Mr. K Ashfield, Minister of National Revenue
| Mr. K Ashfield, Minister of National Revenue | Kings Glory Fellowship |
| House of Commons | 1740 – 25a Street SW |
| Ottawa, ON | Calgary, AB |
| K1A 0A6 | T3C 1J9 |
Dear Sir:
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 In 2009, our charity status was revoked with the reason given being that we filed our year ends too late.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 an appeal with the CRA, which we still have had no response to at this point.
There is apparently nothing unusual about this case, until you get into the specifics about why we were denied the ability to have our status restored, namely, “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 protectect 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.
Sir, 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.
We await your reply with great anticipation.
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
