Court orders CRA to stop setting political limits on charities’ activities
OTTAWA — An Ontario Superior Court judge is telling federal tax authorities they can’t set limits on how much a charity devotes to political activity in a new ruling that grants a win to a national anti-poverty group.
Justice Ed Morgan said in the decision Tuesday that the Canada Revenue Agency could not justify a restriction on charities that they spend no more than 10 per cent of their time on political advocacy, calling it an unconstitutional limit on freedom of expression.
Morgan’s ruling — which begins with the philosophical question, what is political? — says all political activities are charitable activities so long as groups advocate “in pursuit of the overall charitable purpose.”
In the case before him, the purpose of group Canada Without Poverty was to lobby for changes to help homeless people.