Toews demands RCMP form gender bias action plan
The RCMP has been ordered by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to quickly rework a plan to address gender bias in the force.
In a letter obtained by CBC News, Toews is demanding that RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson rewrite a report addressing gender inequality in the force.
Toews asks for solutionsPublic Safety Minister Vic Toews's letter to RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson demands an action plan attacking the force's gender bias that focuses on:
- Recruiting more female members.
- In the short-term, reaching a 30 per cent female membership.
- reducing the number of complaints and increasing the timeliness of the RCMP's response to complaints.
- Creating targets for promoting female RCMP members.
- Improving work environment satisfaction.
Paulson's original report on the state of women within the force did not surprise Toews.
"In many ways the analysis confirmed issues that we have all known to exist within the force," he wrote.
Now, Toews calls for a plan with "specific, objectively measurable, milestones" to be sent to him by Dec. 11.
Toews says the RCMP needs to recruit more women, with the goal of having women make up at least 30 per cent of the force. He also wants to see more women promoted within the RCMP's ranks.
Currently, there are about 15,000 male officers and about 4,000 female officers. The majority of the women officers have lower ranks.
Toews also says the RCMP needs to reduce the number of harassment complaints, and address any complaints more quickly.
Paulson promised to rid force of 'bad apples'Paulson has often talked about his commitment to end sexual harassment in the force, and to hire and promote more women.
The RCMP appointed Paulson as the new commissioner last November, after allegations of sexual harassment within the force first emerged.
Cpl. Catherine Galliford, shown in 2002, filed a 115-page internal complaint alleging constant sexual harassment from male RCMP members. (Richard Lam/Canadian Press)Cpl. Catherine Galliford, the RCMP's former spokeswoman, filed a 115-page internal complaint, which she shared with CBC News. Galliford said she faced constant sexual advances from several senior officers from 1991 until 2007, when she took sick leave.
Last spring, it was revealed that RCMP Sgt. Don Ray was demoted and transferred from Edmonton to B.C. after he admitted to having sex with subordinates, drinking with them at work and sexually harassing them over a three-year period.
Galliford's story prompted several other female Mounties to come forward, resulting in a federal investigation and multiple lawsuits against the RCMP. The first hearing in a class-action lawsuit, which alleges systemic harassment and gender-based discrimination, was held in British Columbia's Superior Court in August.
After he became commissioner, Paulson said in an open letter to Canadians that he would rid the RCMP of "bad apples."
A year after his appointment, Paulson told CBC News in an interview earlier this month that the Mounties' "harassment crisis" had "shadowed" his first year on the job, something which was "appropriately and properly in need of attention."
"[It's] the culture of harassment, it's the culture of misuse of authority," he said. "That's really where I've been focused on and where many of my commanding officers have been focused."
But Toews is demanding Paulson take action on his comments to address the gender bias within the force.
"The time for review and report in relation to this issue has passed," wrote Toews. "Now is the time for action."
By: Justin Schramm and Milton Duran
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/11/23/can-rcmp-toews-paulson-women-equality-letter.html
No bribes, no deal: In 2007, pipe-maker refused to pay $150K kickback; the product hasn’t been used by Montreal since
MONTREAL — As sales director for a Montreal manufacturer of PVC pipe, Michel Cadotte had been trying for over a decade to get his company’s product used in the city’s aqueduct projects.
Then in 2006 a breakthrough came. After complaining to the head of the city’s public works division about substandard pipe he saw being installed at one site, he was invited to meet Nicolo Milioto, head of Mivela Construction Inc. and a major player in the Montreal construction industry.
Mr. Milioto was impressed by the pipes produced by Mr. Cadotte’s company, Ipex Inc.
“I got the impression he had ties with the city of Montreal,” Mr. Cadotte recounted Thursday before Quebec’s Charbonneau inquiry into corruption.
A little more than a month later, Robert Marcil, the public works head, issued a memo declaring from then on, due to “quality problems” with the cast-iron pipe that had been the norm, new projects would use an Ipex product called TerraBrute or its equivalent.
Mr. Cadotte, who was on vacation when the news came in, said he uncorked a bottle of wine to celebrate, and Ipex revved up production to meet short-term orders expected to be worth up to $800,000.
Then Mr. Milioto called him to another meeting in the fall of 2006. After some small talk, he cut to the chase.
“Mr. Cadotte, things are going well, it’s rolling. There’s just one thing that you need to know,” he said, according to Mr. Cadotte’s testimony.
“Because of the acceptance of your product by the city of Montreal, I’ve got some people to compensate.” Mr. Milioto said he needed $150,000 in cash to pay three unnamed city of Montreal officials “who did the work to get us here.”
Mr. Cadotte testified it was the second time in his 23 years as sales director he had been asked for a kickback. The first time was about 10 years earlier, when a private engineer said Ipex could be guaranteed of winning a municipal contract in the Laurentians if it paid a bribe.
