Charities warned to remain vigilant

By DEBORAH GYAPONG

OTTAWA (CCN) -- A prominent Canadian public intellectual has set off alarm bells with the suggestion the Catholic Church and other religions that don't comply with so-called Canadian values should lose their charitable tax status.

Daniel Cere, who heads the McGill University Institute for the Study of Marriage, Law, and Culture, sees "troubling features" in the "growing conversation about religious freedom" in Canada, especially in an article in the Fall 2006 edition of the Literary Review of Canada by Janice Gross Stein, a political scientist who directs the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Affairs.

Entitled "Living better multiculturally," and headlined "Whose values should prevail?" the essay raised a series of questions about multiculturalism and religious freedom, when religions have values that go against what Stein described as Canadian values or Charter values.

Focusing on equality for women, she wrote mostly about her own Conservative Jewish synagogue and her efforts to change its traditional attitudes towards women. She questioned whether religions like her own should get charitable tax breaks.

"If religious institutions are able to raise funds more easily because governments give a tax benefit to those who contribute, are religious practices against women a matter only for religious law, as is currently the case under Canadian law, which protects freedom of religion, or should the values of

Despite Charter, courts restricting group rights

the Charter and of human rights commissions across Canada have some application when religious institutions are officially recognized and advantaged in fund-raising?" she wrote.

"Does it matter that the Catholic Church, which has special entitlements given to it by the state and benefits from its charitable tax status, refuses to ordain women as priests?" she asked.

"That's new," Cere said. Five years ago, any mention of charitable status would have been a taboo topic, but now a mainstream public intellectual is talking about using the courts, the "weapon of rights," to pressure religions to conform to so-called Canadian values.

Constitutional lawyer Peter Lauwers said Stein's article is advocating the abrogation of freedom of religion as we understand it. "Freedom of religion is about creating social space in which religious bodies can be themselves."

"The role of the state is not to impose its views about religion on anybody," he said, noting religious issues are to be worked out within the community of faith.

Lauwers said Stein "crossed the line" in advocating the power of the state to force change on religious bodies. When that happens, "The state is no longer being neutral but coercing religious bodies."

One of Canada's foremost charitable tax law experts, Terrance Carter, said he did not believe the Church's charitable status is "a current concern," nor does he see a political will to go after churches' tax status.

He said that so far Canada's courts are doing a good job balancing rights, including religious freedom. He noted the amendment in the same-sex marriage legislation that is intended to protect the charitable status of those religious bodies that hold a traditional view of marriage.

He also said the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is showing sensitivity and care in interpreting the law.

However, he urged religious institutions to be vigilant and proactive to protect the erosion of charitable status. "Long term, sure, anything can change. Anything."

Carter noted that the state has taken over many activities that were formerly religious activities, such as the care for the poor. He agreed that Canada is losing some of the previous widespread consensus that religion was a social good.

Religious freedom is being narrowed from a group right to an individualistic notion that narrows religious freedom to conscience rights, Cere said. He noted the Charter affirms both religious freedom and conscience rights, but that interpretations in the courts are narrowing the understanding of group rights for religions.