fight the power

[djmarkpaul]

I've done my share of the protesting ciruit to know the general operations of most groups in the lower mainland area. I'm not going to bother and change the point of this blurb here and name names, but I've seen an awful lot of rabble rousing, and not any real substance on how to evolve from our societies' current economic/social status.

To be able to speak ones' mind and take civil action doesn't seem like something anyone in a 'free' country would really debate with too much consternation.

The real problem is most people are too busy to care, and of those that do, a lot of different protest groups only cater to a certain audience via specialized social goals. Yet it needs to spike the mainstream to be a practical approach.

Not to say there aren't groups out breaking new ground and turning heads, but considering how many people actually show up regularly to protests, it'd be fair to say the majority of people in developed nations have yet to really make a proactive leap in being an active member of their community.

It was nice to pick up the straight and get this article in my hands a few days ago and get reminded that one person can make a difference.




full story: News Features | Resister uses tax to protest | Straight.com Vancouver




Resister uses tax to protest





Joshua Goldberg is a second-generation war resister. His father fled to Canada because he refused to be drafted in the American military during the Vietnam War. The elder Goldberg's story was eventually told in Alan Haig-Brown's 1996 book Hell No, We Won't Go: Vietnam Draft Resisters in Canada (Raincoast Books).

Since 2002, when the U.S.–led so-called war on terror came into full swing, Goldberg has been withholding about eight percent of his yearly income-tax bill, the percentage equivalent of what he says Ottawa normally allocates from the federal budget for military spending.

The 36-year-old Victoria man then sends a cheque representing the amount held back to the peace trust fund administered by the Toronto-based antiwar group Conscience Canada, with a copy furnished to the Canada Revenue Agency. He has since received letters from the agency reminding him that he owes money to the government.

"I don't want to contribute financially to war and to killing," Goldberg told the Georgia Straight. "I would be really thrilled to have the military portion of my taxes go to the government to be used for peaceful purposes, whether it's domestically or internationally."

Goldberg isn't losing sleep over the prospect that one day he'll be dragged to court by the government to force him to pay. "They may, and if they do, I'll deal with that with the support of other people who have gone through that," he said. "I really don't worry about that. My father came to Canada as a war resister during the Vietnam War. People make all sorts of difficult decisions."

He said that being sued for payment is actually the worst thing that could happen to people like him. But according to Goldberg, the tax resisters could always withdraw their deposits from the fund with no questions asked.

***

Canada doesn't have a law allowing people, for reasons of conscience or religion, not to pay taxes that might be used for military purposes. However, Bill Siksay, NDP MP for Burnaby-Douglas, said that his proposed Bill C-348 seeks to address this.

It would permit individuals who object on conscientious grounds to direct an amount equivalent to a government-prescribed percentage of the income tax they pay to be diverted to a special account. The fund must be used, the bill provides, for uses other than military.

"There are many people in Canada who, for reasons of conscience, either related to their strongly held religious views or other very strongly held views, don't believe that they should participate in militarism in any way," Siksay told the Straight.

Siksay said that such a law would provide objectors with the opportunity to direct their taxes to other aspects of government work. "It's very, very important to recognize those kinds of commitments," he said. "We've done that many times in Canadian history. We've encouraged people of conscience to come to Canada."