A Prince George businessman who is accusing the federal government's tax collector of ruining him has won a big step towards getting his day in court.
The B.C. Court of Appeal rejected Tuesday a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) request to have Irvin Leroux's claims against the agency thrown out of court, his lawyer Laurence Armstrong confirmed.
It will still be some time yet before the matter finally lands in court. Armstrong said the next step will be to redraft Leroux's statement of claim so it's more focused.
"In effect, we're sort of starting over because we'll do the new statement of claim, the government will have a chance to do a defence, we'll chase after documents for awhile, so it's probably looking a year before there will be awhile," Armstrong said.
But he also stressed the case remains alive.
The matter dates back to 1996 when Leroux, now 67 years old, owned an operated an RV park and campground and a small residential subdivision near Valemount and the CRA launched an audit.
Leroux claims that when two CRA investigators visited his home, they agreed to make copies of his documents, but instead took the originals when he had left the house to go about his business and refused to return them.
And he further claims a significant portion of those documents were later shredded and others lost and was then told it was his responsibility to provide copies of all the documents necessary for the audit.
As a result, Leroux said he was assessed nearly $1 million in taxes, penalties and interest which the missing records would have shown he didn't owe.
It also sparked a series of events that forced Leroux into insolvency and caused him to sell his business and home for far less than their assessed values.
The issue drew national attention and, in March 2010, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, an advocacy group dedicated to defending Canadians' constitutional freedoms through "education, communication and litigation," retained Armstrong on Leroux's behalf.
"I feel good that they haven't defeated me yet," Leroux said when reached for comment.
Leroux is bracing himself for further legal wrangling from the CRA.
"I've been fighting this thing for 16 years," he said. "I just want to have my life back and they just don't want to give it.
"They're saying 'my case was settled in the tax court and therefore it's finished and you have no right to address any issues as to our actions or our performance, that's the way we are and you can't address that.
"OK, well, I think we can."
In July 2010, a Surpreme Court Justice denied a CRA motion to dismiss Leroux action as "frivolous and vexatious." In response, the CRA took the issue to the Court of Appeal which upheld on Tuesday Leroux's right to pursue the action.
CRA spokesman Dave Morgan decline to comment, other than to say the issue remains before the court.
