Canada Ping!
Posted on 09/21/2012 10:36:45 PM PDT by Squawk 8888
TORONTO — The diplomat who represents one of Africa’s most authoritarian regimes said Friday his government would continue collecting what some call an “extortion tax” in Canada even though the Department of Foreign Affairs has demanded that it stop.
“We have to tax our people, it is our right,” Semere O. Micael, the Eritrean consul in Toronto, said after the National Post reported that Ottawa had sent a diplomatic note to his government making it clear he would be sent home if he continued to run the tax scheme.
Asked to respond to the consul’s comments, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s press secretary Rick Roth said: “We have made our position on this matter to the Eritreans clear, and we expect that to be respected. The government of Eritrea should not test our resolve on this matter.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...
Canada Ping!
Aren’t the only two countries that do this to their citizens Eritrea and...the United States?
I knew the U.S. did this, but I did not know Eritrea had fallen so low.
This means the people belong to the State, even if they escape to another country. Like runaway slaves.
Eritrea is a marxist dictatorship. Nuff said.
The US is becoming a marxist dictatorship. Nuff said.
I thought they were Islamist. They fought a long rebellion to break away from then-marxist Ethiopia.
“Government’s the only thing that we all belong to”
lol
Ethiopia is a "Christian" country, which fought many wars to keep Islam out, Eritrea is the marxist breakaway.
Eritrea is Marxist, with a Maoist tinge.
Ethiopia was a Christian/Moslem nation until the communists under Mengistu seized power and put in “The Red Terror”.
Today, Ethiopia is still somewhat authoritarian but not marxist and is anti-Islamic fanatics (re Somalia), while Eritrea hates everybody and wants to fight them, again.
Not sure of the religious composition of Eritrea but it could mirror that of Ethiopia from which it broke off.
We have allowed the govenment to become the unruly child. We have denied our responsibility as a parent.
Yes, but Eritrea only taxes at a rate of 2% for a special “Rebuild the Infrastructure” Fund while the U.S. goes for the fully monty-
I wonder if Canada will tell the U.S. to pound sand on taxing Americans in Canada. Probably not.
If there is something wrong with taxing your citizens who live and earn their elsewhere, then the US must stop the same practice. Not only does the US tax the worldwide income of its citizens, but the ‘land of the free’ requires intrusive disclosure of all financial assets and accounts they hold outside of the country.
And since we are hard pressed to find any Republican who cares about this, I expect it will continue and get stricter. Punishing citizens who live and work internationally seems to spring from the same base "How dare you!" impulse that got the Senate so mad at Eduardo Saverin a couple of months ago. It's about misplaced patriotic sentiment, rather than revenue generation.
I LIKE IT!!!
Maybe we’ll get less of these types of losers if they can’t run away from their lousy governments.
Is the difference perhaps that Eritrea's heavy-handed tactics is turning the "diaspora tax" effectively into a protection racket? I'm not excusing the U.S.'s law or necessarily denying that the Canadian government has a double standard, just trying to brainstorm on the reason.
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