favour. What was surprising was that the court awarded an additional $10,000 to the bank as punitive damages for having to put up with Paquin's stupidity. Canadian courts are getting fed up with Freeman antics. This is reported in French here;
http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justi ... verain.php
And in a very flamboyant Google Translator edition here;
https://translate.google.com/translate? ... edit-text=
To quote the english version;
According to the evidence presented in court, Mr. Paquin had bought his Porsche Cayenne in 2011 thanks to a loan from the Bank of Nova Scotia paid down with monthly payments. After seven months, he stopped paying, then shipped to its various bank cryptic documents in English, including a check from a closed bank account supposed to deliver to repay the balance of the loan.
The bank obtained the seizure of the vehicle, but Mr. Paquin responded by calling on it to pay $ 1.4 million for "unlawful seizure" of his property. He invoked the common obscure arguments among sovereign citizens, including the fact that each individual possesses a distinct "legal entity" has concealed a hidden heritage too. He also said that the Porsche is a good "created to justify policies for sustainable development", the bank had no right to it.
Problem number two is one of those technical little tax issues that can trip anybody up, even a man as astute as Jean-Marc just striving to find the truth behind government lies and deceit. Income tax evasion. He seems to have gone down the Poriskyite path although this is not spelled out in the article linked below. I've reported elsewhere that the Poriskyites were snared in something the Canada Revenue Agency called "Operation Fable"
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=9390
Well it seems that Paquin was caught by Operation Elephant! The article telling us about it, and Paquin's tax problems is in French here;
http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justi ... verain.php
And English here;
https://translate.google.com/translate? ... edit-text=
As the article says;
The federal tax and the Sûreté du Québec Quebec hit yesterday followers of anti-government extremist ideology, which is becoming increasingly popular in Canada and that prompted them to engage in systematic fraud or commercial institutions government.
According to La Presse has learned, the nine searches conducted yesterday by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) are part of the Elephant national project, launched an offensive across the country against those who proclaim themselves freemen on the land or sovereign citoyens (sovereign citizens).
The Sûreté is the Quebec equivalent of the Canada Revenue Agency. Very brief explanation. In all provinces except Quebec the CRA is responsible for asessing and administering both the federal and the provincial income taxes. Here in British Columbia we have a provincial income tax but it is just an automatic percentage of the federal income tax. So when I pay my federal taxes I pay an extra portion to the CRA for provincial tax which is then remitted to the province. Simple and efficient. I prepare only one income tax return and, if audited, face only one auditor. The province essentially piggy-backs on the feds. Not in quebec. They have their own provincial income tax regiem and residents are required to file two separate income tax returns, federal and provincial. So when there is something like this, a large scale evasion project, the CRA and Sûreté work together on it.
Anyhow, back to our hero in peril;
The groups targeted by the SQ and ARC yesterday had recovered this philosophy to mount a structured organization whose heads leaders, Pierre Cardin, 59, of Terrebonne, and Jean-Marc Paquin, 44, of Laval, were arrested. The two men remained detained pending appearance today for defrauding about 25 victims who have paid thousands of dollars each for their teachings and services.
The CRA has not accused anyone of tax evasion in this case, but according to court documents submitted in support of its searches, Cardin and Paquin had created the organization's creditors, who organized the large-scale tax evasion. Across Quebec, they formed 18 "leaders" who recruited members for them. They have helped to defraud the state for more than 10 million.
While the article claims that Paquin has not as yet been charged with evasion I see it coming;
The CRA finally claims that Paquin and Cardin have amassed a lot of money that has not been declared for tax. In the past, they returned to the sender correspondence received from the federal government, by signing the documents: "Refused for fraud and attempted extortion." They allegedly did send registered letters to ministers, in protest.
Since he is also accused of counseling evasion I can see that coming as a separate charge. The CRA has been coming down hard on the Poriskyite counselors.
As one purported victim of their scheme said;
"Everyone is looking for a way to ease that makes payments to the government. The rich have a system that nobody knows as tax havens and all that. Only someone who seeks will find many ways. They said they found the method. We took courses that explain these things. I wanted to understand what it was exactly. But it did not work pantoute! People have lost their homes, some lost a lot of things, "he said.
Well maybe they wouldn't have lost their homes if they'd just paid their taxes rather than trust some carnival barker stranger who claimed he had magical solutions to get them out of all of their income tax liabilities.
In the Quatloos link given above Webhick made an adverse comment about the name "Operation Fable";
Operation Fable. What a lame name.
We're going to have to change it to Operation Gerbil Balls.
I shudder to think what her response to Operation Elephant will be, that's about as lame as it gets. Why not Operation Dishwasher or Operation Garage? My ex employer has no flair whatever.
Pantoute!