VANCOUVER — The Crown is seeking a 31Ú2-year-jail term for a North Vancouver man convicted in connection with a nationwide scam that counselled hundreds of people to evade paying their income taxes.
In October, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Victoria Gray found Michael Spencer Millar guilty of four counts related to his involvement as a teacher in the Paradigm Education Group.
The judge found that Millar taught his students they did not have to pay their taxes as “natural persons,” a theory that has been repeatedly discredited by the Canadian courts.
Court heard that Millar presented courses in North Van-couver, Vancouver, Kaslo and Calgary and that more than 200 people participated.
He was also found to have personally avoided paying $24,000 in income taxes.
In her submissions on sentencing, Crown counsel Suzanne Manery argued that Millar was a “key player” in the scam and had acted as a “surrogate” for Russell Porisky of Chilliwack, the leader of the group.
Porisky was convicted this year and sentenced to 51Ú2 years in jail. Manery told the judge that Millar’s crimes were insidious, dishonest and motivated by a desire for profit. “It’s a greedy offence,” she said.
Manery noted that in addition to Porisky, 31 educators or students in the group across Canada have been convicted and sentenced.
Millar continued perpetrating his fraud despite knowing that Paradigm was being pursued by the Canada Revenue Agency, had made no expressions of remorse and had not acknowledged his responsibility in any way, the prosecutor said.
Millar, who had no lawyer and represented himself in court, said he was concerned that the Crown was wrongly linking him to Paradigm and Porisky as if they were “all the same,” calling it a “gross overstatement.”
He took issue with the prosecutor’s assertion that he was acting as Porisky’s surrogate and began to make submissions regarding the theory espoused by the Paradigm educators.
But the judge told him that it didn’t sound like he agreed with the convictions and pointed out that he had lost in court.
“I don’t believe any sentence is proper,” Millar said.
