Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government announced recently it had revoked the charitable status of two highly respected Jewish organizations, prompting questions about why this was done now.
As Postmedia columnist Warren Kinsella revealed recently, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the Ne’eman Foundation have both had their charitable status revoked, ostensibly for violating obscure sections of the Income Tax Act.
The JNF has operated in Canada for 123 years. Among other objectives, it raises funds to plant trees and build infrastructure in Israel. The Ne’eman Foundation helps firefighters and paramedics and aims to eliminate poverty in Israel.
Sharmila Khare, head of the “charities directorate,” published a notice in the Canada Gazette that the charitable status of the two organizations had been revoked. That’s a death knell for the two organizations in this country, as they’re no longer able to give tax receipts for cash raised here.
The timing is questionable.
Anti-Semitism and hatred toward the Jewish community have never been higher. Why would the government revoke the charitable status of a respected Jewish charity now, after more than a century of operating in this country?
At the same time, the government granted charitable status to pro-Palestinian organizations.
The JNF is suing Minister of National Revenue Marie-Claude Bibeau, saying the move is “flawed and fundamentally unfair.”
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), the union representing Canada Revenue Agency bureaucrats, posted on X: “As the union representing over 17,000 CRA professionals and an organization that will always stand for human rights, we commend CRA’s decision to revoke the Jewish National Fund’s charitable status.”
That’s inappropriate for bureaucrats, who are supposed to be impartial servants of the people — all the people. Including those who donate to Jewish charities. Politicians are the decision-makers.
Another PIPSC post said: “No organization that uses tax-deductible donations to support war or genocidal efforts in an occupied territory should be able to benefit from Canadian charitable status.”
Again, surely the job of bureaucrats is neither to applaud nor disapprove of government policy. Their role is to implement the rules created by politicians.
The Trudeau government should beware: The other tax-deductible donations are those made to political parties. They may have difficulty persuading voters to support them with their cash come the next election.