Social Policy in Ontario

At last the Trudeau government has called off the attack dogs at the Canada Revenue Agency whose politically mandated audits were preventing Canada’s charities from doing advocacy work.

The announcement came last week in response to a panel report that recommended the audits, initiated by the Harper government, be suspended immediately. That will give the government time to make recommended administrative and legislative changes aimed at giving charities more freedom to speak out on public policy.

This move is long overdue. In his 2015 mandate letter to Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed her to set charities “free from political harassment” and to modernize the rules around “political activity” to ensure charities can continue to “make an important contribution to public debate and public policy.”

Those sentiments were antithetical to the views of former prime minister Stephen Harper. Under his government’s $13.4-million “Political Activities Audit Program,” a host of major charities were under threat by the CRA of losing their charitable tax status simply for speaking out on public issues.

Not coincidentally, it appeared the charities targeted under the 2012 program were the ones speaking out against government policies at the time.

It started with environmental charities such as the David Suzuki Foundation and Environmental Defence. But soon it grew to encompass 60 charities, including some that fight for human rights, like Amnesty International, and others that fight world poverty, such as Oxfam. Not surprising, if the political goal was to shut down public debate, the agency then targeted PEN Canada, which has long advocated for freedom of expression.

Now the hard work begins to ensure charities never have to self-censor themselves again lest they be caught in the crosshairs of a politically inspired tax audit.

To ensure that and to make the rules more transparent, the expert panel outlined four administrative rules and legislative changes necessary to ensure charities can “fully engage, without limitation, in non-partisan public policy dialogue and development.”

One of the changes would lift the restriction limiting a charity’s political activities to 10 per cent of its resources. This makes sense, considering it has never been clear exactly what constitutes a political act.

That wasn’t the only thing unclear in the law, which is perhaps why it was so easy for the Conservative government to use it to stifle charities.

“Problems with the legislative framework and its administration have left the sector and its regulator stuck on a merry-go-round of consultation, clarification and concern for nearly four decades,” the report says.

Now it’s up to Lebouthillier to free charities from political harassment for good by enacting the panel’s recommended changes. It’s time this chapter was closed.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2017/05/07/a-welcome-end-to-charity-audits-editorial.html