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?

Introduction 02-13-2014

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This blog was put together to document the wrongdoings and cover ups by the government of Canada. It documents just a little of what is going on at the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) Montreal Tax Service Office (TSO). The situation at the Montreal TSO was so bad that in June 2012 the CRA announced job cuts eliminating the Montreal Special Enforcement division responsible for many of the issues brought up here; this is the audit division which hid the fact that most audits were truly just criminal investigations.

Whether it be counselling their employees to commit perjury, human rights abuses, acts of harassment towards female employees of the Montreal Tax Service Office, sexual harassment of a terminated female employee of the Montreal TSO, even physical assault of another female employee of that same TSO… the CRA has no limits to what it is willing to do to win at all costs.

The CRA recently counselled employees in its Laval TSO to ignore section 241 of the law and speak to the RCMP; even though doing so could result in termination of the employee. Despite the CRA denial, the RCMP “need only ask and they shall receive” when it comes to protected information in the CRA databases. The CRA regularly provides RCMP with taxpayer information, despite assurances that taxpayer information is held in the strictest confidentiality.

When you send in your tax return you might as well send a copy to the RCMP, because audit findings are regularly shared with police; in fact, the RCMP share an office (in the Montreal burrow of Nun’s Island) along with several members of the CRA’s Montreal Tax Service Office Special Investigations unit. And you can be sure that if it’s happening in Montreal, it’s happening all over Canada.

Next time the CRA comes to audit you, you won’t know whether it’s really an audit or a criminal investigation disguised as an audit; for instance recently the CRA has hired a new auditor at its Montreal TSO. This individual used to work as an RCMP analyst in Ottawa; now we can’t be sure what would motivate a person to apply for a pay cut, but if we were the suspicious type: maybe this person has been hired to do more than just audits. Maybe this person should be asked to investigate how classified and protected information managed to be stolen from the Montreal Tax Service Office’s on René-Lévesque boulevard in the fall of 2011; since (to date) no one has been held accountable; despite the fact that the CRA offices are protected by security guards and cameras. Every detail of the case suggests collusion between CRA senior management and security officials at the TSO. We believe that some of these same individuals supplied an identity theft ring with taxpayer information that also, “just walked out of the front door” of the Montreal TSO.

In this blog you will find over 20 letters addressed to the Commissioner Canada Revenue Agency; these letters didn’t get much of a reaction, or get the changes we wished for, possibly due to the fact that (as we discovered) she was part of the problem and the cover up.

The letter dated October 26, 2011, to the then RCMP Commissioner speaks of a CRA manager who conspired with the then Montreal TSO director to interfere with R&D staff, for their personal mutual benefit. The letter dated September 22, 2010, shows how she was foiled from giving a taxpayer over $100 million dollar break for buying her lunch (what else was she going to receive had she been successful?).

The letter dated November 10, 2011, includes a spreadsheet detailing which former employees of the CRA received (conspired to steal) nearly $1.2 million dollars, for services never rendered, and which they weren’t allowed to receive; and never asked to repay.

If you are a racist, you will enjoy the letter dated October 30, 2012, “CRA promotes racism”, which discusses the promotion received by one openly anti-Semitic employee of the Montreal TSO. You might also enjoy our article entitled “Millionaires waiting to move to Canada, so the CRA can tax them. It discusses how the CRA is targeting 15,000 mainly Asian investors coming to Canada.

See our letter dated June 16, 2010, which shows the director of the Montreal TSO was “buddy buddy” with a convicted money launderer. And, the June 4, 2010 letter, discloses how he managed to give away $57 million to a billionaire, for his personal gain.

See letter dated September 6, 2011, it shows that when dealing with the file of one wealthy individual an auditor received a warning from a tug appearing at his home to “back off or else”. Why do some corporations belonging to the wealthiest families pay no tax? Get audited almost every years? (Even though, apparently, very little is ever found). Have, in the past, hired the same auditors that have just finished auditing their corporations (with no red flags are ever raised).

See the letter dated February 16, 2010, which speaks of 2 special investigators who had asked for a $150,000 bribe, for which these employees received no suspension, and hardly any investigation.

There’s simply too much to write about in this introduction. Do yourself a favour print the entire site and you will have days of reading. And, when you re-read it a few days later, you’ll find how much corruption you missed the first time...

The CRA tells employees “break the law”

Whether it be counselling their employees to commit perjury, human rights abuses, acts of harassment towards female employees of the Montreal Tax Service Office, sexual harassment of a terminated female employee of the Montreal TSO, even physical assault of another female employee of that same TSO… the CRA has no limits to what it is willing to do to to win at all costs.

