Book Launch: Cancelling Billionaires Before They Cancel Us

Join Octopus Books to celebrate the launch of Cancelling Billionaires Before They Cancel Us with co-authors Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks, a jarring portrait of a deeply unequal Canada and how a wealth tax could rein in the destructive power wielded by today’s billionaires.

Wednesday April 22, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Abbotsford House, 950 Bank St.

As the ultra-wealthy siphon off an ever-larger share of the world’s wealth, they now dominate us to a degree unimaginable even a decade ago. With their voracious consumption, unbridled resource exploitation, and relentless obstruction of climate action, they are rapidly undermining democracy and destroying the very viability of the earth for human life.

Their staggering power and hoarding of wealth have prompted a number of G20 nations to consider imposing a wealth tax, aimed exclusively at the super-rich. In Canada, such a tax would apply only to those with wealth above $25 million. Yet it could collect $40 billion a year — funding public programs that could immensely improve the lives of millions of Canadians while clipping the wings of the super-rich.

Billionaires would threaten to depart. But as they left the country that had nourished them and enabled them to grow so wildly rich, they’d face a hefty “exit tax” on the way out.

Yes, change is possible.

Linda McQuaig is the recipient of a National Newspaper Award for investigative reporting. The National Post has described her as “Canada’s Michael Moore.” She is also the author of eight national bestsellers, including Shooting the Hippo, selected by the Literary Review of Canada as one of the twenty-five most influential books of the past twenty-five years. Perhaps not surprisingly, she has enraged many on the right, including Conrad Black, who called for her to be “horsewhipped.”

Neil Brooks taught tax law and policy at Osgoode Hall Law School for over 35 years. He has published extensively on income tax issues and was the editor of Canadian Taxation, Osgoode Hall Law Journal and the Canadian Tax Journal. He is the co-author of The Trouble with Billionaires (2010) with Linda McQuaig.

This event is free and open to all. Please RSVP to help us know how many guests to expect: octopusbooks.ca/wealthtax