7 environmental charities face Canada Revenue Agency audits

[Joe Shlabotnik]

The Canada Revenue Agency is currently conducting extensive audits on some of Canada's most prominent environmental groups to determine if they comply with guidelines that restrict political advocacy, CBC News has learned.

If the CRA rules that the groups exceeded those limits, their charitable status could be revoked, which would effectively shut them down.

Many of the groups are among the Conservative government's fiercest critics. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty signalled clearly in his budget of 2012 that political activity of these groups would be closely monitored and he allocated $8 million to the effort. The environmental organizations believe they have been targeted with the goal of silencing their criticism.

Naturally, Pro-oilsands (Astroturf) group filed complaints

McMillan goes on to cite complaints from Ethical Oil , a group that has formally submitted complaints to the CRA about Tides Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation and Environmental Defence.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/7-environmental-charities-face-canada-revenue-agency-audits-1.2526330

Environmental groups under investigation:
The David Suzuki Foundation
Tides Canada
West Coast Environmental Law
The Pembina Foundation
Environmental Defence
Equiterre
Ecology Action Centre

The gloves are off.

[cprise]

1. Wow.

n/t