Canadian Whistleblower Richard Colvin will get paid

Canadian Whistleblower Richard Colvin will get paid by the federal government for the diplomat’s legal fees. Richard Colvin is the Canadian who blew the whistle on alleged Afghan prisoner abuse.

At the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade an official said that two invoices from Mr. Colvin’s previous lawyer, in the amount of $20,000, are being paid and payment for a third invoice, which was submitted in December, has been met with approval.

Additional funds have also been set aside to a maximum of $50,000, to pay potential and additional legal expenses, according to Joffre LeBlanc.

In a letter sent to the Military Police Complaints Commission, Mr. Colvin’s Toronto attorney, Owen Rees, said his client believed the Canadian government was refusing to pay his legal bills as payback for Mr. Colvin’s revelations before a special House of Commons committee in the fall.

Mr. Rees said the government was basically not paying Mr. Colvin’s legal fees after his testimony.

Mr. Colvin, currently an intelligence officer at the Canadian embassy in Washington, revealed to the Canada committee that several senior government officials were aware that Canadian Forces in Afghanistan were handing over detainees to face likely torture by Afghani authorities in 2006 – 2007.

His allegations rocked the government and led to furious denials from generals, former generals and cabinet ministers, including Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who questioned Mr. Colvin’s credibility.

Conservative MPs on the Afghan committee made claims that Mr. Colvin had been a victim of fraud by Taliban propaganda.

Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh says it is ridiculous that Mr. Colvin has had to fight so hard to retain independent legal representation, and he doesn’t believe the department was merely slow to respond to the request for money.

“The Harper Conservatives did not hesitate to pay former prime minister Brian Mulroney’s legal fees,” said Mr. Dosanjh. “Taxpayers paid over $2-million to cover Mr. Mulroney’s legal costs at the inquiry into his dealings with [German-Canadian businessman] Karlheinz Schreiber.”

A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office suggested politics played no role in either case. “In both cases, the decision to reimburse legal fees was taken at the departmental level,” Andrew MacDougall said.

At this time, two of the three opposition parties claim they’ve heard the government will not restart the committee on Afghanistan once Canadian Parliament returns from its forced hiatus. The committee is where the most attrocious revelations about the treatment of Afghan prisoners have been revealed.

Prime Minister Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament dissolved all committees. It would take the unanimity from all parties in the House of Commons to re-start the opposition-dominated committee.

However a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office said opposition parties are making a fuss about nothing.

“Afghanistan remains a public policy priority, and the special committee on Afghanistan will be reconstituted once the new session begins,” deputy press secretary Andrew MacDougall said Wednesday.

New Democratic MP Paul Dewar was cynical about this. “They shut down Parliament,” said Mr. Dewar, the party’s foreign affairs critic. “I don’t put anything past them. They could kill a committee. That’s nothing.”

The Liberal Party is also critical, but Bloc Québécois defence critic Claude Bachand seemed prepared to give the Tories the benefit of the doubt. “I don’t think they can stop the committee,” said Mr. Bachand.

Demands made by opposition committee members to see uncensored documentation in December created a standoff with the Conservative government.

The Liberals introduced a motion demanding that the records be put forward; failing that, Mr. MacKay could be called before the “bar” in Parliament to respond to questions, and could even be removed from his seat if found in contempt.

General Rick Hillier – Colvin Testimony on Detainee Torture Ludicrous

Sandy Hutchens: whistleblower alerts taxman about an avoidance scheme which is cheating charities out of funds.

The informant lifted the lid on the scheme, marketed in advance of formal disclosure to HMRC under the anti-avoidance rules, which could be keeping £200m out of the UK’s coffers.

HMRevenue &Customs said the promoters of the scheme are aiming it at the UK’s highest earners searching for ways to avoid paying tax on income of £150,000 and above.

HMRC could not be more precise as to how much the scheme was worth, since it is unknown at this time how many people are involved.

Estimates of the cost to the Exchequer for a similar scheme in the past, were in the region of £200m.

The scheme operates by attaching an option to an acquisition of listed shares. The option then provides the seller a choice to buy back the shares in return for the buyer paying a reduced amount to purchase the shares.

However, the donor is able to claim relief on the full value when donating these to charity.

The value of relief is far in excess of what was paid for the shares, or their value to the charity,” HMRC warned.

“The Government has today closed down an abusive tax avoidance scheme, which attempted to exploit tax relief’s for charitable giving,” an HMRC spokesman said.

“The written Ministerial statement by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, made it clear that HMRC is determined to ensure that tax reliefs for charitable giving are not abused by the tax avoidance industry.

“These tax reliefs provide valuable incentives to encourage people to give and provide support to the charity sector.

“This targets those who use avoidance schemes and will not impact on genuine charities or donors. HMRC will be consulting with charities on the draft legislation which will be included in Finance Bill 2010.”

Another Charity Fraud

Whistleblower announces that the incidence of property valuation fraud rose 46% in the third quarter compared to the same period a year ago, according to a new report from risk mitigation firm Interthinx. Interthinx noted that on a sequential basis property valuation fraud jumped 25%. The company, whose software helps lender/servicers track fraud, said it is seeing a continued shift to fraudulent schemes involving short sales, real estate owned inventories and refinancing by borrowers whose equity has been impaired by falling real estate values.

Property Valuation Fraud Video