Gail Shea, Minister of National Revenue
Gail Shea, Minister of National Revenue Kings Glory Fellowship
Room 556, Confederation Building 1740 – 25a Street SW
Ottawa, ON Calgary, AB
K1A 0A6 T3C 1J9
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Dear Mam:
We are writing to you regarding our situation with the CRA. Here is the background. Our church had charity status for about 26 years with no problems with the government during that time. In 2009, our charity status was revoked with the reason given being that we filed our year ends too late. That is fair. We then reapplied to have our status restored.
On October 29, 2009, we received a letter from CRA agent Dian Prodanov indicating that, "the applicant has not shown that it qualifies to become a registered charity under the income tax act" and that’s where our status remains to this day, even after filing three appeals with the CRA, which we are still waiting for a satisfactory response to our appeals. The last correspondence from CRA was a year ago indicating that within six to eight months a decision would be made on our case, yet when I spoke to a CRA agent two weeks ago, I was told that our case was not even assigned to an agent of the CRA that would be responsible for the decision.
On the surface of our case, there is apparently nothing unusual about it, until you get into the specifics about why we were denied the ability to have our status restored, namely, that the CRA cited our religious expression (supposedly protected under the charter) as the reason for our status reinstatement problems – "that the members of the Board of Directors espouse strong negative views about sensitive and controversial issues, which may also be viewed as political, such as abortion, homosexuality, divorce, etc." Firstly, I was not aware that the CRA has become an arm of the Human Rights Commissions of Canada, where censorship of thought and speech is commonplace, and secondly the government has the obligation to guard and defend our democratic traditions, and our Charter protected and "fundamentally guaranteed" rights to freedom of religion, freedom of conscience and freedom of expression.
This letter is a formal complaint against Dian Prodanov and whoever else was involved in this clear attempt to muzzle and scare religious leaders in exercising their rights to preach and teach about the entire content of the Bible.
There are many who have contacted us, demonstrating a great concern about these events, to enquire about how and why this happened. They have all expressed how much of an infringement on our fundamental freedoms this is. They are all very concerned about the implications of such a refusal of charity status on the charities they are involved in, including many in both the protestant and catholic churches.
Mam, if this conduct goes unchecked, it will set an incredibly bad precedent for other church based Charities that want to continue to preach the Bible while conducting the affairs of their organization, which contribute so much good to our society. We have told many individuals that we await a fair and appropriate resolution to this problem and that we will update them as things proceed. We desire to put their concerns to rest and also to have our status restored. We are sure that the actions of this individual could not possibly be the view of government and that it will be quickly and positively addressed by your department.
Mam, as the newly appointed minister of National Revenue, I am writing to you for a plea for justice and for your help in resolving this matter which is long overdue a resolution. As a church we have been forced to operate without our charitable status for two years, which has been a grievous injustice against us. Our ministry is involved in ministering to Canada’s most vulnerable population four times a week on the streets of Calgary (providing over 200,000 meals, at no cost to our visitors, or government as we are not government funded, per year).
Please contact me directly to discuss this matter at 403-607-4434 or via e-mail at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Artur Pawlowski
on Behalf of
Kings Glory Fellowship
Calgary, Alberta
PS – for more information on this case, please refer to CRA file number 0690941