Dying with Dignity to lose charitable status
OTTAWA — The federal government is about to pull the plug on the charitable status of Dying With Dignity Canada, a leading voice in the national debate on physicianassisted death.
Based on a recent audit, the Canada Revenue Agency has ruled that the organization should never have been registered as a charity because its activities have always had a political purpose: “to expand choice in dying.”
Founded in 1982, Dying With Dignity Canada bills itself as a “health and education charity focused on promoting choice and dignity at end of life.”
But in a letter to the charity delivered last week, the federal revenue agency said the organization was registered “in error” and will have its charitable tax status stripped in mid-February.
Dying With Dignity Canada will continue as a non-profit organization. Donations to non-profit groups are not tax deductible.
Wanda Morris, chief executive officer of Dying with Dignity Canada, said the organization offers Canadians information about advance care planning and patients’ rights while also providing individual support for people at the end of their lives.
The organization is best known for making the moral and legal case for physician-assisted death.
“We’ve been a registered charity for 30 years and we’ve previously had an audit — so this was not anticipated,” said Morris, who refused to speculate about whether the audit and its conclusion were politically motivated. The board is now exploring ways to raise money as a non-profit. “We’re confident that we can continue,” she said.
Federal auditors examined the organization’s expenditures in 2011 and 2012 and concluded that more than 80 per cent of them were devoted to non-charitable activities, such as political activism, fundraising and administration.
It found that Dying With Dignity Canada does not conduct “any activities advancing education in the charitable sense.”