The CRA regularly provides RCMP with taxpayer information, despite assurances that taxpayer information is held in the strictest confidentiality. Even ignoring the fact that sharing information with the RCMP is, in most cases, against the law.

So we were really not very surprised when the letter above was circulated to several employees of the CRA. The CRA is now counselling employees to ignore section 241, break the law and speak to the RCMP; even though doing so could result in termination of the employee or even criminal charges. It looks like the CRA will search to the lowest end of the gene pool to find an employee that would be willing to sign such a letter.

Additionally, some union stewards actually told union members that they had no choice but to cooperate with the RCMP. Imagine that, unlike other Canadians, (even murderers, drug dealers, and rapists, politicians included) a CRA employee does not have the right against self-incrimination guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom (remember that fact the next time you renew your contract).

Instead of counselling employees on breaking the law, maybe employees should be counselled on their rights when being questioned by the RCMP, or CRA internal investigators who immediately turns over what’s been told to them to the RCMP.

As for taxpayer information being shared with the police. We just had to laugh when we saw the article below. Trust us the police and the CRA collaborate on files all the time. When you send in your tax return you might as well send a copy to the RCMP, because audit findings are regularly shared with police; in fact, the RCMP share an office (in the Montreal burrow of Nun’s Island) along with several members of the CRA’s Montreal Tax Service Office Special Investigations unit. And you can be sure that if it’s happening in Montreal, it’s happening all over Canada.

Roughly 15 years ago, when the union brought up the subject of Special Investigation employees giving information to the RCMP (to the then head of the Montreal Special Investigations department), they were told that he was aware of what was going on, he had warned the employees involved, and as far as he was concerned - if the news ever got out, would deny any knowledge of the illegal sharing of information that was going on, and the employees involved were on their own because he could not protect them.

Even more interesting, when the illegal criminal investigation of the Italian employees of the Montreal TSO began in 2006, the now retired employee leading the investigation was housed by the RCMP in Nun’s Island. Oddly enough that employee was, at one time accused of using the CRA database, for his own personal gain, that employee even had the Sûreté du Québec conduct a search in his home for evidence. That said, today, the CRA employ a person who was convicted of the gang rape of a minor! This fact was and is well known at the highest levels of management in Montreal (both CRA and RCMP); however nothing is done about rectifying the situation because that employee is not part of the ‘ethnic community’ that is so despised in the Montreal.

Furthermore, the RCMP will often use the CRA to do what it can’t do directly, even though they’re not allowed to do so. In investigating the former employees of the Montreal TSO, the RCMP got CRA employees to consult FINTRAC “Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada”, even though FINTRAC’s records are barred except in drug trafficking, money laundering, and terrorism cases. Additionally the RCMP got CRA employees to give them information which they directly could not get without first getting a warrant.

Finally, we have documentary evidence that the RCMP have used the news media illegally, providing them with leaked (and sometimes false) information, and we have strong circumstantial evidence that the CRA has done the same (ex-employees and private taxpayers). RCMP, CRA and the news media working a file together.

Next time the CRA comes to audit you, you might be told that you are under audit, but you won’t know for sure if it’s really an audit or is it a criminal investigation disguised as an audit. Maybe you should just refuse to be audited…

Depth of corruption at the CRA

 

It's been more than 2 years now that a scheme to defraud Canadian taxpayers has been reported to the Commissioner Canada Revenue Agency (Bob Wright – see letter dated November 10, 2011 included further on in this blog); and nothing has been done to recoup the nearly $1.2 million stolen.

I guess when you involve the top executives at the CRA in your little scheme, it’s not surprising that nothing happens to you when you get caught.

Below we display just 1 contract, that of Raymond Galimi for the period of March 3, 2009 to August 21, 2009. It’s signed by Gabriel Caponi, who was director of the Laval Tax Service Office at that time. We see later on an organizational chart of the CRA for 2011. That same Gabriel Caponi, who aided Laval management to defraud Canadian taxpayer, now finds himself Assistant Commissioner Canada Revenue Agency for Quebec.

We think Mr. Chouinard and Mr. Caponi, have some explaining to do.

Maybe Alain Gravel will get explanations from Mr. Chouinard when he interviews him on his show ENQUÊTE, this Thursday night (September 26, 2013). Canadian taxpayers can only hope… but based on the past, we would suggest “don’t hold your breath, no explanation is coming”.