If we don’t get on board, if we don’t give the money, we know that’s the end
The answer had been no back then, and Mr. Cadotte was certain it would be no again.
“We don’t get involved in projects where we make profits on the back of taxpayers,” he told the commission, headed by Superior Court Justice France Charbonneau.
After running Mr. Milioto’s demand by his superiors, Mr. Cadotte returned to give him the news: “Ipex doesn’t work that way.”
He figured Ipex was finished in Montreal. “If we don’t get on board, if we don’t give the money, we know that’s the end,” he testified. And to this day, Ipex has not been chosen to provide pipe for Montreal aqueduct projects, even though it sells its products to municipalities across eastern Canada.
We don’t get involved in projects where we make profits on the back of taxpayers
Commission counsel Denis Gallant produced an April 2007 memo from Mr. Marcil to his engineers, reversing his earlier edict and declaring TerraBrute would no longer be considered for city projects.
Mr. Marcil left the city in 2009 after it was revealed he had accepted a trip to Italy with another construction contractor, Joe Borsellino of Construction Garnier.
The commission has heard Mr. Milioto acted as a middle man between colluding construction companies and the Rizzuto crime family. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police recorded him entering a notorious Rizzuto hangout 236 times over two years. He was filmed receiving stacks of cash from various contractors, which he would then turn over to Mafia bosses.
Mr. Cadotte testified he got the impression Mr. Milioto was deciding on behalf of the city and of contractors what type of pipe would be used in the city’s waterworks.
By: Justin Schramm and Milton Duran
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/23/no-bribes-no-deal-in-2006-pipe-maker-refused-to-pay-150k-kickback-the-product-hasnt-been-used-by-montreal-since/
Anti-tax crusaders jailed after following B.C. man’s ‘preposterous’ evasion scheme
OTTAWA — A wealthy Ottawa couple who followed the teachings of a B.C. group that believes taxes are unconstitutional have pleaded guilty to evading almost a million dollars in personal taxes and to helping others evade millions more.
Pembroke dentist Tania Kovaluk, 50, and her husband, U.S. citizen Lee Williams, 55, were sentenced Tuesday to 2.5 years and four years in prison, respectively. They are followers of Russ Porisky, a British Columbia man who is himself serving a four-year prison sentence for tax evasion.
Porisky is the brains behind Paradigm Education Group, which teaches followers that taxes are unconstitutional and that taxing a human being’s labour is a confiscation of property and, therefore, against the Canadian Bill of Rights.
[The scheme] shows remarkable hubris and contempt for the rule of law
The group posits that the federal government set up a parallel legal system in order to overcome the constitutional problems with taxation. Through Paradigm’s seminars — for which people pay dearly — citizens “awaken” to the fact that this parallel taxation system was created and learn how to withdraw from it. The group sells books, CDs and DVDs that teach people how to set up their businesses to avoid being taxed and how to declare “nil” in the income box at tax time.
Williams and Kovaluk, who married in 2003, ran at least 16 Paradigm seminars in Toronto and Ottawa. Williams was an “educator” at the closed-door sessions and Kovaluk promoted Paradigm’s ideas and used her dental contact list to recruit new members, according to an agreed statement of facts presented in court.
As part of the deal, students — many of whom were also dentists — agreed to pay between 7% and 10% of the money they saved by not paying taxes to Williams, their educator. Williams then forwarded a percentage of that income to Porisky, the father of the scheme.
The court estimates that Williams helped his students defraud the government of $4.5-million between 2003 and 2008. Ontario Superior Court Justice Colin McKinnon said before sentencing that the “preposterous” tax scheme “shows remarkable hubris and contempt for the rule of law.”
He said the defendants had defrauded not only the Canada Revenue Agency but, “all honest, taxpaying Canadians.”
Between 2003 and 2007 Kovaluk failed to report $2.6-million in income earned from her dental practice. During that time, Kovaluk and Williams built two villas in Costa Rica, purchased gold in Canada and through offshore accounts, and built a home in Ottawa worth at least $974,000. They also bought luxury items such as art, jewellery and furniture and took lavish vacations.
Kovaluk also pressured her employees to join Paradigm and, once they did, she deducted the cost of seminars — and a percentage of the money they saved from filing false tax returns — directly from their paycheques. In addition to her prison term, Kovaluk must also pay the government $887,000 which includes her personal tax evasion, GST she collected at her dentistry practice but never declared, and the money she helped Williams hide from the government. Williams must pay back $56,000.
McKinnon, who called the scheme “highly sophisticated and fanciful,” shook his head as he said “it is deplorable, if not depressing, that seemingly intelligent people can be caught up in its tentacles. But, many have been.”
By: Justin Schramm and Milton Duran
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/23/anti-tax-crusaders-jailed-after-following-b-c-mans-preposterous-evasion-scheme/
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