Stephen Harper may be gone as prime minister, but his body odour still stinks in the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). A CBC report one week ago revealed that the CRA is still auditing charitable organizations suspected of political activity. The audits all started under Harper’s paranoia about anyone or anything that challenged his priorities. The most flagrant instance of that paranoia was the arbitrary cancelling of $7 million in funding for Kairos, a multi-church coalition focussing on social and economic justice projects with local partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. CIDA, the Canadian International Development Agency, had recommended the funding. Harper’s dutiful Minister of International Co-operation, Bev Oda, reversed that recommendation by handwriting the word “not” into the text before signing and approving it.

Targeting the Unitarians

Last year, before Harper’s defeat, CRA commenced an audit of the Canadian Unitarian Council -- one of 60 charities targeted in a five-year $13.4-million political activities crackdown. Don’t confuse the Canadian Unitarian Council with the international charity, the Unitarian Service Committee, now USC Canada. The founder of the USC, a Czech survivor of Nazi concentration camps, Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova, chose the name largely because Unitarians were seen at the time as non-denominational, thereby qualifying for free public-service advertising on radio stations. Hitschmanova died in 1990, but USC Canada carries on, with 110 staff organizing projects in at least ten “global south” countries, on an annual budget of approximately $5.5 million. By contrast, the Canadian Unitarian Council represents just 46 Unitarian and/or Universalist congregations. It has a total budget of less than $1 million; in 2014, it issued tax receipts for $84,355. Over the last two years it has had to spend $38,000 defending itself from CRA harassment. And what’s the CRA’s complaint? That the Unitarian Council’s by-laws refer to “justice.”

Committed to injustice?

 "Vague purposes are ambiguous and can be interpreted in many different ways," explained the CRA’s compliance letter. As a consequence, the Unitarian Council had to revise its bylaws to remove any references to “justice” and “social justice.” Exactly what else would you expect a charity to work for? Injustice, perhaps?

Well, maybe. The Fraser Institute, which consistently defends the inalienable right of the rich to get richer, also qualifies as a charity. Its website states, “Your gift is tax deductible. Income tax receipts for donations of $10 or more will be issued in accordance with Canadian Revenue Agency regulations.” In other words, an organization that lobbies against government handouts wants to benefit from government handouts. I would bet that the Fraser Institute is not on the CRA’s list of audits.

Political goals rampant

Ostensibly, the CRA wants to crack down on agencies that abuse their charitable privilege to engage in political activity. According to the CBC report, “The CRA previously challenged the wording of the charitable purposes of at least two other groups -- Oxfam Canada and Credit Counselling Services of Atlantic Canada Inc. Both were told they cannot work for the ‘prevention of poverty,’ which is considered political, but can ‘alleviate poverty,’ which is charitable.” Yet the Fraser Institute’s web page invites donors to earmark their support for specific programs: aboriginal policy, economic freedom, government spending and taxes, health care, labour policy, pensions and retirement, poverty, trade and U.S. relations…. Pardon me? You don’t think those are political? The same can be said of the activities of many right-wing church charities. In Canada, same-sex marriages, abortion, and assisted death are all legal. That hasn’t stopped evangelical and Catholic organizations from lobbying vigorously against them.

Justice as an essential quality

I can’t speak for all cultures and heritages, but some sense of justice seems to me central to all religions that trace Jewish or Christian roots. When asked to summarize the core of Jewish law, Jesus quoted two verses from the Torah: to love God, and to love your neighbour. It seems to me you cannot do those without seeking justice. For all, not just for the already privileged. As Mahatma Gandhi (and others) said, "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." But justice does not, apparently, rank very high on the CRA’s agenda. A spokesperson for the CRA, Jelica Zdero, told the CBC that, as of the end of June, 16 political-activity audits were still in process. Citing confidentiality, she refused to identify any of them. I would love to know if even one of them is conservative or evangelical. Harper sent the CRA on his personal witch-hunt. And the CRA doesn’t have the guts to pull the plug now that he’s gone.
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Copyright © 2016 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved. To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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YOUR TURN
I didn’t get much mail about last week’s column, ostensibly about the homeless people in Delhi who had to rent quilts and blankets to find a place to sleep on the pavement at night. It was also about what a parable is, and how one interprets its significance. No one picked up on that side of the story. 
But Bruce McGillis recognized that Delhi is not the only place that doesn’t know how to deal with its poor: “California now has an annual budget of $171 billion, yet here too, they have thousands of poor. Vancouver has the poor, yet I suspect there are jobs. Boosting the minimum to $15/hour will likely only be an advantage for a very few years before inflation and other economics puts it back in the old rut. “I have no answer. I worry too; over Canada sending 1000 troops to Latvia. Another building mess.”

Charles Hill saw the story as “a condemnation of every resident of the city.” Charles tackled the underlying attitudes: “Me, myself, mine -- they need to get an education, get a job, look harder for work, they must have done something bad to lose their job, they aren't related to me, they can't do anything for me. If I helped them, they wouldn't try. If I helped them, I couldn't afford my ‘stuff.’ “It's called capitalism, materialism.... Getting more stuff, looking successful, is more important than a human life. And Jesus shuddered...”

Jane Wallbrown wrote from a unique perspective; she recently moved back to India: “I loved this story. I knew/know nothing of sleep wallahs. I wonder if something like that happens here in Hyderabad. I don't think so, but then, what do I know? I'll share it with the kids and see if they know of this.”
Now to responses to previous letters.

James Russell wrote, ‘Steve Roney certainly knows his Fraser Institute catechism. But maybe he should question it. 1) ‘a free market automatically keeps profits low’. All the time, or at some particular and rare instant? Along the way, profits fluctuate depending on innovation, monopoly power, access to new markets and a wide variety of other factors, including the health of the environment, organizational design, financial arrangements, accounting systems, the education and abilities of workers .... There is nothing ‘automatic’ about the working of human institutions like markets. Are there no Rothschilds? No Soros'? No Trumps? 2) ‘profits are always higher in the public sector’. Clearly, no understanding of the accounting term ‘profits’, which CAN'T apply in government operations. But aside from that quibble: any public sector waste and personal benefits pale beside the reported salary and benefit packages of top private managers, the wasteful pollution of rivers, air and earth by of corporations, the ... Does the man ever read the financial pages? 3) ‘Higher minimum wage means fewer jobs.... the real minimum wage is always zero.’ Indeed. But work for no pay -- slavery -- is not a very productive system. The ‘laws’ of supply and demand require that there be demand -- which disappears when there is no disposable income. To keep the economic engine running, money needs to be available and spent -- no better place to put it than in the hands of those with low wages where it will quickly be spent on goods and services, creating demand -- and jobs. The alternative, I guess would be to have it hoarded in off-shore banks.” James concluded, “Less religion! More economics!”

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TECHNICAL STUFF
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