JUXTAPOSE!

Well, there's this ...

On the other hand, this is the 3,891st consecutive day that Patrick "Lord Baron Twatrick of Loadenhosen" Ross woke up knowing that he owes me $85,000 plus accruing interest:

You can fill in the rest for yourself.

"And besides, who among us hasn't abducted someone else's child from a playground, huh? Geez, you people!"

Now do residential schools, Wendy.

Exciting new developments related to "The Democracy Fund" and tax receipts.

Things that make you say "Hmmmmmmmm ...". In a recent piece by indescribably stupid Rebel News journo and creepy Justin Trudeau stalker Drea Humphrey, we read the following:

Notice anything interesting? Why, yes ... yes, you do ... there is absolutely no mention of the previously relentless assurances of charitable tax receipts. None. And if you follow that "here" link to make sure you are not misreading, well, Ezra wants to be absolutely clear that you are not misreading:

Is it just me, or has Ezra quietly shitcanned that whole "We can give you a charitable tax receipt" strangeness? How ... odd.

WEIRDER AND WEIRDER ... apparently, there is still a companion web page that promises charitable tax receipts, which inspires the obvious question -- why would Humphrey not link to that page? As in, if you have two ways to accept donations, and one entitles donors to a charitable tax receipt while the other does not, why in the name of Sheila Gunn Reid's John Deere-powered combination vibrator/hand-held sander would you direct people to the latter? Why would you exclusively send potential donors to the donations page that doesn't give them the option of a tax receipt?

But wait ... it gets weirder, as on the first page above where tax receipts are assured, one reads the bizarre offer:

I'm sorry but ... what the hell? If you're on a donations page that promises you a charitable tax receipt, why would you deliberately choose to jump to another page where you would be making exactly the same donation to exactly the same cause, but not be eligible for a tax deduction? What possible logic does that have? And, again, why is Humphrey now (as opposed to previous rants) directing donors only to the page that does not offer tax deductions?

So many questions, so little accountability.

Oh, Canada Revenue Agency, where art thou?

P.S. We are so not done with The Democracy Fund, as they have finally poked their noses out of their burrows, and what they're up to ain't pretty. Stay tuned.

AN EXCELLENT QUESTION: Early-morning commenter asks precisely the right question:

What happens when CRA finally catches up with this scam and disqualifies TDF from issuing tax receipts? What happens to all those people who dumped in a pile of money assuming they would be getting a tax deduction, only to find out that's not happening?

If I had done that, I'd be pretty pissed off and I'd be insisting that someone owed me the shortfall. So who would be on the hook for that misrepresentation?

A perfectly reasonable question, as Ezra himself pimps out the value of that tax receipt thusly:

So if I had donated $1,000 with the expectation that I would be getting $400 back come tax time, and I'm later told, sorry, not happening, I'd be pretty annoyed, and I'd be insisting that someone better make up the $400 shortfall. And at that point, one suspects there would be a great deal of finger-pointing between Rebel News and The Democracy Fund. And it wouldn't be pretty.

TO SUM UP ... this single screenshot from a Rebel News web page encapsulates perfectly the weirdness of this campaign's donation logistics:

Note that, in that last sentence, Rebel offers donors the choice of donating so that they are eligible for a tax receipt, versus donating so that they are not. I have never seen anything like this -- a campaign that offers both options of donation -- and it's not clear why any sane human being would opt for not being eligible.

If anyone has ever seen this type of strangeness elsewhere, well, the comments section is open.

JUXTAPOSE!

Here's Rebel News, wanking off in public about how, when journalism gets tough, then tough journalism requires being tough and asking tough questions that are tough and never not being tough because when journalism gets tough, then ... oh, fuck it, you can see the self-serving masturbation for yourself:

 

And here's one Terry Rudden, getting permanently banned from Rebel for (you guessed it) asking a tough question:

I'm glad we had this little chat.

Ah, the thigh-sucking irony.

Heh. Indeed.

And who among us could forget the pride of the Aryan Nation, Keean "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" Bexte, while working for Ezra, literally stalking Greta Thunberg to her hotel and chasing her down a corridor?

