By Joel Secter The Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (CNCA) establishes a new set of rules for not-for-profit corporations in Canada. These new rules replace the Canada Corporations Act (CCA). Part 19 of the CNCA applies to any corporation without share capital incorporated by a special act of Parliament and not continued under another act. For […]
By C. Yvonne Chenier Q.C. Recent conversations with friends and clients in the charity and non-profit world have given me cause to ponder and investigate the question of whom or what can act as an executor of an estate. This question is an important one today. In generations past, many did not live long enough […]
By Mark S. Anshan Charities need to be vigilant when accepting donations in kind. These include any non-monetary items, such as art, rare books, equipment and materials, personal objects of value, real property and computer-related assets. Receiving such donations is quite acceptable, but only after proper due diligence and professional advice is sought and followed. […]
By: Arthur B. C Drache C.M., Q.C. When the Income Tax Act was re-written back in 1976 to create a whole new regime for charities (what is now embodied in section 149.1) one of the most far-reaching changes was the requirement for all charities to file public information returns, though by today’s standards the forms […]
By Alexandra Tzannidakis, LL.B. A recent judgment from the Ontario Court of Appeal provides a good reminder to factor in the risk of paying costs before deciding whether to litigate a matter. In Sawdon Estate v Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada et al. [2014 ONCA 101], the court awarded a type of ‘blended’ […]
Written by Adam Aptowitzer Published by the C.D. Howe Institute November 2009 View PDF
By Adam Aptowitzer The firestorm of media attention which has resulted from the Conservative changes to funding for political activity is astonishing given the relatively small impact of these changes. More to the point the media almost never comments on changes affecting the sector, even when those changes are both expansive and arguably unconstitutional. One […]
By C. Yvonne Chenier, Q.C. I have kept a file, with various CRA communications, that I call “Stuff the CRA says” ever since my colleague Adam Aptowitzer got a laugh with a somewhat saltier version of the same line at a slide presentation given to fellow lawyers at a continuing legal education seminar in Alberta. I […]
Who Signs the Organization’s Cheques? By Arthur Drache, C.M. Q.C. A couple of months ago in the Ottawa area, there was a puzzling issue with regard to the disappearance of about $70,000 from the accounts of a parents’ council at a local primary school. The funds were primarily from monies paid by parents and were […]
Avoiding the Wrong Kind of Publicity By C. Yvonne Chenier, Q.C. Newspaper headlines frequently draw the reader’s attention to employee theft from charities and not-for- profit organizations. Recently, there was a headline noting that the former Finance Director at the Royal Academy of Music has been jailed for fraud in the UK. A recent Calgary […]