BLASTS from the past

 

We decided to write this blog after the CRA had 2 videos removed from YouTube.com. Even though the videos had been obtained legally; the CRA contended that the videos posted on that site were infringing on copyright. Of course that was a lie the videos are public property, they were made with “wasted” public funds. Some people even had to go to court to have these videos released.

The videos had a big effect on the CRA. Some actors in the video went on sick leave. These videos even made the news (French Canadian media). When they were brought to the attention of the Conservatives in the House of Commons, the then Minister of National Revenue, Gail Shea, stated that she asked senior management at the CRA to investigate and take appropriate disciplinary measures immediately. Of course the CRA won’t confirm anything, but the production of these videos was just one of the many reasons for Patrice Chouinard dismissal.

YouTube also hosts similar videos (Star Trek) made with wasted public funds of the American version of the CRA (the IRS). For some reason the IRS hasn’t resorted to lying to try and remove those videos... We guess there too busy doing other things.

We decided not to repost those videos here on our blog, since much of the videos we’d received had been censored anyways; the intent of the video was to instruct employees to implicate the Special Enforcement division in all levels in the agency, from customer service to audit. Employees were being trained to disregard the Jarvis case and not follow protocol; hence the censorship.

So without further ado we’ll just post a few photos:

Revenue Canada wants the shirt off your back

This is part 5 of a 6 part training video created under the direction of Patrice Chouinard, the FORMER director of Revenue Canada's Tax Service Office in Montreal. These videos were designed to specifically instructs employees that there was a new guy in charge (Patrice Chouinard) and employees were to disregard taxpayer's rights and the agency's values. This video shows a taxpayer walking out of the Montreal office, after a meeting with a collections agent - the taxpayer is left with nothing but his briefcase.
The message is clear the Harper Government wants nothing less than every last penny the Canadian taxpayer has. Well maybe not every penny, the collections agent who treated this case does offer him a metro ticket so he can make his way home. I guess Revenue Canada wants us to know that they have a sense of humour.

Revenue Canada thinks Canadians are all crooks

This is part 3 of a 6 part training video created under the direction of Patrice Chouinard, the FORMER director of Revenue Canada's Tax Service Office in Montreal. These videos were designed to specifically instructs employees that there was a new guy in charge (Patrice Chouinard) and employees were to disregard taxpayer's rights and the agency's values. This video shows the treatment a taxpayer is likely to face when dealing with the Montreal office's Research and Development department: They refer to the taxpayer as Mr. Crocheur (which in English means swindler or crook).
The 1000 employees of the Montreal Tax Service center want to thank Mr. Chouinard and Mr. André St-Amand for the excellent training video.

For David S. Gallant

We’ve added the first part of the 6 part training video here because this video makes fun of the employees who answer calls at the CRA Montreal TSO. Oddly enough David S. Gallant got fired for venting his frustration about his job, by creating a video game where you run through a customer call at the Canada Revenue Agency. We wrote to Mrs. Gail Shea (here) asking for leniency but to no avail… This one is for you David.

 

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FINALLY we found the following complaint made by the Canada Revenue Agency (once again lying) that the flag of Canada and the name “Canada Revenue Agency” are trademarks of the Government of Canada, and therefore can’t be used without permission. What a joke! At least this time Google told them to go to hell. I think if I was the Government of Canada, I’d be more worried about what is going on in that courtroom in Laval (where your employees are admitting to all kinds of corrupt behaviour), or the fact that we taxpayers continue to financially support a rapist (we won’t mention his name - even though he should have been fired by now).

The complaint may be found here https://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512c/notice.cgi?NoticeID=1112338

But we’ve reproduced it here:

