Liberals clearly don’t understand religious charities

The uproar over the Canada Summer Jobs program has exposed a government blind spot. Although it is very responsive to certain perspectives, Ottawa does not seem to recognize or understand the concerns of religious communities.

We have watched with dismay as the government has demanded that religious groups accept their party’s position on charter “values” to get grants for hiring summer students. We have pointed out that the government has been overbroad in its interpretation of other rights such as abortion, yet under-inclusive in its recognition of religious freedoms.

Apparently, support for diversity only extends to those who share the government’s vision.

In response to opposition, the government issued supplementary information that only intensified the confusion. As a result, many religious charities submitted their applications with a note affirming that they respect the current state of the law toward religion. However, those forms were rejected as incomplete. Evidently, the only complete application is one that upholds the government’s viewpoint.

As if that were not enough, it now appears the government is withholding a long-completed Canada Revenue Agency document that contains guidelines for charitable registration under the legal head “advancement of religion.” Given that 33,114 (or 38.4 per cent) of the 86,191 registered charities in Canada are religious charities, this policy clearly concerns a substantial number of Canadians. Despite being used internally for nearly five years, the guidance still has not been released officially.

Last fall, lawyer Mark Blumberg made an access-to-information request for a copy of this document, and once received, published it on his charity law website. According to Blumberg, on or around July 21, 2016, a copy was given to National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier. The CRA memo to the minister stated that the guidance was “in the final stage of the policy development process” and was “scheduled to be published on the CRA charities and giving website in September 2016.” That did not happen. Why?

That is a very important question. Is there something in the document to which the minister or the government objects? If so, what? Conversely, if the government has no problem with the guidance, why has it not been released?

In light of the Canada Summer Jobs controversy, I have taken another more critical look at this unreleased guidance. I believe the government’s reluctance to publish the document illustrates their dismissive attitude toward religious communities.

First, as mentioned, the CRA has been making decisions since 2013 using various unpublished drafts of the guidance. This is problematic, since up until Blumberg’s release, charities with an adverse CRA ruling had no way of fully understanding the CRA’s rationale. Now we have some answers. But why did it take an access to information request to end the secrecy?

Second, the guidance is neither provocative nor revolutionary. It simply summarizes the state of charity law as it relates to the advancement of religion and tells us how the CRA applies the law to specific situations. Indeed, the quality of the guidance suggests the CRA understands religious charity law and has listened to religious communities.

Ay, there’s the rub! Perhaps — admittedly, this is mere speculation, but that is all we have to go on for now — the government has not released the guidance because it is uncomfortable with and doesn’t understand the current status of religious organizations. They may be keeping their options open to change policy for political ends. Who knows?

We don’t — and that is precisely the problem. We should know. As taxpayers and as charities, we deserve to know what the government stance on religious charities is. Given the conflict over the Canada Summer Jobs program, I, for one, am getting nervous about what we will hear next.

Barry Bussey is director of legal affairs for the Canadian Council of Christian Charities.