Minister Diane Lebouthillier’s Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) de-registered numerous charities after misplacing the associated paperwork, records show. Groups that filed annual returns were stripped of their charitable status after the Agency lost the records then claimed they were never mailed in the first place..“It was atrocious,” said one charity director. Blacklock’s Reporter spoke with several directors, treasurers and managers who requested anonymity. “They created a lot of problems for us,” said another. “We were no longer able to issue charitable receipts.”.Canadian Charities are required to file annual financial statements under the Income Tax Act. The groups that were mistakenly de-registered had filed their returns by paper..Records show that after the CRA misplaced the annual filings, it then ruled the charities were in breach of the Act and stripped them of charitable status. The Agency on Saturday listed eight charities accidentally de-registered for as long as 11 months..“The notice of intention to revoke sent to the charity listed because it had not met the filing requirement of the Income Tax Act was published in error,” the Agency said in a statement. It did not comment on how many groups were affected..“They lost the file,” said one charity executive. “It was a nuisance. We had always filed by paper and they lost the file.”.The eight charities known to date that were mistakenly de-registered were the Buddhist Monastery BBM Society of Burnaby, BC, Heartwood Place of Cambridge, ON., Gospel Fellowship Church of Iron Bridge, ON, Hope Without Borders of Montréal, Wainfleet Township Public Library Board of Wainfleet, ON, the Wesley United Church of Quill Lake, SK, and two of Canada’s best-known charities, the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame in Winnipeg and Toronto Kiwanis T.P. Loblaw Charitable Trust..The Theodore P. Loblaw Trust was created with a bequest by the founder of what today is Canada’s largest grocery chain. Loblaw on his death in 1933 left $1 million to poor children, half his estate, the modern equivalent of $21.7 million. His will instructed that “investment and income paid to the Downtown Kiwanis Club of Toronto is to be used by the said club for its underprivileged boys’ work and other charitable purposes.”.“The work the Trust allows us to do as the Toronto Kiwanis Club has not changed since his bequest was made,” said Tim Simpson, Club president. “It helps us to provide kids with more and better opportunities in life so they can flourish.”.President Simpson said the Revenue Agency error had “no demonstrative impact” on Kiwanis programs, but added the charity did not know how its files were misplaced. “We are aware this occurred but now how,” he said..Theodore Loblaw, a penniless high school dropout, started his career at 17 as a $3-a week clerk in a grocery store and built Loblaw Groceterias Limited into a chain of 157 outlets. Loblaw weeks before his death recounted his boyhood in remarks to jobless men at a Salvation Army hostel..“God guided me in getting that job,” said Loblaw, who recalled walking the streets of Toronto at Christmas time desperately seeking work. “God did prosper me, boys,” he said.
