There is nothing new about charity chill. No party in power wants to be harangued about what they are doing wrong. Mind you the Conservative government has definitely gone overboard in forcing Canada Revenue Agency to conduct expensive audits of charitable organizations that annoy the government.
Over thirty years ago, the Liberal government of the time was also threatening charities. As the then head of a major health agency, some of our board of directors were quite concerned that we might be going too far in defying government edicts about lobbying. This presented a problem when Finance Minister Marc Lalonde cut basic research funding in Canada in a government-wide cost-cutting effort.
A very determined new group called Canadians for Health Research headed by Pat Guyda in Montreal took point in the offensive. The group recognized that they needed some experienced help. They came to this writer and said, will you talk to the Commons Finance Committee for us? Our objectives were the same so why not?
The speech was presented in the Railway Committee Room in the Centre Block of the House of Commons. It was carefully crafted and more of a sermon than a political speech. The lesson for the effort was the late Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ book On Death and Dying. It needed about 20 minutes. Invited to address the committee from beside the chair, the MP leaned over and said, “Peter, can you keep this to five minutes, we need to break for lunch.”
When the speech was finished, 20 minutes later, there was hardly a dry eye in the room. We were not aware of at the time that a senior New Democrat MP took a copy of the speech intended for the news media to the Commons that day and read it into proceedings in Hansard.
The upshot of the matter was that we were all pleasantly surprised when Marc Lalonde’s department suddenly found some extra money to restore the funding for basic health research that year. Mind you we have to continue our vigilance and Canadians for Health Research needs our continued assistance to focus attention on basic health research needs in Canada.
While slightly side-tracked here, we would use a different approach in the case of the current government going after environmental charities. While deeply concerned about our environment and future health of Canadians, we do not see environmental groups as charities. These groups need more freedom. It is our country’s future we are dealing with and we all have to buy in. When collecting money for environmental causes, we are selling shares in our country and our children’s future. This is not charity, this is a duty.
-30-
Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]