The Carbon Tax as The Collection Basket Con
This is a quick post prompted by a tweet from Anita Anand, President of the Treasury Board (See below). In the tweet, a Trudeau Liberal government minister proudly boasts they have their hands in your pockets. This is the same minister who also boasted before Christmas that more Canadians were using food banks, some of you may recall.
Let's be clear about one thing. To put anything “directly into the pockets of Canadians," federal hands must be in your pockets. It is a clever sleight of hand. It reminded me of a visit to the poorest and most wretched place I have ever seen and the church collection basket con.
Twelve years ago, while working in Haiti on an assignment for Rights and Democracy, I went to Mass in Port au Prince. During the collection, I noticed that small children, each paired up with an adult, carried the “collection baskets.” However, the most peculiar thing was that the kids were not carrying baskets; they were carrying closed metal boxes with visible locks at the front to ensure the security of the collection.
The concerns about regular baskets were that cunning individuals might put something in an open basket and, through sleight of hand, grab more than they put in or fake putting something in while taking money from it. Experience tells me that this likely happened a few times before the parishes recognized the need for a more secure way of collecting Sunday offerings.
The Haitian churches were once victims of the same trick Trudeau uses with his "price on pollution." Trudeau justifies dipping into your pockets, taking more than he puts in, by pretending, much like the thieves in Haitian churches stealing from the collection baskets, that they're putting money into people's pockets. Under the guise of benevolent help, they take more from and hurt those they claim to help.
Haitian Roman churches were vigilant and found ways to thwart the fake church donors. Isn’t it time for Canadians to do the same with our clever version of the church thieves?