[nemoforone]

Man awarded $1.3-million from taxman

The Canadian Press
February 13, 2009

VICTORIA - When armed police officers and a phalanx of government officials swarmed his home on a suburban cul de sac, Hal Neumann tried to explain to his alarmed neighbours that he had done nothing wrong.

It took more than three years to clear his name, but in doing so Mr. Neumann won a groundbreaking court ruling and has made himself a hero to anyone who has ever tangled with the taxman.

This week, a B.C. Supreme Court jury awarded the Saanich businessman $1.3-million in damages against the Canada Revenue Agency for the Sept. 7, 2005, raid on his home. The jury also said he is due an apology from Revenue Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn.

The jury found the agency trampled Mr. Neumann's Charter rights when it came looking for documents in his home office that he had freely handed over just six months earlier.

"They made me feel like a criminal," said Mr. Neumann, recalling the raid. "It looked like a drug bust. My neighbours were asking about it afterward, there was a real stigma."

Mr. Neumann himself wasn't even the object of an investigation: During a routine audit in 2004, he provided receipts that later led to a tax-evasion probe of an Alberta woman he did business with. He would have provided the papers again, if they had just asked.

"At every stage I was fully co-operative. Why should I help someone evade taxes that I pay?"

Mr. Neumann, 60, runs a business, Vantage Equipment Company Ltd., that buys and sells used mining equipment. He keeps the heavy equipment in a lot in Duncan, but he runs the business from his home office in Saanich, near Victoria.

The search warrant provided for a search of his business premises, but the trial heard that the two police officers and five tax agents didn't confine themselves to his office. They were in the family room, counting all the money he had in his home. They were in his living room, even his kitchen.

He remembers a Saanich police officer telling him it wouldn't be unusual if he was arrested, and that he might be a "bad guy."

This was all too much for a man whose family came to this country to escape a police state.

Mr. Neumann was just four years old when his family fled East Germany; he lived in refugee camps before they made their way to Canada..

The civil trial ran for eight days. On Tuesday night, the jury returned with its verdict: $300,000 in damages and $1-million for breaching his Charter rights. But it was the apology that brought the Crown's lawyer, Amanda Lord, to her feet.

"The Minister of National Revenue is not a defendant to this action, is my concern," she protested.

"Who's in charge of the agency being sued?" Supreme Court Justice Dean Wilson asked.

"Well, you're correct," Ms. Lord conceded. "The Minister of National Revenue would be the minister ultimately responsible for the Canada Revenue Agency, yes."

"Well, that's the end of it then," put in Steven Kelliher, Mr. Neumann's lawyer.

Yesterday, Mr. Neumann was inundated with calls congratulating him on his victory. "It was a decision made by our peers, what's important about it is they sent a very clear message to the government of this country that the sanctity of our homes is paramount," he said.

He has not yet heard an apology from Mr. Blackburn.

A spokesman for the department said the agency is reviewing the court ruling and will not comment.