A Mennonite magazine has gone public with a letter from the Canadian Revenue Agency, which “reminded” the publication not to print articles that may be construed as partisan.
In a letter dated July 23, a CRA official suggested recent issues of the Canadian Mennonite “have contained editorials and/or articles that appear to promote opposition to a political party, or to candidates for public office.”
“Registered charities that engage in partisan political activities jeopardize their charitable status and can be subject to revocation,” the letter says later on. “However, in this circumstance we felt a reminder letter was in order.”
As a registered charity, the Canadian Mennonite Publishing Service—which produces the biweekly Canadian Mennonite—can issue tax receipts to its donors.
Under the Income Tax Act, registered charities are banned from partisan political activities. Limited non-partisan political activity is acceptable, however, if it is related to the work of the charity and uses no more than 10 per cent of its resources.
The Canadian Mennonite reported on the letter in its Nov. 12 issue. The decision to do so was made on Oct. 13 at a meeting of the board of directors.
In his editorial, Publisher and Editor Dick Benner called the letter “disturbing” and said it “represents a ‘chill’ on free speech.”
“Rather than feeling the freedom to represent my church in its witness, I now feel constrained to couch my voice in non-critical terms for fear of losing charitable status,” he wrote. “I thus feel boxed in and disheartened in my work.”
No articles were cited in the letter. Benner said he called the CRA audit officer, Paul Fournier, to find out which articles had been considered partisan. He said Fournier cited six—two editorials and four stories, three of them from the magazine’s “young voices” section.
One of the editorials, published before the election in May 2011, said: “While we won’t endorse candidates … or tell you how to vote, we do ask Mennonite voters to both examine the political views and voting records of candidates regarding our deeply held core beliefs in peacemaking, compassion for the poor and care for creation.” It also suggested “the political voices with a background in our core beliefs—such as Vic Toews, Canada’s Public Security Minister who was born in Paraguay to a Mennonite refugee family—have succumbed to the fear-mongering of the present government by postponing Bill C-49, which would provide a safe haven for refugees. … Instead, Toews has called the Tamils who came to our shores last year, ‘terrorists.’”
In the second editorial, entitled “A Political Lament,” Benner reflected on the reactions of Americans to the death of Osama bin Laden, and on “the takeover by a militaristic Conservative majority government” in Canada in May 2011.
One article focused on young voters who were supporting the NDP. Another, published in the wake of Jack Layton’s death, looked at how the political leader had inspired young Mennonites. A third was about young people who folded paper “planes of peace” to send to the government in Ottawa. The last article cited by the CRA official focused on the Mennonite Central Committee’s opposition to Bill C-10, the controversial omnibus crime bill.
“I think this is a politically motivated attack on a publication,” said David Harris, publisher of the Presbyterian Record. “I think Dick Benner was making a fair comment on public statements by some Mennonite candidates. He explicitly said the magazine wasn’t telling readers how to vote. He simply highlighted the comments of some Mennonite candidates in relation to the denomination’s values. That’s not partisan politics. That’s just holding up what they said to fair scrutiny.”
Presbyterian Record Inc. is also a registered charity.
In a written response to the July letter, Benner stated: “it is our intent to obey the law and to operate within the guidelines set forth in these documents despite some differences we may have in their interpretation,” the Canadian Mennonite reported.
