Close X
Thursday, January 16, 2025
ADVT 
National

Lobbyist, Liberal Strategist Gets House Arrest, Fine For Tax Evasion

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 23 Nov, 2015 11:34 AM
  • Lobbyist, Liberal Strategist Gets House Arrest, Fine For Tax Evasion
OTTAWA — A prominent Ottawa lobbyist and federal Liberal party strategist has been sentenced to house arrest and fined $396,259 for tax evasion, the Canada Revenue Agency says.
 
Herb Metcalfe was given a conditional sentence of two years less a day, including 12 months house arrest, plus the fine, which equalled the taxes evaded.
 
Metcalfe is a co-founder of Capital Hill Group, a well-known lobbying firm. The firm said he has left the company.
 
"Herb is no longer involved with the Capital Hill Group or its operations," account manager Joanna Carey said in an email. "We continue to move ahead with business as usual.
 
Metcalfe pleaded guilty in the Ontario Court of Justice to a single count of tax evasion after a revenue agency investigation.
 
The court was told that Metcalfe received payments and benefits from 2002 to 2006 totalling $1,366,411 that he did not report on his personal income tax returns.
 
The revenue agency said Metcalfe prepared his returns each year by hand, and knew — or was wilfully blind to the fact — that the income he received was required to be reported on his returns and was taxable.
 
Metcalfe has long been a senior Liberal strategist and adviser and was prominent in the party's inner circle.
 
He worked on Stephane Dion's successful leadership campaign in 2006. Earlier he was campaign chair for Liberal John Manley.
 
Metcalfe was also a senior adviser to Dion leading up to the disastrous 2008 federal election, which saw the Liberals reduced to third-party status.
 
In the 1970s and 1980s, he worked in the offices of several Liberal cabinet ministers before turning to lobbying.
 
"The Canada Revenue Agency pursues tax evaders to maintain public confidence in the integrity of the tax system," Vince Pranjivan, assistant commissioner of the Ontario region said in a news release.
 
"Canadians have to trust that our self-assessment system is working and that it is fair."

MORE National ARTICLES

NDP Candidate Harbaljit Singh Kahlon Apologizes For Former Views On Gay Marriage, Homosexuality

Harbaljit Singh Kahlon also said during the 2005 OMNI TV show that there is no research that gays are born homosexual.

NDP Candidate Harbaljit Singh Kahlon Apologizes For Former Views On Gay Marriage, Homosexuality

13 Accused Of Bringing Drugs And Weapons Into Canada; 48 Charges Laid

13 Accused Of Bringing Drugs And Weapons Into Canada; 48 Charges Laid
Ontario Provincial Police say illegal drugs — mostly cocaine — were being brought into Canada from Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia and Guyana, then distributed through the Toronto area and in Newfoundland and Labrador.

13 Accused Of Bringing Drugs And Weapons Into Canada; 48 Charges Laid

American Actor Randy Quaid Ordered Released; Facing Removal From Canada Next Week

American Actor Randy Quaid Ordered Released; Facing Removal From Canada Next Week
A Canada Border Services Agency official told the board member hearing the case that Quaid was arrested because it was felt he wouldn't comply with an order to leave the country next Wednesday.

American Actor Randy Quaid Ordered Released; Facing Removal From Canada Next Week

Advocate Says B.C.'s Children In Government Care Need More Social Workers Now

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond says the province has fewer social workers now compared to 13 years ago and that the government must hire more by boosting funding for the Children's Ministry.

Advocate Says B.C.'s Children In Government Care Need More Social Workers Now

Northern Gateway naysayers missed their chance to oppose pipeline: CAPP

Northern Gateway naysayers missed their chance to oppose pipeline: CAPP
Lewis Manning told a Federal Court of Appeal in Vancouver that it's a shame that some organizations chose not to take part in the process.

Northern Gateway naysayers missed their chance to oppose pipeline: CAPP

Police Seek Person Of Interest In Death Of Man Shot With Arrow In Kitchener, Ont.

Police Seek Person Of Interest In Death Of Man Shot With Arrow In Kitchener, Ont.
Investigators say a man described as six feet tall and 40 to 50 years old is believed to have been in the area where Michael Gibbon was found on Monday morning.

Police Seek Person Of Interest In Death Of Man Shot With Arrow In Kitchener, Ont.