INSIDE Chairman’S Column
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Issue #2, 2018 Hostile legislation outflanks opportunity for pension increase he UK Government in March outflanked the strategy devised by Tthe All-Party Parliamentary Group on Frozen British Pensions to achieve the annulment of the Statutory Instrument legislation that freezes our pensions each spring – a plan that had the support of four political parties in Westminster including Labour, as detailed on the front page of the last issue of JUSTICE. The Government incorporated an additional clause into the Statutory Instrument, a clause to increase the allowance paid to caregivers. As there is no way to split or revoke a specific part of a Statutory Instrument, no MP could in good conscience veto the entire legislation as doing so would have denied increases (‘frozen’ pensioners) within one piece of uprating for at least the current financial to fulltime carers in Britain. undividable legislation. Just a few days ear- year. ICBP is now investigating ways to The International Consortium of British lier, Parliament had awarded upratings to block the repetition ever again of such an Pensioners plans to make a great deal of every pensioner around the world for the incongruous maneuver. noise in the UK about this Government financial year beginning April 6, 2018. We appreciate that many CABP sting – this unjustifiable tying together of It was a frustrating outcome for all members had asked friends in the UK increases in benefits for one group (carers) who worked hard to put everything to petition their local MP to support the with decreases in benefits for another group in place so we could achieve pension eagerly anticipated annulment. Where’s Waldo Scarf Man? INSIDE Chairman’s column . 4 Action in Canada . 4 & 5 New ICBP partner . 6 AGM Notice . 7 Alberta Info Meeting . 11 Mailbag . 12 For the answer, please see p .5 . Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners Visit us at www.BritishPensions.com JUSTICE is published by: Editorial CANADIAN ALLIANCE OF BRITISH PENSIONERS by Rosalind Tosh National Office: 202–4800 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON M9A 1B1 Tel: 416-253-6402 • Toll free: 1-888-591-3964 Email: [email protected] 1948 British Pathé news- Web: www.BritishPensions.com reel shows the ‘Dominion OFFICE HOURS: Premiers’ posing with Tuesday-Friday, 10 am to 2 pm (Eastern Time) A King George VI in Buckingham Editor: Rosalind Tosh • justice@britishpensions .com Palace. The voice-over says the Advertising: Malcolm Campbell Commonwealth leaders are in malcolmcampbell@britishpensions .com London to discuss “the great- © Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners est problem facing the British Commonwealth” – a problem that is then identified as being “the excessive population in Britain.” LOCAL CONTACTS An Australian politician is shown offering the solution: Britain’s popu- ONTARIO: lation “should be redistributed among the other countries of the British GTA & Surround: Margaret Wells Commonwealth.” We see a map of the UK overlaid with the caption “94,000 Tel: 905-450-9028 • Email: mawells@pathcom .com Square Miles: 50 Million People”, followed by the combined maps of Canada, Orillia/Barrie: Alan Llewellyn Tel: 705-329-0894 • Email: alwell04@yahoo .ca South Africa, Southern Rhodesia and Australia and the words “7½ Million Oshawa: George Morley Square Miles: 23 Million People”. Tel: 905-697-3783 • Email: morlege@gmail .com Even without the newsreel’s title – Should 20 Million Emigrate? – its message Ottawa: Tony Bockman Tel: 613-627-9675 • Email: tony .bockman@primus .ca to the people of Britain is abundantly clear: Leave the UK. Go live in one of her Parry Sound-Muskoka: Peter Sanguinetti “vast Dominions.” This message was to be repeated again and again in various Tel: 705-477-2489 • Email: peter .sanguinetti7@gmail .com formats throughout the next several decades. Waterloo: Roy Godber It is no exaggeration to say that Britons were “seduced by government pro- Tel: 226-647-6069 • Email: rgodber@rogers .com paganda films in glorious technicolour” (BBC documentaryTen Pound Poms, Windsor: Ian Spencer Tel: 519-739-0808 • Email: ispencer21067@gmail .com 2008). The films depicted a bright, beckoning future for those who would answer ALBERTA: Sheila Telford the call – and who could resist such a call when it was sweetened with a fare Tel: 403-245-8541 • Email: sheilatelford@shaw .ca of just £10 for those choosing Australia as their destination. (I still have such a MANITOBA: Geoff Davies Tel: 204-745-6727 • Email: digeoffdavies@mymts .net ticket, one I did not use.) NEW BRUNSWICK: Franklin Cardy Canada, meanwhile, had an ‘open door’ immigration policy strictly for people Tel: 506-529-4280 • Email: fcardy@nb .sympatico .ca from the British Isles. The Canadian Government even provided pre-paid travel NOVA SCOTIA: Michael Alford vouchers that could be reimbursed by the immigrant at their leisure. (This offer I Tel: 902-835-9780 • Email: mjalford@bellaliant .net did take advantage of.) As a