Canada hates medieval do-goodery

By Meghan Keating

Recently, I’ve been noticing the internet has been a-twitter with the sounds of activists, celebrities, and social reformers crying out to “take from the rich, give to the poor!”

Evidently, as I have learned, this has nothing to do with the release of the Russell Crowe-Ridley Scott venture, Robin Hood. Instead, I became quickly acquainted with the Robin Hood tax movement that has already been making waves all over the world, particularly in several European and Asian countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan, among others.

The Robin Hood tax is a call for governments to institute a tax on financial institutions to raise money to fight poverty and climate change which have been devastating our world economy. The goal is to implement a 0.05 per cent tax on each financial transaction between institutions, such as stock, bond, and foreign exchanges. Supporting sites and reports stress that the onus is on the banks and institutions, with no repercussions on the general public.

This initiative will supposedly raise $650-billion in a single year.

The Canadian Robin Hood tax website (robinhoodtax.ca) states the financial sector remains “the one sector that ... is still relatively exempt from paying their fair share of taxes” and this tax would result in “[shifting] the burden of crisis resolution from the general public to the financial sector.”

Whether this is manageable remains to be seen. As a skeptic of large-scale government movements, naturally I have to ask myself: If the banks are forced to pay a tax for their transactions, won’t their first action be to increase fees and costs for other services?

According to the Canadian website, no. The tax will affect only banks and companies that can afford the tax, such as investment banks and hedge funds. It also points out how the US recently passed a reform bill limiting how financial institutions can function in terms of what they sell and what they can do.

But, of course, that’s in the United States.

In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has yet to join his fellow world leaders in a movement that would seemingly benefit the global economy, to reduce not only world poverty but also the poverty of Canadians, and put a hold on climate change.

It’s hardly a surprise that his government is also reluctant to take on the financial institutions. The Harper government is backed primarily by the oil industry and big banks, the same big banks on whom the Robin Hood tax would be implemented. And considering that the Harper government is omitting climate change from the upcoming G20 agenda in Toronto this summer, it seems unlikely that he will be backing the tax that supports alleviating the problem for the time being.

In addition, the Globe and Mail’s Tony Keller reports that Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty is the major roadblock behind the lack of merry men in Canada’s government. According to Keller, “Canada’s banks didn’t fail; Canada’s banks are already more tightly regulated than their American and European counterparts; Canada’s banks weren’t bailed out,” a fact that was questioned in a 2009 article by Michel Chossudovsky which stated that Canadian banks required a $75-billion bailout in 2008.

This seems natural that the government would take the position that Canada is being bullied by bigger powers who aren’t as fiscally healthy as Canadian institutions. And virtually every Conservative statement regarding the Global Bank tax has omitted the issue of reducing poverty and climate change.

It doesn’t mean that the Robin Hood tax is a lost cause in this country. May 19 was declared National Day of Action on the Financial Transactions tax, and saw hundreds of citizens protesting across the country, including those on Parliament Hill and in Halifax.

It is also said that European leaders and economists in support of the tax plan to push the issue at the G20 summit later next month.

You can read more about Robin Hood and his merry men fighting against Canada’s own King John and Sherriff of Nottingham at http://robinhoodtax.ca.

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