The conservative attack dog, whose attacks on environmental charities precipitated "political activities" audits by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), has now turned his attention to Muslim mosques and Justin Trudeau.
While it is too late to turn back politicization of CRA's Charities Directorate with regard to environmental issues, the success that political conservatives have enjoyed with CRA auditors advancing their partisan agendas cannot be allowed to extend further, to attacks based on unsubstantiated allegations of terrorist activities.
Cathy Hawara, Director-General of the Charities Directorate, has told the Globe and Mail that "what you might call political leanings" is considered in selecting charities for audit. The national press has talked about the influence that complaints filed with Charities Directorate by EthicalOil.org has had on the selection process.
As a charity lawyer, I have read (on a solicitor client basis) registered letters to Ms. Hawara, written on EthicalOil.org letterhead, calling for the Charities Directorate to audit the specified charity. The recipient was not an environmental charity. The letters are written with a great deal of charity law knowledge and are designed to push every "political activities" hot button. The letters display much less knowledge of the facts with regard to the alleged activities of the impugned charity than knowledge of the most restrictive interpretation of charity law.
My fear is that Ezra Levant is seeking to duplicate his political success against environmental charities by fomenting complaints against Muslim charities. His attacks on Justin Trudeau are being publicized by Veteran Affairs Minister Julian Fantino and given coverage by the CBC.
Steven Blaney, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, tweeted "It's unacceptable that Trudeau would associate w a group that allegedly radicalizes Cdns to join Al-Qaeda & engage in violent extremism."
It is shameful that the Minister of Public Safety thinks that the issue of a politician attending a mosque is something to be reduced to a partisan Twitter attack.
On February 9, 2012, then Public Safety Minister Vic Toews released Canada's counter-terrorism strategy entitled "Building Resilience Against Terrorism" (via Internet Archive). The following week, I wrote a piece on Huffington Post pointing out that it did not once refer to CRA, an omission that was striking because CRA is well-positioned to be on the frontlines of the Canadian counter-terrorism movement. Further, CRA was not included in the list of 20 government agencies that play a role in counter-terrorism.
In mid-2013, the Minister of Public Safety re-wrote "Building Resilience Against Terrorism." The revised edition says that the Charities Directorate reviews applications and conducts audits in order to detect and address risks to the charitable sector. It also changed Schedule A to include the Charities Directorate in the list.
It is ludicrous that a government that overlooks the important role that the Charities Directorate should play in dealing with terrorism has the hubris to ridicule Justin Trudeau as not being ready to provide leadership. Justin should be commended for interacting with mosques as just another institution in the fabric of Canadian society prior to a problem being alleged.
I would also be much happier if the Canadian government had enough respect for its own sovereignty to have Canadian government agencies investigate and establish allegations of terrorist activities inside Canada. How can ordinary Canadians have confidence in a Minister of Public Safety who tweets for partisan advantage based upon foreign intelligence reports that are over three years old?
The issues relating to any threats from "home-grown Islamic extremism" are real and complex. They merit more consideration than a partisan tweet.
The Director General of the Charities Directorate says that it is "always a bit tricky" to determine the political leanings of registered charities. One can only hope that when it comes to evaluating audit targets for mosques she does not take her guidance from ministerial tweets or submissions from agencies carrying out the ideology of provocateurs like Ezra Levant.
The charity audit process is more than "a bit tricky." The stakes in terrorism audits of religious institutions are much greater than those in political activities audits of environmental institutions. It behooves the Charities Directorate to apply greater sophistication and fairness to this process than has been demonstrated to date.
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