Editor’s note: This is the first piece in a series about advocacy work in our sector. How charities and non-profits engage in policy and political advocacy has been an important topic of conversation topic for some time, and one The Philanthropist has engaged in through past writing, including a short series in 2016. The recent legislative change removing limits…
Note du rédacteur : Cet article est le premier d’une série sur la défense des intérêts dans notre secteur. Depuis quelque temps, il est beaucoup question de l’engagement des organismes de bienfaisance et des OSBL en ce qui a trait aux plaidoyers liés aux politiques publiques — The Philanthropist a déjà abordé le sujet dans le…
At the beginning of a new term of Parliament and almost a dozen years after former Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a historic apology for Canada’s residential schools policy, Marie Wilson has a simple but critical question: what’s happened to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 calls to action? As one of the TRC commissioners,…
In 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada heard an appeal that drove right to the heart of then-Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin’s philosophy about the role of the courts in society. The case involved a custody dispute between a BC couple. Facing a 10-day hearing, the mother found she’d have to pay a $3,600 court fee…
This column marks the introduction of a new editorial feature in The Philanthropist – a bi-weekly digest of news items from, and about, Canada’s charitable and non-profit sectors. It will appear on both the website and in this email to our subscribers. You can subscribe for free here. If you have tips or story ideas,…
It was a big number or, more precisely, a yawning gap. In 2010, parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a 10-year strategic plan with 20 targets, one of which called on signatories to protect at least 17% of all terrestrial areas and inland waterways, as well as 10% of marine areas, within…
Photo credit: Senate of Canada Just months after Ottawa set up an advisory body to look at the future of Canadian charities, a Senate committee this week released a 190-page report with a sweeping range of legal and policy reforms that, its members say, are necessary to ensure the health of a sector that generates…
When a group of Prince Edward County residents decided to establish a community foundation for the pastoral rural island region in eastern Ontario in 2008, they began not with an endowment, as is typically the case, but only a concept and, well, crossed fingers. The region has a few towns and an urban hub, Picton,…
Quand un groupe de résidents du Comté du Prince-Édouard ont décidé de constituer une fondation communautaire pour une région pastorale-rurale d’une île de l’est ontarien, en 2008, il n’a pas d’abord créé un fonds de dotation (habituelle façon de faire), mais uniquement un concept… et s’est croisé les doigts. La région comptait quelques petites municipalités…
When the federal government released its Fall Economic Statement in November, it signaled what many in Canadian philanthropic circles would regard as a sea-change in Ottawa’s thinking about a sector that employs more than two million Canadians and accounts for 8% of the country’s GDP. After years of dealing with everything from outmoded legislation to…