But, sure, Ezra, do continue lecturing us about stalking. We're all ears.

PREDICTION: Petition and fundraiser to follow. Let's watch.

BONUS TRACK: Twitter account "@rudden_terry" really merits way more followers.

Dear Terry: Gunn Reid is a serial liar. I'm glad we had this little chat.

JUXTAPOSE!

Ezra Levant: "It's been a tremendously successful year, and we're poised for even more success in the coming year!"

Also Ezra Levant: "It's been a struggle, and we desperately need your financial support or we might have to go off the air!"

Quick! Donate! Money! Now!

It's a day ending in 'y' so Rebel News needs many tens of thousands of dollars from you RIGHT FUCKING NOW, yes, you!!!

Without all that high-end techie wizardry, how else would we be able to watch, in real time, a Rebel News journo howling, "Hey, why are you throwing me out? Don't touch me! You're touching me, stop touching me!!"

And ... scene.

BONUS TRACK: First commenter is wickedly on-point with some business advice:

I've done business plans and recovery plans for clients, and the bottom line in both cases is really simple; do everything you have to do to protect the asset that is ESSENTIAL to sustain whatever service drives your revenue generation. If you have to go begging for spare change because a key interface has ALREADY failed, well, golly, that tells us something about your fiscal acuity. But by all means, DO continue lecturing on the economy. We're all ears.)

Liar.

 

No, he didn't, you liar.

Brain ... hurts ...

If Conrad Black were any more of a pathetic, unethical, unprincipled whore, he'd be Sheila Gunn Reid:

What the absolute fuck ...

No, Barb, this is totally the wrong time for this racist shit:

You go, Michael Spratt.

Ottawa lawyer and all-around troublemaker Michael Spratt kicks some John Carpay ass.

Yeah, about "The Democracy Fund" ...

Short note about an exciting, recent development involving the mysterious CRA-registered charity "The Democracy Fund", through which Rebel News assures donors they can receive charitable tax receipts if they make their donations specifically through that charity to its "Fight the Fines" campaign (despite The Democracy Fund having absolutely nothing to do with that campaign and not even mentioning it on their web page).

Anonymous minion dropped me a note and told the story of actually calling Canada Revenue Agency, the Charities Directorate, in order to chat with someone about whether this sort of thing is legal. The first individual contacted reportedly listened patiently as said minion walked him through the web pages that described the campaign, particularly the part where donors were instructed to donate to a totally different entity in order to get their tax receipt.

Eventually, first CRA person transferred minion to someone in the actual charities fraud and compliance department (or whatever it's called), at which point that person also listened patiently and followed the trail of claims and web sites and read the assurances of tax receipts, at which point, the CRA person reportedly said (and I am quoting from the email I received):

"That's not legal. You can't do that."

Without having been a party to that call, I can't verify if things were described accurately, but the aforementioned CRA person apparently took the time to bring up the web pages in a browser, and read the contents therein, and reportedly seemed to have a reasonable grasp of the issues, and his opinion was absolutely unambiguous -- no, it can't happen that way.

Now, if Rebel News and The Democracy Fund have indeed found a clever way wherein people can donate to a campaign while getting tax receipts from someone else, good for them, but I think it's at least moderately interesting to hear that someone at the CRA seems pretty sure that's not allowed.

I guess we have to wait to see how this shakes out.

And, no, we're not done here.

AFTERSNARK: Anonymous correspondent asks a pertinent question -- has anyone received an actual tax receipt for their donation to "Fight the Fines?" I don't mean just a confirmation e-mail, I mean a real, actual tax receipt and not just a promise of same. A simple promise of an eventual tax receipt gives the campaign time to work out how they're going to do this, but an actual tax receipt means they're committed, and that's a kettle of horses of a different colour.

Anyone? Anyone? Beuller?

JUXTAPOSE!

Rebel News: "For the sake of freedom and liberty, it's critically important that you all gather unmasked in large groups as a form of protest, and refuse to take vaccines because they're all a hoax!"

Also Rebel News: "What's with all these fucking lockdowns?"

