ADVOCACY & LOBBYING A QUICK GUIDE TO THE LAW

Transcription

1 ADVOCACY & LOBBYING A QUICK GUIDE TO THE LAW Presentation to Public Policy Training Institute Calgary January 2015

2 Disclaimer I am not a lawyer and cannot give legal advice. The information in this slide is legal information, publicly available. If in doubt, obtain professional advice

3 Different animals Charitable Activities Political Activities Lobbying

4 There s a chill in the air

5 What s going on? There is more of this than this

6 The realities #1 Advocacy chill is a result of ignorance, not government policy #2 There ARE audits around political activities 60 from among 86,000 charities

7 Quick check What do you want to do that you think you can t do?

8 There s good news and bad news Good news: You can probably do more than you think you can The bad news: You have to know what your charitable purposes are

9 What laws and rules apply? Political activities policy (CRA) applicable only to registered charities Lobbying Act (Canada) Provincial lobbyist legislation Municipal initiatives under consideration in various places

10 Political Activities policy Applies to all registered charities in Canada Can impact work in Canada as well as outside the country Penalties for violation can range up to revocation of registration Not nearly as Draconian as made out to be

11 Origins Prohibition on charities being operated for political purposes goes back close to a century Courts in England and Canada have said they have no means of judging whether a proposed change in the law will or will not be for the public benefit. Recently, courts in Australia and New Zealand have signaled this may no longer be good law; England Charity Tribunal has given signals, awaiting right case. No Canadian case yet

12 Note the difference Purposes are not the same thing as activities

13 What s political? To further the interests of a particular political party To procure changes in the laws of this country To procure changes in the laws of a foreign country To procure a reversal of government policy or of particular decisions of government authorities in this country or a foreign country

14 The 10% rule Prior to early 80s, some believed there was an absolute prohibition on political activities Income Tax amended to allow some political activities: substantially all of a charity s resources needed to be used for charitable purposes

15 The Myth Lots of charities have been/are being deregistered for advocacy activities Lots of organizations are being refused registration because they are advocacy organizations

16 The Reality Joint Regulatory Table found that in the period from , the average number of charities deregistered for cause was 5 Very few court cases on political activities in the last decade No evidence that there were (or are) significant refusals because of advocacy It s all in the language

17 2003 Rewrite Background Working Together report Advocacy specifically excluded from JRT work Working Group on Advocacy IMPACS All this led to the Alternative Mechanism

18 CPS-022 Charitable activities Do it as much as you want; no limit; costs count toward disbursement quota Political activities Falls within the 10% rule (which can be up to 20% in certain cases) Prohibited activities

19 Prohibited Partisan political activities

20 Charitable vs allowable Is there a call to action? No it s charitable Yes it s allowable, within the 10% rule Call to action explicitly encouraging public to contact officials to retain/oppose/change law, policy or decision explicitly communicates there should be change explicitly indicates in material that the intention is to push for change

21 CCVO In Brief

22 CCVO In Brief - more

23 And examples

24 Lobbyist Legislation Canada Charities covered Threshold total lobbying effort must exceed 20% of the hours of a FTE Alberta Total exemption for charities and public good non-profits

25 So. Instead of this Try this

26 Questions?