result, for the next forty years, Britons would be the PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: Stephen Lowe Tel: 902-963-4009 • Email: stephen .lowe@bellaliant .net largest group of immigrants in Canada. QUEBEC: Janice Taylor All this background to say that a statement made by SNP MP Mhairi Black in Tel: 514-674-0667 • Email: thejanicetaylor@gmail .com Westminster last fall resonated deeply with me. BRITISH COLUMBIA: Ms Black berated the UK Government for having manipulated many of today’s Greater Vancouver: David Currie Tel: 604-295-6335 • Email: davie53@telus .net ‘frozen’ pensioners into moving overseas by offering them work and deals, and then, Greater Victoria: Alan McFarlane in their old age, applying the hidden sting in the tail: freezing their pensions. Tel: 250-995-9356 • Email: alanmc@shaw .ca “It is so mad,” she said, pointing to the clearest evidence that the Government Nanaimo: Ian Andexser knows an uprated pension is in fact their due: uprating is applied whenever they Tel: 250-758-7594 • Email: ianandexser@gmail .com visit the UK. Okanagan: Jean Amatt Tel: 205-549-6008 • Email:jean .amatt@gmail .com Ms Black, vice chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Frozen British Sooke Area: Fred Whittaker, Pensions, ended her speech with a plea, “Please work with us to get it right.” Tel: 250-642-4968 • Email: seapeeps@telus .net Amen to that. Surrey/WhiteRock: Sonya Bass Tel: 604-536-4853 • Email:sonyabass@shaw .ca Elsewhere: Ian Andexser Tel: 250-758-7594 • Email: ianandexser@gmail .com OTHER CANADIAN LOCATIONS & INTERNATIONAL: CABP Office: Tel: 416-253-6402 or 1-888-591-3964 Email: info@britishpensions .com Deadline for submissions Please note: All comments, information, articles, opinions to the next issue: and answers appearing in JUSTICE or provided by CABP or its volunteers are offered in good faith but are not intended to be a 9 July 2018 substitute for informed professional advice . 2 - JUSTICE #2, 2018 Consortium optimizes Commonwealth summit ig plans that have been in the process of distillation over of Government Meeting taking place in London April 16 to 20. the course of several months are coming to fruition in ICBP has been working for months to develop initiatives Bthe UK just as this issue of JUSTICE goes to press. The that might capitalize on the biennial gathering of powerful International Consortium of British Pensioners will be making Commonwealth figures. The vast majority of frozen pensioners – pension freezing highly visible during the Commonwealth Heads 95 per cent – live in the Commonwealth, with 48 out of the 53 member countries being a victim of Britain’s freezing policy. ICBP director John Duffy received official accreditation as a delegate to the summit as part of the Antigua and Barbuda contingent. He was determined to put into effect a number of planned publicity operations, aided by PHA, our media relations company. We look forward to reporting on these initiatives in the next issue. ICBP and CABP lobbied hard for pension freezing to be raised by participants of every standing at the summit, during both formal and informal gatherings. We are grateful to those CABP members who also lobbied Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and others for this to happen. Reminding Canada to reap our pension rights hen Canada’s Finance Minister Bill Morneau paid freezing must be linked to trade talks with the UK. Behind the a low-profile visit to London in March to promote scenes, our messages have a deep impact. The fact is that the WCanada’s economic partnership with the UK, we more often that Cabinet members and regular MPs hear this launched what we hope became an avalanche of emails and message, the greater precedence they will give to the issue and the tweets to his accounts by inviting online CABP members to add more likely it is that action will indeed be taken. their voices to ours. Please continue to write to your Ottawa MP asking him or her Our messages petitioned Minister Morneau to raise the unac- to lobby their caucus and the Government to heal the damage ceptable fiscal impact of pension freezing on Canada during all to Canada caused by pension freezing in tandem with brokering discussions relating to economic partnerships with Britain. any new economic agreement with the UK. They reminded him that the effect of the UK’s pension freez- ing policy on Canada adds up to hundreds of millions of dollars every single year – and that the British Government has refused decades of requests by Canada for them to cease and desist. Our messages also informed him that right now Canada has an optimum opportunity to achieve this goal at long last, given that the UK is very keen to strike economic and trade deals outside of Photo tweeted by CanadianUK Europe, notably with Canada. You’re not getting the brush-off Members who participated in the ‘avalanche’ exercise may have received a formulaic response from Minister Morneau’s office, basically saying that the pension freezing portfolio is the respon- sibility of another minister, Jean-Yves Duclos.