8. When is it Fair to be Unfair?

Batman: To the Bat Cave Robin

Robin: What’s up, Batman. The Joker again?

Batman: No Robin, something much more insidious.

But first, we must solve the following riddle:
'When is it Fair to be Unfair?'

Robin: Holy down-is-up Batman! Unfair is unfair. How can it be fair?

Batman: I don't know, Robin. But we’ve got to try to sort this logic out.
On 30 January we were told by the Harper government why they broke their campaign promise not to tax Income Trusts.

Robin: Why Batman?

Batman: it seems, Robin,
because they think it's fair.

Robin: Holy breach-of-trust, Batman!
Isn’t it unfair to promise not to do something in order to get people to vote for you then after being elected break that promise.

Batman: I think you might be on to something, Robin.

Added to that, the Harper government’s broken promise resulted in the loss of up to 25 billions in investment dollars from Canadian companies.

Robin: I don’t understand how that’s fair.

Batman: Neither do I, Robin.

The Harper government says that not taxing the Income Trusts means that they may not be able to give Canadians the tax breaks they are planning in their upcoming budget. Their logic apparently is that these tax breaks will benefit the majority of Canadians and so it is fair to break their promise since it only hurts a minority of people, even though the damage is so great.

Robin: But Batman, they only received a bit more than one third of the votes, where is their moral authority.

Batman: I don’t know, Robin.
Let’s feed this information into the Bat Computer, Robin, and see what comes out.

Bat Computer:

. . . . . .

Warning!


Warning!


Danger!


Danger!



This does not


compute!


This does not


Compute!



Robin: Holy, lost in space, Batman! What can we do.

Batman: We’ve got to get our Canada back, Robin, before its too late.

© Lloyd MacIlquham, all rights reserved, 31 Januray, 2007