Political Activism - Assignment Example

This will see the current policy of the Canada revenue agency (CRA) that relate to political activities conduct by registered charities remaining unchanged. The changes arising from the Budget 2012 should not be left to deter the registered charities from engaging in political activities. Charities should get involved or continue to participate in the political activities so long as they pursue the rules applicable. The charities should as well document all their political activities involvement.

There have been allegations against environmental charities in their use of donations that are claimed to be received from foreign sources. A group of politicians specifically, has raised questions concerning the foreign funding appropriateness on environmental charities in Canada, whether the funds in question were useful in lobbying the government. For instance, of significance is the initiated Senate inquiry by Senator Nicole Eaton on February 2012, based upon the claims by the Senator that such funding were influencing policy discussions improperly in the country.

This was presumed with regards to government projects like the Northern Gateway pipeline. There was no credibility in such accusations in that, the charitable sector has quite a number of segments in Canada, and each year these segments receive a large scale funding from foreign sources. Such includes hospitals, universities and religious organizations, and the federal government has not made any allegations that the funding could be used in support of a political activity. Noting the strategy of counter terrorism by the federal government released on February 2012 is so crucial since it equated white supremacy environmentalism and terrorist activities in the city of Oklahoma in 1995 (Carter & Claridge, 54).

As a result of this strategy and other kinds of attacks on environmental charities, the charities have created a force to enable them engage in political activities (Carter & Man, 47). However, the ability of charities to get involved in political activities has not been impacted by Budget2012, through the implementation of its legislation. Engaging in alternative community services could be more effective in addressing this issue. For instance, all registered charities are needed by law to have charitable purposes that are beneficial to a community such as poverty relief, promotion of advanced education and religion, and promoting of health care for the communities.

The policy statement of the CRA on political activities, CPS-022, the activities by registered charities can be categorized into three as political activity, charitable activity or prohibited activity. An activity considered charitable is normally permitted without any limit. For example, communicating with public through a charity on the issue that relates to the purposes of the charity can be, under certain circumstances, be a charitable activity. However, the sort of communication has to satisfy the following requirements: 1.

Relate to and subordinate to the charitable purposes of the charity. 2. Reasoned well. 3. Does not contain inaccurate, false, or misleading information. Involving in charitable activities in a political platform