Revenue Agency's discriminatory and secretive targeting of Muslim charities amounts to prejudice and profiling, says civil liberties coalition

OTTAWA, ON, June 9, 2021 /CNW/ - A secretive division within the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is targeting Muslim charities for audits, and even revocation, amounting to an approach that is prejudiced and lacks substantiation, according to new findings released today by the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG).

The findings are included in the report, The CRA's Prejudiced Audits: Counter-Terrorism and the Targeting of Muslim Charities in Canada, available at iclmg.ca/prejudiced-audit. It reveals how, as Canada ramped up attempts to counter terrorist financing after the September 11 attacks in the US, the CRA and its Charities Directorate were enlisted to monitor the work of Muslim charities in Canada under the premise that they pose the greatest terror financing risk.

This work has been carried out largely in secret, with little to no outside review or public substantiation of the so-called risk posed by Muslim charities, allowing for the profiling and targeting of them to go largely unnoticed and unchallenged.

"The result is that the federal government has essentially defined a charity's 'faith' as its connection to, or propensity for, involvement in terrorist financing," said Tim McSorley, coordinator of the ICLMG coalition and author of the report.

Among its finding, the report demonstrates how:

• The Canadian government's risk assessment for terrorism financing in the charitable sector focuses almost exclusively on Muslim charities, and entirely on charities based in racialized communities, with little to no public substantiation of the risk;
• This risk assessment is used to justify surveillance, monitoring and audits of leading Muslim charities on questionable grounds;
• The CRA division carrying out these audits operates largely in secret, in tandem with national security agencies, with little to no accountability and no independent review;
• These policies have resulted in the revocation of the charitable status of Muslim charities operating both domestically and internationally, harming the sector and impacting the Muslim community.

This work is led by the CRA's Review and Analysis Division (RAD). Little information about RAD's work is public, but it is central to the monitoring and auditing of charities, and shares information with other national security agencies including CSIS and the RCMP.

Prejudiced Audits reveals that from 2008 to 2015, 75% of the charities revoked following RAD audits were Muslim charities, and that at least another four charities have had their status revoked by RAD since 2015. It is unknown how many others are under investigation. Despite these revocations, not a single Muslim charitable organization, or individual associated with one, has been charged with a terrorist financing crime.

Not only are Muslim organizations being targeted by the government with questionable and unfounded allegations of financing terrorism, the process of an audit, and possible revocation, has created a chilling effect that is undermining and harming the Canadian Muslim charitable sector. The impact also has ramifications for the security and well-being of people across Canada.

The report demonstrates a grave lack of transparency and accountability on the part of the CRA, and practices targeting Muslim communities amounting to systemic racism. However, while there have been calls to address these issues in other areas of national security and law enforcement, no such scrutiny has been placed on the CRA.

As a result of the findings, ICLMG is calling on Minister of National Revenue Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair and Charities Directorate head Tony Manconi to take immediate action, including  suspension of RAD's activities until a thorough, independent review is carried out, ideally by the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency. The Finance Ministry must also revisit the problematic conclusions of the 2015 National Risk Assessment, and legislative and policy changes be put in place to ensure greater transparency and accountability going forward.

The ICLMG is urging the public to learn more and take action at https://iclmg.ca/prejudiced-audit.

What is being said about the report and its findings:

"ICLMG's report, Prejudiced Audits, raises specific questions about the targeting of Muslim charities in Canada for surveillance and audit within the framework for addressing terrorist financing. It also raises wider, troubling questions regarding the degree to which our national security legal regime has the correct safeguards in place to ensure information sharing between  the CRA and national security agencies is necessary and proportionate, and regarding fundamental accountability and transparency gaps in the exercise of CRA's wide discretionary powers when that agency acts as part of Canada's national security apparatus," said Brenda McPhail, Director, Privacy, Technology & Surveillance Project, Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

About ICLMG: An Ottawa-based national coalition of Canadian civil society organizations established to protect and promote human rights and civil liberties in the context of national security and anti-terrorism laws.

SOURCE The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG)

Tim McSorley, ICLMG National Coordinator, 613-241-5298