Canada PoliticsEritrean consulate in Toronto forced to stop charging 2 per cent ‘diaspora tax’
It seems that Canada has prevailed in its dispute against Eritrea.
Who or what is Eritrea you ask?
It's an underdeveloped African nation nestled between the borders of Ethiopia, Sudan and the Red Sea with a population of about 6 million people. Earlier this year, a United Nations report alleged that the nation's repressive dictatorship was using its Toronto consulate to bankroll its military through a 2 per cent diaspora tax on its expatriates in Canada.
According to the National Post, both the UN and the RCMP warned that those who refused to pay were "subjected to threats, intimidation and coercion."
The Post is now reporting that the federal government has convinced Eritrea to stop collecting the levy after threatening to send their only diplomat in Canada home.
"Canada will consider the embassy's request for renewal of his accreditation once it has received written confirmation that Eritrea has complied in full with the department's expectations … and therefore the consulate has effectively ceased to collect the 2 per cent' recovery and rehabilitation' tax and the donation for national defence," read the note, by the Department of Foreign Affairs as reported by the National Post.
"If Mr. O. Micael continues to carry out tax solicitation and tax collection activities in spite of Canada's express disapproval and view that such activities are incompatible with the normal performance of consular functions, it will expect a notification from the Ministry stating that such person has been recalled from Canada."
[ Related: Canadians support the government's decision to close Tehran embassy ]
Eritrea's foreign affairs department says that they'll comply with Canada's wishes.
That has to be good news for the thousands of Eritreans living in Canada.
Aaron Berhane is one of them.
Here is a snippet of an editorial he penned for the Toronto Star last Spring where he describes what he and his fellow countrymen have had to endure:
"Some 20,000 Eritreans now live in the Greater Toronto Area. Harassment and fear have followed many of them here. The Eritrean consulate in Canada asks them to provide T4 slips and other Canada Revenue Agency documents as proof of their Canadian income. The government of Eritrea then uses this information to impose an additional 2-per-cent tax on their incomes.
Refusal to pay results in the withholding of basic documents such as educational records and birth and marriage certificates. Family members in Eritrea find their applications for business licence renewals declined. Even those who need nothing from the Eritrean government are approached and intimidated by agents of the regime to pay the tax."
According to Radio Netherlands, it was alleged that Eritrea's regime President Isaias Afwerki had funded the radical Islamic terrorist network al-Shabaab. Eritrea has denied those allegations.
Update:
In response to the Canadian government's decision to nix the 2 per cent tax this week, Amanuel Tseggai — an Eritrean ex-pat now living in another country (not Canada) — claims that allegations that Eritrea are supporting al-Shabaab have been "cooked-up."
"Contrary to the common belief of forceful taxation, the 2 per cent tax Erireans in diaspora contribute is strictly for nation building and rehabilitation," he said in an email to Yahoo! Canada News.
"All the talk that the remittance is being used to finance terrorists is nothing beyond nonsense. It's politically motivated in [an] attempt to disrupt and discourage Eritrea's independent socioeconomic program based on self-reliance which is bearing slow but positive results."
Tseggai went on to say that he will continue to pay the tax willingly "knowing with confidence that not a penny" is used to finance terroism.
[ Related: Three journalists die in Eritrean jail: rights group ]
