February 20, 1998 - Historic Supreme Court Intervention- Multicultural Organizations Challenge Charitable Status

The Canadian Ethnocultural Council(CEC), The Centre For Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) and the Minority Advocacy and Rights Council (MARC) intervened as a group in the Supreme Court case of the Vancouver Society of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women v. Minister of Revenue. The Vancouver-based non-profit organization was denied charitable status because its activities - training, counseling, support and advocacy for immigrant and visible women - were not deemed charitable under Revenue Canada's definition of charity. The CEC, CRARR and MARC believe that the current federal policy on charity, which is derived from the Elizabethan statutes of 1601 and 1891 Pemsel case from Great Britain, is too restrictive and needs to respond to the realities of Canada's multicultural and multiracial society and the new economic climate. The outcome of this case could have profound impact on charities across Canada. According to the executives of the three organization, " If the federal government wants non-profit organizations like ours to seek alternative funding from the private sector so that we can be more creative, independent and self-reliant, it needs to make its charitable policy more flexible and accessible for ethnocultural communities and organizations. The policy has to reflect the spirit of the equality rights section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the tenets of the Canadian Multiculturalism Act".