DMCA (Copyright) Complaint to Google

August 01, 2013   Sender Information: Government of Canada Sent by: [Private] Canada Revenue Agency CA Recipient Information: [Private] Google, Inc. [Blogger] Mountain View, CA, 94043, USA Sent via: online form: Form Re: Infringement Notification via Blogger Complaint Google Form: copyright DMCA Complaint of alleged copyright infringement 1. Complainant's Information Name: Company name: Canada Revenue Agency Full legal name of the copyright holder: Government of Canada Country of residence: CA 2. Your copyrighted work Location of copyrighted work (where your authorized work is located): The name “Canada Revenue Agency” and the Canada Flag mark are trade marks of the Government of Canada and may not be used without the permission of the Government of Canada. Please be informed that no such permission was granted to the original author or “Pierre poutine”. Note that Government of Canada trade marks are protected as official marks under subsection 9 (1) of the Trade-marks Act. The entire blog contains several defamatory documents posted by “Pierre poutine” that were created using Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) letterhead without our consent. Description of the copyrighted work: The situation concerns material found on the blog located at the following address: http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca. According to the introduction posted by “pierre poutine”, the alleged owner of the blog, its purpose is to talk “about the wrongdoing and cover up by the government of Canada.” The CRA is responsible for administering tax laws for the Government of Canada and for most provinces and territories and administering social and economic benefit and incentive programs delivered through the tax system. The CRA has reviewed the information contained in the blog postings and is of the opinion that several comments could compromise the ability for the CRA to administer its laws and thus hinder its ability to effectively conduct audits and collections activities. In addition, we believe that the material posted by “pierre poutine” is defamatory towards current and former employees. As such due to the defamatory content and the use of the Canada Revenue Agency’s name and documents, we demand that the content of the blog be removed immediately. We also ask to be informed once the material had been removed. 3. Allegedly Infringing Material: URL of the allegedly infringing material in our search results: (1.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/ (2.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/november-10-2011-cra-laval-officials.html (3.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/november-30-2012-bye-bye-cowboy.html (4.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/october-13-2011.html (5.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/september-12-2010-waste-of-public-funds_25.html (6.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/august-9-2010-serious-breach-of-trust.html (7.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/september-22-2010-guylaine-gaudreault_25.html (8.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/october-30-2012-cra-promotes-racism.html (9.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/october-19-2011-censorship-and-mail.html (10.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/october-12-2011-racism-and-intolerance.html (11.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/october-3-2011-time-for-immediate-change.html (12.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/september-29-2011-yvon-talbot-wants-to.html (13.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/september-6-2011-double-standard.html (14.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/march-30-2011-macpherson-cover-up.html (15.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/march-25-2011-corruption-senior.html (16.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/march-7-2011-part-xiv-flood-gate.html (17.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/march-7-2011-jenquete-pas-radio-canada.html (18.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/february-23-2011-chouinard-inc.html (19.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/february-16-2011-corruption-senior.html (20.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/february-14-2011-additional-media-leaks.html (21.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/january-15-2011-mr-jean-pierre.html (22.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/january-13-2011-media-links-and.html (23.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/october-26-2010-conspiracy-harassment.html (24.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/october-13-2010-happy-anniversary.html (25.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/february-16-2010-johnathan-legage-and.html (26.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/september-28-2010-conspiracy-abuse-of.html (27.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/september-27-2010-waste-of-public-funds_25.html (28.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/september-22-2010-guylaine-gaudreault.html (29.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/september-27-2010-waste-of-public-funds.html (30.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/september-12-2010-waste-of-public-funds.html (31.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/august-6-2010-transgressions-by.html (32.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/june-16-2010-patrice-chouinard-friends.html (33.) http://taxessuck1304.blogspot.ca/2013/05/june-4-2010-patrice-chouinard-gives.html Sworn Statements I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law. [checked] I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. [checked] Signed on this date of: Signature [Private]

Nothing here is defamatory… because it’s all true.

Johnathan Lepage and Dany Guay, 20 Million Dollar Babies

 

If you look back at our letter from February 2010 (available online here) we attempted to warn the then Commissioner Revenue Canada, Linda Lizotte-MacPherson, of very disturbing information we had on 2 employees of the CRA’s Montreal TSO: namely Johnathan Lepage and Dany Guay.

When we first wrote about these employees in 2010 we were not aware that the extortion of money from taxpayers was endemic to the Special Enforcement Division. It apparently was and is still common practice, even though the department has been dismantled; the employees involved still work for the CRA.

Today we hear rumours that the taxpayer who lodged the complaint against these 2 individuals has been given a 20 million dollar reduction. Just as the case was headed before the court the CRA dropped the assessment by that dollar amount, maybe more. The problem for the rest of us taxpayers, who are left on the hook to absorb this amount, is that it’s very hard to get any straight answers… the taxpayer and his representatives are not talking to anyone about the settlement.

We’ll try to paint a full picture from the bits and pieces of information we gathered from our contacts in the Montreal TSO; we can’t report hard / exact figures but from what we’ve been able to surmise we can state the following with reasonable assurance:

• The CRA and the taxpayer agreed that the money that had already been collected from the taxpayer were sufficient, even though they’d collected less than 25% of the assessed amount.
• An eye witness to the on-goings stated “I’m not sure what happened, but if you saw Johnathan Lepage and Dany Guay before going into court; they looked like they were going to a lynching (their own). They were absolutely pale.”
• It would appear that the taxpayer had the employees followed; from what we’ve been told the evidence collected could be labelled “lives of the rich and famous” for how these 2 employees spent their hard earned bribes. :)

So what can we conclude?

