Saskatoon Star Phoenix mentions Church in story.... tries to discourage faith... > > Today in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix on page 5 is a half page editorial > > on the tax protesters movement. > > > > Kamsack, Sask, a fellow named Nagel and the Church of Ecumenical > > Redemption International were front and centre in this story. Doug Nagel, and I know him, is no minister for the Church I formed.... He is mixing God amd mammon against the advice of Christ Also a devout Catholic who shuddered everytime he saw the facts.. He is not mentioned in the story as being with the Church but the Stuart Leis notice was it is all valid as 176, 180, and 423 of their code hits them like a hammer if you file the private information under duress all rights reserved in Gods law He has received no permission to use the name of the Church in a financial matter from our Ecclesia whatsoever and as you read you will see he never did!..... I also know Gaivin quite well and he is justifiably anti church as of his catholic upbringing and even though he wanted me to help him decided to go to the witches tit to see if he could get her to give sweet milk,,,,I told him it was going to be sour but his argument skills got the best of the agreement process that Christ advises us to use.. *very smart man btw*.... just jaded over religion.. cant blame him either... If you do not file a private information against them under protest of threat duress and intimidation and ensure the validity of the JP who stamps it and set the array of the court by opening with a bible and asking the judge if he accepts the offer of her majesties law,,,,, they assume your a masochist and like the abuse.. Have any of these gurus done this.........not to my knowledge.....they just try to use god as an excuse and then violate his first commandment in the process... Doug knows better as he was on my email list once.....I will be contacting the Newspaper to ask them why they equate sincere faith as being a scam... we were on the Radio in Saskatoon in 2006.. I have included a clip of that for all of you.... Saskatoon Star Phoenix article Regina Leader Post article A look at taxes, God and punctuation Barb Pacholik, Leader-Post Published: Friday, January 11, 2008 The words spring forth like a sermon from the pulpit. *"His saving grace has redeemed us from the charge of any debt as a debtor to any claim." * It continues: *"We as living flesh and blood, man and woman ... can only provide you with a true credit to settle and close this account as we are not debtors and do not deal in debt to discharge matters as that would be serving another master, the debtor (SATAN), and we are bound and washed of debt by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ who has redeemed us of all debt." * This is no scripture reading, but the argument advanced by two Saskatchewan pensioners going through bankruptcy, as contained in a frank court judgment. [image: Dougl Nagel in front of the Provinical courthouse on Smith Street in Regina.] Don Healy, Leader-Post The bankruptcy registrar was less than moved by their bid to bring the Lord into something as worldly as taxes. The registrar had clearly heard the arguments -- or some variation on them -- before. "This discharge hearing involves another tragic story of bankrupts, who are senior citizens, being drawn into the belief that they are not subject to the payment of income tax," then-bankruptcy registrar (and now Court of Queen's Bench Justice) Maurice Herauf said in his ruling from last summer. The Saskatoon couple had made some investments that generated significant tax consequences -- totalling $205,212 in penalties and interest -- and resulting in their bankruptcy. They didn't stop at God in trying to sidestep the debt. They filed a "promissory note." "Apparently it is the bankrupts' contention that, as citizens of Canada, they are entitled to a pro-rated share of the value of Canada which can be set off against the 'alleged' debt owing to the objecting creditor," states the registrar's ruling. He was unequivocal in his assessment of the arguments. "I need add nothing further to this brief recitation of the bankrupts' misguided beliefs. It is pure unadulterated rubbish!" Herauf stated, even going so far as to end on an exclamation point, a rarity in often dry bankruptcy case law. Yet that exclamation point seems only right in this tale of tax dodgers, God, and punctuation. ** * * * For about a decade, a group of people have been taking to the Saskatchewan courts in defiance of Benjamin Franklin's assertion that, "in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes." Death, yes, but taxes? Perhaps even more surprising is their persistence despite mounting legal losses over those years and the tireless efforts of Canada's Taxman to force the anti-taxers, de-taxers, sovereign citizens, patriots or individuals -- not everyone uses the same handle or defence -- to pay up. Five years ago, a man was convicted in a Kindersley courtroom on tax charges after failing to convince a judge that the Income Tax Act was a fraud perpetrated by a treasonous government through the use of birth certificates. In 2006, that same man, then 62, was going through bankruptcy because of unpaid taxes spanning six taxation years. Though small in number, the tax protesters consume a lot of the court's time with challenges to everything from the jurisdiction of the judge to the credentials of the prosecutor. In one recent