(Ottawa) After losing its latest attempt to stop an audit of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), a leading Muslim charity says the recent court ruling condones government overreach against it.
The Muslim Association of Canada says the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision will allow Ottawa to violate Charter rights with impunity.
The association, known as MAC, promotes community service, education and youth empowerment, and says more than 150,000 Canadians use its mosques, schools and community centres each year.
She claims a long-running audit of her activities by the tax agency is fundamentally tainted by systemic bias and Islamophobia.
The association has asked the Ontario Superior Court to halt the audit on the grounds that it violates the Charter of Rights’ guarantees of equality and freedom of religion, expression and association.
The federal government argued the case should be dismissed, saying the CRA’s selection of the association for audit and subsequent review did not infringe Charter rights.
Last year, Superior Court Justice Markus Koehnen rejected the charity’s request to stop the audit, saying it was too early to intervene in the federal review.
Judge Koehnen also said that while he agreed with many of the association’s arguments, a court should not get involved in a government agency’s process while it is still ongoing.
The process includes a possible internal appeal within the CRA, as well as a right of appeal to the Tax Court of Canada in the event of financial penalties, and to the Federal Court of Appeal in the event of revocation of charitable status.
In the latest ruling, a panel of appeals court judges found no error in Justice Koehnen’s decision to dismiss the association’s challenge as premature.
In a statement, the association said that applying the “prematurity principle” imposes significant legal and administrative costs on charities, leading to financial hardship, reduced programs and compromised charitable work.
“Ultimately, this could prevent charities from effectively challenging Charter violations in court by the time the audit is completed,” the statement said.
The Court of Appeal’s decision is “particularly harmful to visible minorities and disadvantaged communities, who suffer disproportionately from systemic discrimination by government agencies,” added Sharaf Sharafeldin, a representative for the association.