[Last] Friday’s editorial comment was long on hyperbole but short on fact.
Basically it was a lame attempt to justify yet another foolish move by the new government, which seems to make it a policy to undo many of the good initiatives of the previous administration.
The audits by CRA were not politically driven, but simply long overdue action to make the phony “charity” industry follow the rules.
They performed audits on about 60 organizations based mainly on complaints.
Included were some of the worst offenders, (The David Suzuki Foundation, Sierra Club, West Coast Environmental Law, etc.) that receive substantial funding from overseas and do not engage in charitable or philanthropic work at all, their activities are only advocacy and environmental lobbying.
To even suggest that the targeted groups have “limited funds and cannot undergo the rigours of an audit” is laughable.
These organizations are in reality large corporations with huge income from such giants as Tides US, Rockefeller Funds, and Oak Foundation.
Indeed registered charities by definition are created to help a particular group or cause, however, in the case of the audited organizations, the only particular group or cause they helped was the activist agenda. Whose only goal is to cause disruption and eventually destroy our vital petrochemical industries.
As well, they provided a lot of funding to any political party that opposed the Conservatives. In fact many of the offending “charities” were on Election Canada’s Registered Third Parties list, even though it’s illegal to accept foreign funds for political purposes!
Suggesting that they serve a useful purpose by trying to solve problems using their “experts”, is a bit like asking Elmer Fudd to give advice on how to catch wabbits.
The great majority of the activists are not technical people and do not produce credible reports.
The constant barrage of anti-energy propaganda, and climate change hysteria are generated by those with no scientific credentials whatsoever.
Unfortunately only five have had their status revoked, but I’m sure the current government will direct CRA to devote more attention to auditing other wealthy groups…like the taxpayer.
What is truly un-Canadian is the practice of turning a blind eye to special groups such as the primarily U.S based foundations that are funding multimillion-dollar campaigns against Canadian energy projects.
Bob Jones
Duncan