case, the judge turned down requests for personal information about the prosecutor, the justice of the peace who signed a document laying the charges, and Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) employees. Likewise, he said the accused had no right to obtain items clearly "irrelevant or absurd," including a copy of the 'Maritime Contract,' letters patent authorizing the prosecutor to represent Her Majesty the Queen, and time sheets and travel records of CRA agents. Like well-versed lawyers, some accused will cite cases, although the relevance is sometimes as obscure as the law being used. The Magna Carta -- that 13th-century treatise credited with paving the way to common and constitutional law -- usually figures prominently. (Its signatory, King John of England, is also credited with imposing the first income tax.) Phrases like "sovereign citizens," "natural person," and "the man" pepper the arguments, along with references to Admiralty Law. Judges have struggled to grasp what seems so obvious to those making the arguments. When asked for his plea on charges of failing to file tax returns, an Alida man replied "non assumpsit by way of confession and avoidance in an answer and defence that's before you." The judge entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf. And then there's the whole punctuation thing. In some cases, names on legal documents are liberally sprinkled with dashes and full colons. So, for example, John Doe becomes Jonathan-Jacob-Joseph: Doe. And for good measure, it should probably be in all capitals and written in red ink, as mentioned in the copyright notices for people's names taken out in some Saskatchewan newspapers. Debbie Johnson, the CRA's spokeswoman in Regina, says the national agency first became aware of this new breed of tax dodger in the late 1990s when they held seminars about their beliefs and tactics, possibly following the lead of similar U.S. groups. Then the "non-filer" cases began trickling into the courts, starting in B.C. and heading east. "They kind of got the ball rolling in Saskatchewan," says Johnson. Regina hosted the first Saskatchewan meeting by the Canadian De-Tax Group in 1999. The local contact was a White City man who was fined $30,000 three years later on tax charges after falling $66,684 in arrears. During sentencing, he repeatedly told the frustrated judge, "I am requesting closure; that you close this account immediately and release and deliver the product to me in exchange." Asked how much time he needed to file his tax forms, he replied "as a senior preferred stockholder of Canada, I will have to ask my employees in every government to prepare a detailed accounting." One of the De-Tax Group founders was a B.C. man who went by the name Sir Laurence Leupol. But the CRA maintains there are no loopholes. (And Leupol, himself, was eventually fined for failing to file his income tax returns.) Once the cases started surfacing, the CRA took the unusual step of issuing information to debunk what it calls "tax myths" and state unequivocally that income tax is not voluntary; it is constitutional; you must pay up whether or not you are a "natural person" or an "artificial person"; and there is no such thing as a GST-exemption card. "There's been many angles that they've tried to use," says Johnson. They've included the assertion that one can opt out of paying tax, that the income tax act doesn't exist, or that it existed and was repealed, and, in the early days, there were attempts to pay in pesos instead of Canadian dollars. (They argued a dollar sign without two lines through it denoted a peso.) "There's a flavour of the week. As soon as one gets shot down in court they seem to come up with something new," says Johnson. More recently, the CRA has seen some who mix religion with the law. "A number of these Saskatchewan individuals claim to belong to what they call the Church of Ecumenical Redemption," says Johnson. An "ecclesiastical notice" placed in Kamsack's newspaper said members of the Church of Ecumenical Redemption had an agreement which includes "free passage in a private auto for performing all ministerial functions without need of a commercial licence or registration." Another tactic has seen lawsuits launched against CRA officials, including Johnson herself. "My crime was for brainwashing the citizens of Saskatchewan," she chuckles. The suit was dismissed, with the judge saying, "the court is not the forum to stage a tax protest." Johnson says generally, if someone fails to file their income tax, the CRA sends out letters, followed by phone calls and most people comply before it gets to the courts. But these cases tend to follow a different pattern. "The one common thread is that there is no co-operation, so you are pretty much guaranteed it's going to end up in a trial," says Johnson. "The fortunate thing for us and the taxpayers at large is there are so few people doing this," she adds. * * * * * From Doug Nagel's standpoint (or Douglas-Martin: Nagel as it has appeared in some documents), that's only because not everyone understands the nuances of the law. "The public must be aware of what's taking place," he says as he speaks about "ambiguities" in and "purported copies" of the Income Tax Act, "private contracts in the man or woman," and case law he believes shows the provincial court has no jurisdiction over federal acts. Asked about the unusual punctuation in names, Nagel says it "really isn't important." But he adds