Either the original tax assessment was overstated by roughly 20 million in order to create havoc with the taxpayer who was unwilling to give into the demands for a bribe; or the original assessment was correct and the CRA decided to forego collection of the unpaid amount in order to protect the odd couple.

We wonder what kind of information these 2 employees have on the CRA that they would be willing to forego 20 million dollars, we’ll just have to keep investigating until we find our answer.

???

Signed Bewildered and Confused

CRA decides to change its policy with regards to breach of confidentiality

 

We were forwarded the email below; it shows that the CRA wants to get serious about employees who breach confidentiality. The CRA are instructing managers to investigate whether criminal charges can be levelled against employee’s caught disclosing information.

Too bad the CRA doesn’t consider its own breach of the law as seriously, in its witch hunt against the employees fired in 2009, and since, it has breached the law hundreds if not thousands of times.

RAY LAZZARA = THIEF + TRAITOR

 

The President of our AFS group, Mr. Ray Lazzara has decided to travel the country and give ‘Lunch and Learn sessions’. These sessions are very expensive since all the costs associated are reimbursed to Mr. Lazzara. The session held in Montreal could have easily been done by Patrick Sioui.

What is absolutely disgusting about the meeting in Montreal is that Mr. Lazzara did not want to answer any questions up front but stated that he was willing to answer questions after the meeting on a one to one basis. However, he quickly disappeared after the meeting.

Some of the questions we would have liked to ask are the following:

When we signed our last Collective Agreement back in July 2012, we got pay increases which were in direct line with other public servants, a volunteer day was changed to a personal day, and then we lost our unlimited vacation carry-over which was something all AUs greatly enjoyed. As a result of losing the unlimited vacation carry-over, a Manager can now schedule our members’ vacations.

We also gave up our right to engage in timesheet actions in future bargaining rounds. And then to top it all off, we even lost our severance pay, something you had repeatedly said you would fight for, and yet the AFS Group rolled over with the Employer’s first offer.

Incidentally, the Union of Taxation Employees (UTE), CRA’s non-professional staff, have retained their severance pay since they have not agreed to the conditions of their Collective Agreement; which means that they get an extra 2 weeks of severance pay when they retire.

Mr. Lazzara, please tell us why you have flipped flopped on the severance issue? I would appreciate if your response does not contain the dreaded excuse of the government legislating its conditions unilaterally since it has never done so to date. I am also curious to know what are the costs associated with Collective Bargaining for our group? (the AFS Group). How much does it cost in salaries? Meals and travels as well as other costs? We seem to be getting the exact same deal as all other groups in our union and others.

Mr. Lazzara it is very nice of you to come to the Montreal TSO to attend this event (Lunch and Learn) so that you have the opportunity to meet members of this office. May I ask you if you take the same initiative when members request services from their union? For example, back in 2009 when the RCMP raided these offices, did you come to this office to meet any members that were directly or indirectly affected by this incident?

What is the added value of your attendance at the lunch and learn event? Is the purpose of a Lunch and Learn to effectively engage members of the union to better understand how it works and what it does for its membership? Is this not a task that the local union executive could undertake so that someone at your level could be liberated to engage in more serious affairs such as members who are being unfairly disciplined, preparing a line of defence for the new Code of Conduct and Conflict of Interest Policies, which is completely intrusive, and likely violates privacy issues?

Mr. Lazzara, why did the AFS Group blindly agree to the new policies around staffing, which seemingly give Management the right to do whatever they want?? It’s our understanding that the AFS Group was consulting with CRA Management on these policies for more than 2 years, and despite the fact that there are significant adverse implications for our members, the AFS Group did not raise any alarm bells, or try to engage the membership to speak out against the changes? Was it because the AFS Group was too busy travelling the country doing non-essential business, or were you just asleep at the switch and not even knowledgeable enough to realize the damage these policies will do to our members?

Mr. Lazzara, are you here on a volunteer basis or are you being compensated for your time and travels? If you are, can you tell us who pays for your time and travel and the amounts?

