How can Springtide issue charitable tax receipts for this work? Aren’t charities prohibited from political activity like this?

A:

A: We (Springtide) had a similar concern when we first considered this project. The kind of political activity registered charities like ours can be involved in is limited by the Canada Revenue Agency. But,litigation is not considered a political activity under the CRA's policy statement on political activities (CPS-022).

In fact, it has been well established in Canadian case-law that upholding the administration and enforcement of the law is charitable, and doing so is one of the purposes of Springtide, alongside research and education about Canadian democracy. 


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Key Events in the Case:

  • We're currently awaiting the appeal decision (expected in spring 2025)
  • We presented our appeal in the Court of Appeal for Ontario in November 2024
  • We submitted our appeal factum in April 2024.
  • We filed our Notice of Appeal in December 2023.
  • Justice Ed Morgan issued his ruling in November 2023 and unfortunately dismissed our application.
  • The case was heard in September 2023 in the Ontario Superior Court.
  • We received the government's affidavits in fall 2022.
  • We served the government with our affidavit and evidence package in May 2021.
  • We filed the case with the Ontario Superior Court in October 2019.

How you can help

The main way you can help is to support the case financially. We are now asking for pledges totalling $60,000 to support us appealing to the Supreme Court of Canada, if they grant us leave to appeal in mid-2025.

What to expect

At each step, we set new pledge or donation goals based on our estimate of the costs for the next stage of the process, and invite our supporters to contribute towards that goal to ensure the case can continue to move forward. We don't ask for or collect funds until we're sure we're going to take the associated step.