the key is capital letters, since commerce, like income tax, is dealt with in capital letters. To be clear, Nagel says emphatically that he is not a "de-taxer." "I don't have any relationship with persons in a de-tax group or anything else." However, the Regina senior's name has cropped up in a number of tax protest cases, as an adviser, potential witness or assistant preparing and filing documents. "Do I have an interest, and do I do work for individuals that have been in court? Yes I do," he says, conceding later that he and those in the de-tax movement may advance similar arguments at times. Nagel's efforts to play an active role in cases have been frowned upon by the courts. The latest case is Gaivin Lemieux, a 44-year-old Alida farmer and businessman fined $5,000 in November after he was convicted at trial of failing to file tax returns. Lemieux has launched an appeal. In his ruling, Judge James Benison noted the cover page of a document filed in the case read "fuctum" rather than the proper legal term "factum." Benison gave Lemieux the benefit of the doubt that it was a misspelling and not an effort to be offensive or disrespectful. But the judge had no doubts about who had prepared the document -- Nagel, whom the judge had earlier barred from representing Lemieux. Similarly, in the bankrupt seniors' case, Herauf also refused to allow Nagel -- identified in letters as "accountant, agent and authorized representative" -- to appear on their behalf. The rejection stems from an injunction imposed by the Court of Queen's Bench in November 2002. Obtained by the Law Society of Saskatchewan, the court's order prevents Nagel from "practising at the bar of any court of civil or criminal jurisdiction in Saskatchewan." Nagel still bristles at the suggestion he was practising law without a licence. "I was practising forensic accounting to take and expose the issues." The 76-year-old says he has four decades of practical and field experience operating an accounting company -- "you can't get that training in any university or any school" -- but no degree. His last 13 years have been for "special work for people in financial difficulty." The injunction hasn't stopped Nagel from doing research for and consulting with those who seek his services. His fee is $85 an hour for "active time." In the 1990s, Nagel was known for doing battle in the courts over bank interest charges. Then in the early 2000s, he was linked to a group of farmers challenging the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on wheat and barley exports. These days, he finds himself up against the Canada Revenue Agency. He lists a half-dozen cases on which he's assisted. Nagel says when he takes on clients, his first question is: "Is it your desire to follow the acts of Parliament or the legislatures? If the answer is 'no' I cannot do any work for them." Lemieux met Nagel during the Wheat Board legal skirmish. He echoes Nagel in saying he's aligned with no anti-tax group and simply wants to follow the law. At the heart of the issue for both men is exactly what is the law? They speak of futile efforts to get certified copies of the Income Tax Act. They can get privately published copies, but they have disclaimers that read "not responsible for errors or omissions." Both are convinced - based on their research - that the Income Tax Act never received royal assent by Parliament. "Is it a fact this is what Ottawa passed?" asks Nagel. Lemieux goes further. "It's more than a discrepancy. I'm not scared to say it's a conspiracy. It's a conspiracy to misrepresent the legislation, the proper interpretation of it." No royal assent, and he maintains it's a private contract, like a marriage licence or permit to haul wheat -- a contract from which someone can presumably opt out. Asked why such arguments failed to sway the judge at this trial, Lemieux replies, "What do you expect them to do? Stand up and say, 'Well gee Mr. Lemieux. You're absolutely right. I'm sorry. Everybody in Canada has been paying something that they don't have to.'" In a similar vein, he says "there are a lot of people that have a lot of interest in making sure guys like me either go to jail or get ridiculed in the newspaper to the point everybody believes you're a nut ... "I'm not a nut. I just went there with questions. I'm not a threat to anybody," he later adds emphatically. While barred from speaking in court for Lemieux or anyone else, Nagel is being heard by judges these days. He's charged under the Excise Act for failing to provide certain documentation stemming from his partnership in a Regina roofing and siding business. His business partner was fined in 2006 and four years earlier on tax charges. Nagel says the man needed help with his tax problems, but he couldn't represent him because of the injunction. As a partner in the business, the courts have to hear Nagel out. He's headed to trial this spring. The British North America Act will figure prominently in his defence. Asked why he persists given the court judgments that seem to go against his arguments, the self-described "stubborn" Nagel replies, "Justification. You see one person can make a difference." The CRA's Johnson says the tax protest cases have slowed down across the country, with just a few holdouts who still "cling to their convictions." "But the movement is really dying," she says. Presented with this information, both Nagel and Lemieux in separate interviews reply, "They would like you to believe that." |