Canadians have become accustomed – especially with President Donald Trump presiding over his country’s fall from grace on the world stage – to hearing almost embarrassingly glowing reviews of our nation as a global bastion of democracy, tolerance, and good governance. So it is somewhat sobering to read, in none other than The Washington Post,…
Strategy: Legal and Regulatory
Regulating Charities: The Inside Story, Myles McGregor-Lowndes and Bob Wyatt, eds, New York, Routledge, 2017, ISBN 978-1-315563-92-3 Regulating Charities: The Inside Story is a text that is not about the regulation of charities; it is about the inside story(ies) that illustrates why there is no regulation of charities. This comment is not a criticism…
This article has been adapted from a keynote address to the Canadian Bar Association symposium on charity law, held in Toronto on May 12, 2017. Many people have heard of the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone is so named because it was uncovered in the Egyptian town of Rosetta in 1799 by French soldiers of…
The Public-Private Nature of Charity Law, by Kathryn Chan, Oxford and Portland, Oregon, Hart Publishing, 2016, ISBN 978-1-78225-848-3 The 19th century social reformer Lord Brougham, commenting on opposition to the establishment of a regulatory apparatus for charities, said: Th[e] law [of England] regards the inheritance of the poor as a matter of public, not…
The following paper is the culmination of The Philanthropist’s series “Canadian Charities Working Internationally,” which began in March 2015. In it, Toronto charity lawyer Andrew Valentine outlines the challenges with the current “direction and control” rules that apply to Canadian charities working abroad. He also presents proposals to reform the system, ranging from simple administrative…
Recent high profile debate over regulation of registered charities’ political activities is only part of broader sector concern about onerous Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requirements with respect to other aspects of registered charities’ operations, such as reporting obligations, and constraints over foreign activities or on operating through intermediaries. Additionally, what is required and reviewed under…
Canada has the most generous tax incentives for charitable giving in the world, but their nature and extent are largely unknown to Canadians. Why does this paradox exist? There are practical issues that shape our understanding of charitable tax incentives and some practical benefits. For starters, it is helpful to understand that the Canadian tax…
This article is the fifth in a series on Poverty and Human Rights in Canada. SUMMARY: This article addresses the regulatory challenges posed by human rights approaches to charity, focusing specifically on the charity/politics distinction. It develops a simple point, which is that Canadian charity law is currently ill equipped to apply the charity/politics distinction…
Abstract: Canadian charity law has not developed with the clarity and certainty currently found in similar law in many other countries. A new organization, The Pemsel Case Foundation, has been constituted to undertake research about the law of registered and common law charities and qualified donees, conduct education pertaining to that research, and make amicus curiae…
I. INTRODUCTION Organizations that meet the requirements of paragraph 149(1)(1) are often referred to as “non-profit organizations” (“NPOs”). This article provides an overview of the law and Canada Revenue Agency’s (“CRA”) positions on the requirements of paragraph 149(1)(1), with an emphasis on several recent technical interpretations that appear to narrow the circumstances in which CRA…