AR-News: [CA]Do Hunting Groups Deserve Charitable Status? (Press release)

[Sinikka Crosland]

For Immediate Release: *** Please Distribute ***

Do Hunting Groups Deserve Charitable Status? CAT says NO!

March 1, 2004 - The Charity Action Team (CAT) has released "Conservation 
or Contradiction: Should Hunting and Fishing Clubs Have Charity 
Status?", a report questioning the charitable status granted to Canadian 
hunting and fishing clubs.

The report reveals sports hunting and fishing clubs posing as wildlife 
conservation organizations while engaging in substantial political 
activities--including lobbying and partisan politics which is strictly 
limited under the Income Tax Act for registered charities. The document 
was given to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) on April 17, 2003 but there 
is little evidence the agency has taken action, says CAT member Nancy 
Zylstra.

The Charity Action Team investigated the issue following media reports 
uncovering the aggressive removal by the government of the charitable 
status of a number of environmental and animal protection groups, 
including Friends of Clayoquot Sound. Also fueling the report was 
numerous encounters with people who had contributed unknowingly to 
hunting and fishing clubs. Misleading group names, and use of 
pro-environmental terms in promotional literature, make hunting and 
fishing clubs appear to be wildlife conservation groups--which they are not.

"Canada Revenue Agency should reinstate charitable status to legitimate 
environmental groups and stop giving unfair advantage to sports hunting 
and fishing clubs", Zylstra says. "At a time when habitat loss and sport 
hunting are key threats to biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, is it 
sensible for hunting and fishing clubs to be buoyed with a tax exemption?"

The Charity Action Team is calling for immediate action from the 
government to investigate sport hunting and fishing clubs and 
potentially revoke their charitable status.

For more information see "Conservation or Contradiction: Should Hunting 
and Fishing Clubs Have Charity Status?" online at 
http://www.pronature.on.ca/charity.html , for a pdf format click on 
http://www.pronature.on.ca/charity.pdf

For background see "Charity 'watchdog' tied to gun lobby": 
http://www.pronature.on.ca/TOStar.html.

Email: charityactionteam at sympatico.ca

Marisa Herrera
Western Contact
(250)382-8062

Anita Krajnc
Eastern Contact
416-452-5135

Nancy Zylstra
National Contact
(613)332-3651




---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.598 / Virus Database: 380 - Release Date: 2/28/04
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/attachments/20040301/a030959e/attachment.html