Political Activities and Canadian charities

Canadian charities can carry out more political activities than in the past.  It can be important in achieving your mission that your charity conducts political activities. However, there are still many rules that apply, whether from the Income Tax Act (Canada), lobbyist registration legislation, election advertising legislation or foreign interference legislation. We assist Canadian charities in understanding practical issues and the compliance requirements relating to political activities.  If your organization wishes to retain our law firm to assist your charity or non-profit with political activities and compliance requirements for political activities, you can contact us.

Snapshot on Political Activities in the Canadian Charity Sector 2013

We have prepared as part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project this Snapshot on Political Activities in the Canadian Charity Sector 2013. The Snapshot on Political Activities in the Canadian Charity Sector 2013 will be helpful to those who are interested in…

Election 2015 and Canadian charities – article for Hilborn

I recently wrote an article “Election 2015 and Canadian charities” for Hilborn.   Charities that are involved in political activities may find it helpful.  It covers issues such as what political activities can charities be involved with during an election,…

New CRA webpages on political audits and the general audit process

CRA has recently posted two new web pages on Charities and political activities (Budget 2012) and The audit process for charities.   The two pages have some new information and statistics but really are just cogent expressions of the CRA's views.   …

Fundamentals of Political Activities by Canadian Registered Charities

The involvement of charities in political activities has been a major story since 2012. The 2012 Federal Budget introduced new reporting requirements for charities for 2013 but does not fundamentally affect the ability of charities to engage in political activities.…

Toronto Star article on Fraser Institute and political activities

In a recent Toronto Star article entitled “Critics say Fraser Institute letter highlights ‘enormous lack of clarity’ in charity-audit rules” the Toronto Star discusses a letter from the Fraser Institute to supporters. The article raises some interesting points but I…

Political Activity Audits and the CRA Program Update 2015

We have blogged about the CRA Program Update 2015 separately but wanted to focus here on what the update provides in terms of information on the political activity audits of CRA's Charities Directorate.  CRA should be commended for publishing a…

Blumbergs’ Snapshot of the Canadian Charity Sector 2013

We have just released the Blumbergs' Snapshot of the Canadian Charity Sector 2013 as part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project.   The database covers about 83,000 of the 86,000 registered charities in Canada that had filed their T3010 and were processed…

Globe and Mail article “Think tanks need to show us the money”

The Globe and Mail had an article by Konrad ​Yakabuski questioning the degree of transparency about sources of funding with Canadian registered charities that are “think tanks” Here is the Globe and Mail article “Think tanks need to show us the money“.…