Clarke and Mary Margaret Webster of Ottawa, Ontario, pleaded guilty in the Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa on January 7, 2013 to one count each of tax evasion, bringing to a close a “preposterous” scheme to sidestep the law.
A CRA investigation found that Clarke Webster failed to report $791,410 in income he earned from 2004 to 2009, during which time he followed a tax evasion scheme promoted by Russ Porisky through the Paradigm Education Group.
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The Paradigm scheme is based on the faulty premise that the federal government cannot impose a direct tax on a human being because it would be unconstitutional and further, that taxing the labour of a human being would violate the Canadian Bill of Rights as it is a confiscation of property. Mary Margaret Webster, who also followed the Paradigm scheme, failed to report the $370,500 in income she earned from working at her husband’s dental practice for tax years 2004 to 2008.
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Clarke Webster was sentenced to a one-year conditional sentence, including six months of house arrest and fined $263,811. Mary Margaret Webster was sentenced to a six-month conditional sentence, including three months of house arrest, and fined $78,596. Both fines represent 100% of the total federal income tax evaded, and are due paid in full by January 7, 2014.