Muslim charity calls court ruling on audit a green light for government overreach

OTTAWA — A major Muslim charity is calling a new court ruling a green light for government overreach after losing its latest bid to halt a Canada Revenue Agency audit.

The Muslim Association of Canada says the Ontario Court of Appeal decision will allow Ottawa to infringe the Charter rights of Canadians with impunity.

The association, known as MAC, promotes community service, education and youth empowerment, and says over 150,000 Canadians use its mosques, schools and community centres each year.

It contends that a long-running revenue agency audit of its activities is fundamentally tainted by systemic bias and Islamophobia.

The association asked the Ontario Superior Court to halt the audit on the grounds it violates Charter of Rights guarantees of equality and freedom of religion, expression and association.

The federal government argued the case should be dismissed, saying the revenue agency’s selection of the association for an audit and the subsequent examination do not infringe Charter rights.

Last year Superior Court Justice Markus Koehnen dismissed the charity’s bid to stop the audit, saying it was too early to intervene in the federal examination.

Koehnen said while he was sympathetic to many of the association’s arguments, a court should not involve itself in a government body’s process while it is still playing out.

The process includes a possible internal appeal within the revenue agency, as well as a right of appeal to the Tax Court of Canada in the case 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 Appeal Court judges found no error in Koehnen’s decision to dismiss the association’s challenge as premature.

In a statement, the association said the application of the “prematurity principle” imposes extensive legal and administrative costs on charities, leading to financial strain, reduced programming and compromised charitable work.

“Ultimately, this could leave charities unable to effectively challenge Charter violations in court by the end of an audit,” the statement said.

The Court of Appeal ruling is “particularly detrimental to visible minorities and disadvantaged communities, who suffer disproportionately from systemic discrimination by government agencies,” added the association’s Sharaf Sharafeldin.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2024.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press