Canada Says Peace Work Is Not Tax-Deductible
Alex McAdams / World BEYOND War

(December 29, 2023) — In the United States, if you donate money to World BEYOND War, you can deduct that donation from the amount of money on which you pay taxes to fund the U.S. government, which uses over half of the income taxes it brings in to fund the U.S. military. World BEYOND War will then take that funding and use it to educate people about the need to abolish militaries. So it’s a double whammy for peace.

In Canada, this unfortunately, is not the case and we thought maybe you, as a supporter of building the global peace movement, would be interested in hearing about the process we’ve been dealing with with your neighbors to the north.

Since when did the idea of peace become a biased one?
Since when have we so normalized violence that we accept that there is an arguably better alternative to building peace in the face of conflict?

The Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) seems to believe there might be. In furtherance of mitigating bias, they have codified their absolution from recognizing organizations’ work to defend human rights, support marginalized communities, and further free speech and journalistic integrity among many other vital and worthy causes, including, it turns out, peace building.

World BEYOND War was denied charitable
status for being biased about war
Yet, the CRA does recognize charitable organizations like the HESEG Foundation which provides scholarships and other support to non-Israelis (Lone Soldiers) who join the Israeli military – directly milking Canadian tax payer dollars in support of Israel’s horrific assault on Palestinians – an extremely unjustified and biased “activity”.

But HESEG is not an isolated case. Charities across Canada send a quarter billion dollars a year to projects in Israel, many of which support the Israeli military, racist organizations, and West Bank settlements – theoretically, in contravention of CRA regulations.

Do you see the contradiction in their application of “charitable activities” when determining eligibility?

Taken just at face value, these discrepancies and findings are in direct disagreement with their mandate to “contribute to the ongoing economic and social well-being of Canadians.” But when we look a little deeper, the CRA’s inconsistent processes for making determinations are extremely troubling.

World BEYOND War has recently found itself face to face with this issue.

Last year, after nearly a year awaiting the determination of our application for charitable registration in Canada, we were told by the CRA that there were some questions about the nature of our “charitable activities.” Since then, we’ve spent the last year responding to the CRA’s inquiries, making arguments for the merit and charitable nature of our activities – both subject matter and process – and applying examples of our work to their clunky, arguably vague, and now we know, discriminatory statutory requirements.

In late October of this year, we were told that due to our biased viewpoint, our work did not meet the statutory requirements of eligibility to become a registered charitable organization in Canada. Our application — which we worked on for two years — was denied and automatically withdrawn.

In determining eligibility for charitable registration under the Income Tax Act and Policy CG-030, the CRA’s Charities Directorate has declared “peace” to be a biased viewpoint which violates this section of the policy:

To be charitable, the education advanced by these purposes must meet both the content and process criteria.

The content criteria (education) include:
(i) subject matter is useful and has educational value

(ii) subject matter is not focused on promoting a point of view

We were told that in order to be eligible for Canadian charitable status, World BEYOND War must advance the alternative viewpoint to peace in its educational materials. In short, WBW will not be granted charitable status unless it shows, advances, and educates on the benefits of war.

As an organization founded on the belief that there is an alternative to war in building a just and sustainable security system based in diplomacy and international law, we cannot and will never make an argument that war is necessary, inevitable, or beneficial. And in fact, our work and educational materials actively dispute these claims.

This all goes to say, we are deeply sorry to report to our Canadian allies, activists, and donors that we do not have and likely will not be granted charitable status in Canada. In the meantime, we will advocate for changes to the CRA statutory requirements and its interpretations and we are beginning conversations with potential partners with whom we can work to act as our fiscal sponsor.

We hope to have more to share on this soon. But regrettably, this will not happen before the end of the year when many donors are hoping to get in their year-end contributions. We hope that in spite of this pickle, and maybe even in light of it, you will still consider supporting World BEYOND War this holiday season.