CRA lawyers say Muslim charity audit ‘only reasonable action’ given available information
April 12, 2023
After the Muslim Association of Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency had their days in court, national security expert Huda Mukbil says feds’ risk assessment shows lack of expertise to take ‘concerns to solid conclusions.’
Lawyers representing the government and one of the country’s largest Muslim charities concluded arguments before the Ontario Superior Court last week in the charity’s attempt to halt an audit it says is rooted in “systemic bias” and Islamophobia, and, as a result, is “fundamentally and fatally flawed.”
The Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) is challenging its audit by the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) Review and Analysis Division (RAD), a part of the agency’s charities directorate. The RAD is responsible for delivering the agency’s mandate under the Anti-Terrorism Act to prevent terrorist financing and money laundering in the charitable sector.
In arguments before Justice Markus Koehnen on April 4, lawyers for the charity aimed to demonstrate the RAD audits, which began in 2015, discriminated against Muslims and violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ guarantees of equality and freedom of religion, expression, and association.
To support its arguments, MAC was able to access previously unreleased internal documents from the CRA, including redacted versions of both an Audit Referral Analysis, a risk analysis conducted as the first step in the preparation of a RAD audit; and the Desk Review, a document the audit team uses to guide the process based on the referral analysis.
MAC’s lawyers argued that the CRA relied on “clearly Islamophobic, racist, or otherwise discredited [and] unreliable sources,” pointing to the inclusion of “unverified” blog posts from sites including Point de Bascule, Alternative Angle, and Blazing CatFur; retracted articles by Toronto Sun journalist Brian Daly; and commentary from sources including Jonathan Halevi, a retired lieutenant-colonel and intelligence officer with the Israel Defense Forces; Lorenzo Vidino, a researcher who MAC describes as a “known Islamophobic writer”; and Tom Quiggin, a discredited former military intelligence officer most recently known as one of the leaders of the so-called Freedom Convoy in 2022.
Read the full article: CRA lawyers say Muslim charity audit ‘only reasonable action’ given available information – The Hill Times
By Stuart Benson, The Hill Times
