Tax rebel lawyer disbarred by Law Society of Manitoba
Brian Langford filed false tax returns before challenging the constitutionality of the federal Income Tax Act
A lawyer convicted of income tax evasion has been disbarred by the Law Society of Manitoba.
Last year, an LSM panel found Langford guilty of four charges under its Code of Professional Conduct arising out of his conviction under the Income Tax Act in provincial court and an appeal in the Court of Queen’s Bench, where the lawyer challenged the federal government’s right to collect income tax at all.
By disparaging Canada’s law making institutions without any basis to do so, the panel concluded Langford had “undermined the very Rule of Law that he accused the Governments of conspiring to defeat.”
However, Langford and the LSM were divided on the appropriate punishment, with the lawyer arguing that a reprimand would be sufficient, considering his behaviour had already cost him 15 months on house arrest, as well as a $99,000 fine following his conviction in provincial court.
Despite his previously spotless disciplinary record, the hearing panel was troubled by Langford’s continued insistence that the federal income tax regime violates the constitution.
“The panel, being aware of the mandate of the LSM to protect the public, while noting that none of the actions of Mr. Langford directly impacted a client of his, has before it a member who has failed to act with integrity for years, but just as importantly, is unwilling to admit his failure. Rather, he accuses the government and the LSM, itself, as lacking integrity,” the three-member panel wrote, imposing the law society’s requested penalty of disbarment.
According to the LSM ruling, Langford practised as an associate with the firm Sims and Company in the town of Birtle, Man., which is about 300km west of Winnipeg, near the border with Saskatchewan.
For each of the years between 2002 and 2010, the decision says Langford submitted tax returns showing no income. However, he was charged under the Income Tax Act after a Canada Revenue Agency audit revealed he had earned a cumulative total of more than $600,000 across those years, which should have resulted in a tax bill of just over $99,000.
Langford admitted filing the returns, but based his defence of the charges on a Constitutional challenge to the Act, claiming that the federal government had no authority to levy incomes taxes. However, in 2016, a provincial court judge rejected Langford’s arguments and convicted him of evading income taxes, imposing a $99,000 fine and 15-month conditional jail sentence to be served in the community.
Langford’s appeal was rejected by the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench in 2019, and he was denied leave to mount a further appeal to the province’s top court.
The LSM launched its proceedings in 2017, where Langford’s submissions echoed his previous Constitutional challenge.
“I have been charged and convicted of breaches under the Income Tax inspite of the violation of Rule of Law in Canada. What kind of Country do you want to live in one with Rule of Law or one where Rule of Law does not matter. If that is the Law Society's position then do what you need to do,” Langford wrote in submissions on penalty quoted in the hearing panel’s decision. “My integrity is intact. I am worried about the Federal Government, the Provincial Government and the Law Society.”
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