CTF Honours Irvin Leroux
Prince George, B.C. – A Prince George man was awarded with the Canadian Taxpayer Federation’s (CTF) highest honour last night.
Irvin Leroux, who battled the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for two decades, was presented the TaxFighter Award at the Sandman Signature Hotel.
Irvin Leroux – photo 250News
Leroux’s misery began in 1996 when the CRA audited his RV park near Valemount and concluded he owed them $800,000 in taxes and penalties. He appealed, but the CRA seized and sold his business.
“Eventually the CRA admitted Irv didn’t owe them a penny,” said Jordan Bateman, BC Director for the CTF. “When Leroux sued the CRA for damages, the court went against him, leaving him broke, but did rule for the first time in Canadian history that CRA owes taxpayers a “duty of care.”
The CRA tried to have that ruling overturned but the CTF funded Leroux’s defense and the CRA ultimately dropped its appeal.
“Irv Leroux is a guy who spent 20 years fighting the CRA, which just for sheer persistence and orneriness, he probably deserves an award,” added Bateman. “But what Irv delivered with those three words, ‘duty of care,’ is that the CRA has to treat us like real human beings.”
How did Leroux react to receiving the award?
“I never did this for recognition. I fought them for my rights to be heard and treated fairly. That’s what it was all about.”
He estimates the court battle cost him over $4 million dollars but admits he’s somehow managed to maintain his sanity.
“Somebody has to start and initiate change. If I’ve created something here that will start the spark that gets things happening, then great.”
Comments
Good for you,Irv!
All too often, people in power, be it government workers, judges, lawyers, policemen and women, forget they are dealing with people!
Must be the Liberal way.
Here we go again.
Like Trudeau our dear leader, govern by force.
here we go again, again.
You are mistaken..that was Harper.
I read an article recently about this becoming a huge problem were government agencies have the power of seizure and selling assets on nefarious charges. In some places south of the boarder it is so bad that police departments are nearly fully funded by their seize and sell policies, even getting bonuses and paid trips from the proceeds. Apparently they have even used this power for holding people ransom of their property and taking corrupt payoffs to back off.
One guy in Calgary had $27,000 seized in a traffic stop because why does anyone carry that kind of cash…. Turns out years later he was able to prove this was his equity he had from a home he just sold and took it in cash for his move. Other cases involved landlords loosing their property for alleged crimes committed by their tenets.
Police seizures are now a common road side occurrence in BC for everything from speeding to unpaid tax assessments.
I for one am glad he gets some good recognition. Good for you Irv. Shame on some of the posters who kept belittling him over previous articles! One person can make a difference.
Fighting for what is right is always right!
I agree. Though I am curious as to why the Court went against him when he sued the CRA for damages. Seems kind of strange. Either he owed the CRA taxes, or he didn’t. And if he didn’t, why did the Court rule against him?
Way to go Irv.
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