Mr. Lazzara, are you aware of the new TB Policies regarding Performance management and the statements made by Minister Tony Clement in that the percentage of people fired from the Public Service because of the performance is much less than the percentage of workers fired in the private sector for poor performance. Does such a statement set-off any alarms in that government policies concerning performance review will take a sharp turn for the worst? Mr. Lazzara, I would like to know what you and the AFS Group plan to do about this, and please do not give me a politician’s response.

The cost of Membership in this union has consistently gone up, we just witnessed another dues hike of $7.00 per member per month which equates to an increase of almost 15%! I understand that as in any other business, the costs of operation increase every year. However, I would like to know if you have held a cost cutting exercise, just like the government has undergone in the past 7 or 8 years. If the government is able to identify some cost savings measures, why are you unable to do the same? In your opinion, is the AFS Group using all the membership funds efficiently or are there areas it can improve on its spending so that we may get better value for our money. For example, I’m not sure why you are here doing this Lunch & Learn, when we have an AFS Quebec Regional Representative who is more than capable, or the PIPSC Quebec director?? How much is this event costing the AFS Group??

Mr. Lazzara, while you were up for election during your last campaign, we noticed that the AFS Elections Committee suspended the election process for a period of a few months. Can you tell us why this was so? We also realized that during that time, you had been removed as President of the Group. Can you tell us why and if the two events are linked, because we believe that they were. Many of our members have heard rumours that you had been caught falsifying your expense reports for more than $50,000, but possibly far greater since the audit of your expenses was terminated; sure is nice to have friends in high places!

EVENTS OF THE LUNCH AND LEARN

During the Lunch and Learn Mr. Lazzara spent his time promoting the new Conflict of Interest Policy and giving examples of the possible violations of section 241 of the Income Tax Act. This was absolutely unbelievable. Is Mr. Lazzara working for Management? Well the answer is yes. Mr. Lazzara seems to be quite close to Mr. Claude Tremblay as can be seen by the attached picture. Therefore Mr. Lazzara is a complete traitor and he has been mandated by Management to promote policies that hurt our members. Shame on you Mr. Lazzara!

Shame on you Mr. Lazzara for falsifying your expense reports and for stealing time when you took vacation without it being reflected on your time sheets. Is this what you’re afraid of?

Mr. Lazzara, you are a traitor, since you sleep with Management and since you have abandoned your members.

Your actions are criminal and you should be fired because after all you are like Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin.

Do the right thing Mr. Lazzara, admit that the party is over and leave before it gets embarrassing.

 

Bruno Gagniere – Ripoff Report

We recently found this posting on the internet, it was made in 2009.

Obviously some one who was investigated by this tax auditor was upset and decided to make his compliant on the internet for the world to see. We don’t know if the report (above) is true, however we found it odd that similar reports about his fathers’ wrongdoings were never investigated by Revenue Canada’s Internal Audit Division, especially in light of the fact that the CRA suspends other employees (of a different ethnic background) for far less of an infraction.

The ripoff report mentions Bruno’s addiction to gambling, which we did find interesting because as we’d reported last year, Bruno Gagniere was part of the CRA Special Investigators who regularly gambled on-site (at CRA offices) often using money received from taxpayers. Click here.

We knew that a certain Michael Chamas, had made allegations of corruption against Bruno’s father Rene; going so far as suing in federal court Rene Gagniere and others for $385 million.

We also remembered something that we’d read on the internet about Bruno’s father, something about gambling, that his father was addicted to poker and was a regular at certain “massage salons” located on Ontario street (in Montreal). We went looking and found this forum posting made in 2010.

You never know if these things are true, because people who are being audited will make up many a lie to get back at an auditor. Auditor’s are despised, even more than cops, and almost as much as politicians. :)

Still we found it odd that neither Rene or Bruno have ever been suspended. Just as in the case of Johnathan Lapage and Dany Guay, nothing ever seems to happen to auditors of a certain “community”; maybe that’s because their cases are reviewed by CRA employees of the same community. ODD, very very odd.

Anyways you can go and find the forum posting for yourself (we’ve copied a few titles, which you can cut and paste into your favourite search engine), for those of you who can’t read French, we’ll summarize:

• The posting below is made by the operator’s of an escort agency.
• Rene Gagniere was asked to infiltrate the agency.
• During that time Rene Gagniere was abusive with the escorts, trying to gain “favors” from them, with threats...
• Basically as the writer puts it, it’s a crazy story that was very embarrassing to the government. The posting mentions what was commonly know at the Montreal TSO, Rene Gagniere had friends in high places that  protected him. He was know to be a gambler and to use the the services of massage parlous.

