BAKLINSKI: Faith under fire... what it would mean if Ottawa ended religious charitable tax exemption

Pete Baklinski is the Communications Director for Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s national pro-life organizationThe federal government recently received a committee proposal to strip religious organizations, including Christian organizations, of their charitable status, a move which, if adopted, would target the very foundation of our country’s faith communities and absolutely obliterate them. The move would also affect any other religious organizations that claim charitable status, whether they be Jewish, Muslim, or any other religion. It must be stated clearly that this isn’t just some banal proposal — it’s a direct assault on religious freedom and the values that have built this nation, founded, as our Charter states, on principles that “recognize the supremacy of God.”In short, if this proposal were to be adopted, the impact would simply be catastrophic: churches would close as the Canadian Revenue Agency would seize their assets; food banks run by churches — gone; shelters, addiction recovery programs, and youth ministries — shut down; Christian voices in the public square — silenced. This is more than an issue of taxation — it’s an attack on our Canadian way of life. If we don’t oppose this now, the consequences will be irreversible. What exactly is this proposal, and how did it become a federal recommendation? Very quietly, some days before Christmas, a Finance Committee report was tabled in the House of Commons that called upon the Government of Canada to implement hundreds of recommendations in the upcoming 2025 federal budget. Alarmingly, two recommendations from the December 13 report included that the government strip religious organizations along with pro-life organizations of their charitable status.Among the over 400 recommendations from the committee, two of them, 429 and 430, recommended respectively that the government: “No longer provide charitable status to anti-abortion organizations,” and that it “Amend the Income Tax Act to provide a definition of a charity which would remove the privileged status of ‘advancement of religion’ as a charitable purpose.”The BC Humanist Association, an organization that exists to advance the goals of atheists and agnostics and which claims that one “can be good without god [sic],” took credit at the beginning of January for submitting the recommendations last July. It’s not surprising to see an anti-God organization submit the recommendations. What is surprising, however, is that a government committee included such anti-Christian proposals in its report. The committee included members from all the major political parties who, apparently, supported these recommendations. While the Conservative Party had a dissenting opinion in the report, it did not mention or oppose these charitable status recommendations. Father Raymond J. de Souza was not using rhetoric in a December 29 piece in the National Post that the proposals, if adopted, would cause the “obliteration of the charitable sector” across Canada.Over 40 percent of our country’s registered charities advance religion. If these 32,000 religious charities — including churches and religious-based groups which operate soup kitchens, shelters, refugee homes, and food banks — were to suddenly lose their charitable status, they would be forced, according to Canadian law, to pay a revocation tax, which is predetermined to be equal to 100 percent of the value of the organization’s remaining assets. The only way to avoid this tax is for the organization to transfer all remaining assets to another registered charity, none of which would be Christian-based, something that most Christian charities would rather avoid doing. To understand just how devastating this would be, it is key to understand that the revocation tax effectively captures the total value of the religious group’s buildings, properties, funds, and other assets (bank accounts, savings, investments, vehicles, equipment, furnishings, etc,) ensuring they cannot simply remain with the organization or be used for non-charitable purposes. For example, imagine a church with charitable status owns a building worth $1 million, has $100,000 in savings, and has furnishings and equipment valued at fifty thousand dollars. In this scenario, upon revocation of charitable status, the revocation tax would be $1,150,000 dollars, which the church would need to pay to the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) to maintain ownership of these assets — something that would be impossible to carry through, unless, perhaps, through a private loan or some other financial assistance, such as a community fundraising drive. If the religious group or church cannot pay the revocation tax, the CRA has the power to seize and liquidate any and all assets to satisfy the tax debt. Given the likelihood that many, if not most, religious groups would be unable to pay such a tax by means of a loan or some other kind of financial assistance, their properties, buildings, and assets would be seized by the government.This proposal, if adopted, could easily become the historical equivalent of Thomas Cromwell seizing extensive tracts of land and wealth from English monasteries during the Reformation under the orders of Henry VIII as part of the King’s maniacal effort to obliterate the power and influence of the Catholic Church in his country. Historian George Bernard has called the dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s “one of the most revolutionary events in English history.” The King’s 1534 Act of Supremacy that allowed him to engage in these actions ushered in a persecution of the Church that resulted in the execution of hundreds who refused to comply, including, famously, Thomas More and John Fisher — both recognized as martyrs and saints in the Catholic Church.Christian groups in Canada are already raising a voice of alarm about the proposals. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has warned that the proposal, if adopted, “would have a far-reaching and devastating impact — on religious charities, the people they serve, and Canadian society,” adding that the measure would “destabilize the charitable sector in Canada.” The Christian Legal Fellowship is urging the government to “abandon” the proposal, stating that, if adopted, the “consequences would be devastating.”All that could happen to our country’s indispensable faith-based charities could also happen to pro-life charitable organizations if these measures are adopted. It is absolutely crucial that whoever will be leading the federal government when the time comes to visit these proposals resolutely reject them for the good of our country and its citizens. If you are concerned about this attack on Christianity in our country, it is urgent that you contact your MP and demand that they oppose these proposals. You can find your local MP on the House of Commons website here.It’s been wisely said that the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Now is the time to act. Now is the time to raise your voice and make a difference. Canada is a Christian nation founded under the supremacy of God. Our country is worth saving. We sing in our national anthem: “God keep our land glorious and free!” Now is the time for patriots who love God and country to take up this anthem as a prayer to save our Canada.Pete Baklinski is the Communications Director for Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s national pro-life organization. He has a master's degree in theology and lives in Ontario with his wife Erin and their nine children.

BAKLINSKI: Faith under fire... what it would mean if Ottawa ended religious charitable tax exemption

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