Rebel News: All the news that's fit to ignore.

Despite the JCCF's in-house sleazebag John Carpay being in an increasingly deep hole:

you'd never know anything was even amiss if you followed only Rebel News:

In unrelated news, Ezra Levant will now write a scathing opinion piece on "liberal media bias".

Adam Skelly: The resolution.

 

I have been informed by a moderately unreliable source that our long national Adam Skelly nightmare is over, and it went down like this (paraphrased, with monetary amounts changed to disguise the actual figures):

Rebel-supplied lawyer: "All right, you've been fined $5,000, but we're setting up a fundraiser to fight this. It won't be cheap but it's the principle that counts."

... time passes ...

Skelly: "So how are things going?"

Lawyer: "Really well. We've raised $8.9 million, which is good since this will be a tough case that is almost certain to get to the Supreme Court. We have a full-time staff of 27 attorneys preparing as I speak, and we'll be making arguments to challenge the basis of the Charter, the Magna Carta, the Ten Commandments and the Code of Hammurabi. This will take years, but I'm confident we can affect a change in Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms by 2036. Don't you worry."

... long pause ...

Skelly: "So, just to be clear, I now have access to $8.9 million, free and clear to use as I want, in order to spend the next 15 years to fight a $5,000 fine. Do I have that right?"

Lawyer: "Exactly, and let me assure you, we will never rest, we will leave no stone unturned, we will ..."

Skelly: "Fuck off, you're fired."

And that's how I hear it went down.

BREAKING! Keean Bexte still a despicable sleazebag.

 So I'm curious ...

... can anyone confirm whether Bexte actually used the literal phrase "Trudeau's RCMP?" Seriously, was there anyone at that presser that heard that sleazy piece of neo-Nazi garbage use that actual phrase?

Lines are open.

This will never stop being funny.

 

Why this JCCF fiasco matters.

Because:

Let's be clear ... this is not a "Geez, the JCCF are a bunch of sleazy douchebags" moment; rather, this is a "Someone needs to be disbarred and possibly go to prison" moment.

JUXTAPOSE!

Churches are being attacked!

Therefore, it's critically important that you send money to a sleazy, white nationalist, neo-Nazi because I guess that's the obvious solution to the problem:

Sure, that makes sense.

Yes, I warned you about this, didn't I? You're welcome.

It was almost two months ago that I wrote about Rebel News' somewhat sketchy claim that donations to its "Fight the Fines" campaign were eligible for charitable tax receipts as long as you laundered^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hredirected them through a mysterious and unassociated registered charity called "The Democracy Fund," a claim that seems to be contradicted by the CRA's own clear guidelines:

More recently, while others (including moi) were pointing out the unabashed sleaziness of the JCCF paying PIs to stalk public officials, I again raised the issue of the dispensation of charitable tax receipts. Well, it would appear that the rest of the world has finally caught up with me:

The article opens with the obvious observations:

but then, a bombshell:

Wait ... what the absolute f... so the registered charity JCCF got a sizable chunk of its revenue via other registered charities?

How the fuck does that work? Are we looking at an incestuous circle jerk of right-wing propaganda outlets that are abusing their charitable status to collect funds, hand out tax receipts, then turn around and pass that money on to other registered, right-wing charities? What in the hell is happening here?

And, yes, at this point, it makes sense to ask if Rebel News and JCCF and The Democracy Fund have some weird pass-through operation going, wherein Rebel organizes the "Fight the Fines" campaign, The Democracy Fund collects the funds and (as a registered charity) hands out tax receipts but simply passes the money back to Rebel, who then shovels it off to JCCF ostensibly as lawyers' fees (and would that entitle Rebel News to a charitable tax receipt?), or is The Democracy Fund transferring all those donations directly to JCCF and itself getting tax receipts (while giving out tax receipts of its own), or ... or ... I'm sorry, this is so fucked up, I've lost my train of thought.

In the end, is it too much to ask Canada Revenue Agency to take even a minimal interest in this? Or are they still too fucking busy auditing birdwatchers?

P.S. Good. It's time for shit to go down.