The story
How’s this for intrigue? CBC’s investigative team dug up a lawsuit that saw the heirs to the estate of Arthur Meighen, a former prime minister who your neighbour probably couldn’t pick out of a lineup, take on a prominent Tory appointee, Jim Love, a Toronto lawyer and the chair of the Royal Canadian Mint. The suit wrapped up in 2011, but CBC’s only now discovering the details.

Love is alleged to have funneled about $8 million of Meighen’s estate through offshore banks in a so-called “tax avoidance scheme” meant to save the heirs a whack of cash. The family claimed Love “breached his fiduciary duties and acted oppressively.” Love claimed he saved the family $1 million. The transactions, in order to achieve some kind of savings, were quite complex. All of this comes as offshore banking is under the microscope.

The defendants in the case, all of whom were apparently involved in making the transactions, included Love and his then-law partner, their firms, and Canada Trust. They all ended up settling with the Meighen heirs.

The stat
$8.9 million: the amount ultimately paid out to the Meighen family by defendants, though it’s not clear exactly which defendants

The quote
“If I were the [Canada Revenue] Agency, I would like to have a look at that and analyze all of the transactions that were carried on here.” —André Lareau, professor of international tax law at Laval University

 

What’s above the fold

The Globe and Mail	Rogers paid $5.2 billion for 12 years of exclusive NHL broadcast rights.
National Post	CBC will change dramatically as it loses hockey rights.
Toronto Star	Bell Media, and its TSN network, will be frozen out of the NHL.
Ottawa Citizen	Federal union leaders’ proposed changes to a budget bill came too late.
CBC News	Tory appointee Jim Love moved a former PM’s fortune offshore.
CTV News	A law prof filed a complaint about former PMO legal adviser Ben Perrin.
National Newswatch	See CTV News’ top story.

 

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