Are we doing our job?
With one week to go before our Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) audit, I'm preparing myself with a dental appointment. Apparently, the only effective way to keep me from speaking out is sticking a dental probe in my mouth.We sparked quite a debate last week when over 1500 people commented on the CBC News story. It appears that many Canadians share our view that the CRA’s recent surge of environmental charity audits are more political than legal.
My testimony on Bill C-51 before the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defense also drew national coverage.
You would think there’d be no connection between charity law and
anti-terrorism legislation but it is pretty clear that’s just the case.
As I told the committee, Bill C-51 is akin to using "bulldozers to catch ants".Speaking of insects, many of you will recall back in October that Sierra drew attention to the latest Bayer pesticide, flupyradifurone. Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) was quietly going ahead with registering this extremely toxic cousin of the bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides. We alerted you and our partners (SumofUs and the David Suzuki Foundation) and the response was unbelievable--over 100,000 formal comments objecting to the registration were filed! Wow.
It appears we have given the PMRA pause. Six months have passed and flupyradifurone’s registration is still listed as “pending” on the government website.
Are we doing our job and living up to our mission to preserve and protect our natural environment? I ask because this is how I measure our success and failure.
I have to get back to preparing for our latest visit from CRA auditors. Kind of wish I was still at the dentist.
Sincerely,
John Bennett, National Program Director
Sierra Club Canada Foundation
1510-1 Nicholas Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 7B7
613-291-6888jb@sierraclub.ca
John on Twitter / Bennett Blog