Finally we heard similar stories from other victims of the same Special Investigation unit of the Montreal TSO where Bruno worked, this is how this other story went, same MO, same tactic, to try and get the sucker to offer a bribe or end up paying professionals to fight the CRA:

• In 2007-08 Special Investigator Yvon Talbot met with an accountant in his Montreal offices to try to rectify a situation whereby the accountant’s client (victim) was issued an inflated tax assessment.
• After nearly half a day spent on reconciling accounts, the accountant and tax auditor agreed that the actual assessment would be just a small fraction of the 4.2 million dollar originally assessed.
• A short period later, the accountant got a call from his clients tax attorney who inquired as to why he hadn’t “fixed” the tax assessment when he’d met with Yvon Talbot. It seems that Yvon Talbot issued a follow-up assessment with nearly the identical dollar amounts as the first.
• The accountant explained to Jules Brossard (tax attorney) that he had spent half a day with Yvon Talbot and they had arrived at a concensus which drastically reduced (corrected) the assessment. He suggested that Mr. Brossard meet with the tax auditor and see if had any better luck.
• Me. Brossard took up the challenge and met with Yvon Talbot, spending nearly half a day reconciling accounts as the client’s accountant had done previously; with the same result: Yvon Talbot agreeing that his assessment was greatly overstated..
• So a few days later when Me. Brossard received an assessment with the same inflated figures he decided to write a letter of complaint to the Canada Revenue Agency.
• So what did Revenue Canada do when they received the letter of complaint? Was the employee disciplined?
• Not at all, in fact Yvon Talbot’s superiors tried to cover up his transgression by trying to get Me. Brossard to withdraw his complaint in order to get a corrected assessment, which Me. Brossard was not willing to do because, as he put it (not a direct quote), this was the dumbest employee he had ever dealt with in his nearly 30 years of experience in dealing with the CRA.

The Special Investigation Unit has since been dismantled / closed / vanished. Any wonder why?

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French text of forum posting re: Rene Gagniere

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Des agents spéciaux du fédéral pour recruter des filles dans leurs propres réseaux? La loi sur l'impôt utilisée pour imposer le silence sur des escortes?
Après le programme des danseuses exotiques menacées de déportation, voici celui de l'ARC qui menace les escortes d'aller en prison et d'être obligées de rembourser l'impôt à vie si elles ne collaborent pas...
voici un texte qu'on peut trouver sur le web. Tous les partis politiques semblent impliqués, toutes les polices.
René Gagnière, le loup dans la bergerie ou comment plonger le gouvernement dans l’embarras...

André St-Amand allowed to retire without consequences

 

We should all be able to remember when André St-Amand was given a “beating” outside a Montreal reception hall a few years ago after a staff Christmas party. (we put “beating” in quotes because from all reports from the Montreal TSO, they didn’t go far enough, because he only got minor bruises…).

No one was ever charged or arrested in relation to that event. I guess no one fitting the perpetrator’s description was ever found, and with the likelihood that anyone of the 6 million Quebecers would have liked to do the same to most employees of the Canada Revenue Agency; the list of suspects is very long indeed.

However we are particularly curious how Mr. St-Amand has managed to avoid arrest for his assault of a female employee (we’ll call her Julie) of the Montreal TSO? After all, she was assaulted in front of witnesses, during business hours, at the Montreal TSO. So why wasn’t Mr. St-Amand arrested?

Maybe Mr. Lazzara (once he’s done working on more important issues, like the Lunch and Learn information sessions he’s doing) can look into the matter… And, Mr. Lazzara we hope you don’t come back with that same old union line: “it’s not like he raped you”… Julie wasn’t amused or reassured when she was told that by one of the union attorneys.

MESSAGE FOR JOHN LYSYKATOS

 

For your information

Mr. Carmelo Infusino has been working for the last ten years, on weekends for a catering company called The Living Room (Club Privé) and is situated at 5687 Rue Paré, Mont Royal.

It goes without saying that his earnings have not been declared. Therefore Mr. Lysykatos please look into this matter as well as the relationship between Mr. Infusino and Mr. Vince Belmonte. Mr. Belmonte is an R&D consultant and has had a long relationship with Mr. Infusino. Don’t forget Mr. Belmonte’s wife, Suzie DeModica is also a Tax Auditor and she works at the Laval Taxation office.

Do you get the picture Mr. Lysykatos?