{"id":104,"date":"2007-03-20T05:59:25","date_gmt":"2007-03-20T05:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rightoncanada.wordpress.com\/2007\/03\/20\/rightoncanada-provides-a-tool-for-advocacy\/"},"modified":"2007-03-20T05:59:25","modified_gmt":"2007-03-20T05:59:25","slug":"rightoncanada-provides-a-tool-for-advocacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/?p=104","title":{"rendered":"RightOnCanada provides a tool for advocacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 20<\/font><\/p>\n

One of the key motivations for setting up www.RightOnCanada.ca<\/a>. <\/font>is to provide citizens with\u00a0an internet-based tool that is\u00a0able to\u00a0advocate and lobby strongly and freely\u00a0on human rights and environmental issues.\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

Most major human rights, international development, environmental and public interest\u00a0organizations in Canada are registered charities under the Income Tax Act. Unfortunately, this Act\u00a0severely restricts\u00a0such organizations\u00a0from doing advocacy\u00a0or lobbying\u00a0work to\u00a0change\u00a0government policies. They are required by the Act to use substantially all\u00a0their resources\u00a0on\u00a0non-advocacy activities.\u00a0A registered charity whose annual income is over $100,000, for example,\u00a0is allowed to use only up to 12% of its resources\u00a0on advocacy.<\/font><\/p>\n

The Income Tax Act\u00a0permits registered charities to\u00a0provide aid\u00a0and carry out education\u00a0activities as ways to address problems of poverty and devastation in the world.\u00a0Yet it restricts them from challenging the policies that cause the poverty and devastation in the first place.<\/font><\/p>\n

The restrictions in the Canada Income Tax Act derive from provisions in the charity law\u00a0of England in the 17th century. Recognizing that these restrictions are profoundly undemocratic, the UK itself and\u00a0other countries have updated their tax laws to allow\u00a0charitable organizations\u00a0more freedom to speak out and lobby government. Minimal changes have been made to the Canadian Income Tax Act.<\/font><\/p>\n

It is well recognized around the world and explicitly stated in\u00a0most United Nations documents that strong, vibrant civil society organizations are one of the most effective foundations for a healthy, democratic society. The ability of independent, civil society organizations to advocate for the public good and the wellbeing of the environment is critical. When this freedom\u00a0is curtailed, governments become less accountable; powerful,\u00a0corporate interests have greater influence; and bad government policy ensues.<\/font><\/p>\n

The restrictions in the Canada Tax Act are among the most draconian and act as a gag on civil society organizations. Organizations have been threatened with having their charitable tax status removed, and some have had it taken away, for carrying out advocacy activities. This acts as a chill on all charitable organizations.<\/font><\/p>\n

Corporations, on the other hand, are free to lobby, spend vast amounts of money on lobbying and\u00a0are given\u00a0tax write-offs for these lobbying activities. Under the Income Tax Act, corporations are rewarded for lobbying; civil society organizations are penalized.<\/font><\/p>\n

This systemic disempowering of civil society voices has made it easier for the government to ignore its human rights and environmental responsabilities. And this is one reason why Canada’s record on human rights and the environment has sunk so low.<\/font><\/p>\n

RightOnCanada is a project of the Rideau Institute on International Affairs, which deliberately does not have charitable tax status in order to be free to carry out much needed advocacy and lobbying work. Our goal is to provide a strategic tool that will allow citizens to challenge the government and together lobby strongly for policies that put human rights and the environment at the top of Canada’s agenda.<\/font><\/p>\n

The need to change the Canada Income Tax Act to allow more democratic freedom for\u00a0registered charities\u00a0to do advocacy and lobbying could be an issue for RightOnCanada to take up. If you have any comments on this or any other issue, let us know.<\/font><\/p>\n

We also welcome your ideas and suggestions on how to make this tool be a dynamic catalyst for citizen action.<\/font><\/p>\n

Kathleen<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 20 One of the key motivations for setting up www.RightOnCanada.ca. is to provide citizens with\u00a0an internet-based tool that is\u00a0able to\u00a0advocate and lobby strongly and freely\u00a0on human rights and environmental issues.\u00a0 Most major human rights, international development, environmental and public interest\u00a0organizations in Canada are registered charities under the Income Tax Act. Unfortunately, this Act\u00a0severely restricts\u00a0such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}