The Registered Charity Appeals Process: More Reasons (and a few Proposals) for Reform

Abstract

The current process of challenging decisions of the Canada Revenue Agency’s Charities Directorate has significant shortcomings, which are well-known within the field. A series of committees and scholars have urged Parliament to increase the transparency of the Directorate’s decision-making processes and create a more accessible appeal process for registered charities

In this paper I discuss two developments that have made the case for reforming the charity appeals process even more compelling than before. The first is the Supreme Court of Canada’s overhaul of the judicial review framework in Canada (MCI) v Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65; the second, the trend towards public law challenges to the registered charity regime in the superior courts. I also outline possible options for reform of the current Canadian model. Among other things, I
consider whether elements of the English charity law reference procedure could be
accommodated within the ITA registered charity regime

Keywords: charity law; appeals process; Canada Revenue Agency; law reform