Title Decription Date Type Link to Document
Charity and Politics In Canada — A Legal Analysis

Noted charity law scholar and retired justice of the Ontario Superior Court, Maurice Cullity, Q.C., has written a discussion paper examining the common law and Income Tax Act considerations relating to Canadian charities undertaking political purposes or activities.

May 29, 2016 Occasional Paper Open Document
Current Developments in the Application of Subsection 149(1)(l) of the Income Tax Act

Pemsel Board member David Stevens and his colleague, Faye Kravetz, have undertaken a comprehensive analysis of the Income Tax Act provision under which non-profit organizations are defined, the case law interpreting its meaning and the Canada Revenue Agency positions on the requirements set out in the provision.

June 22, 2016 Occasional Paper Open Document
Joining in the Jurisprudence: Public Interest Litigation and Interventions in the Law of Charity

Miller Thomson Partner Andrew Valentine has researched and written a detailed analysis exploring the legal principles and procedures pertaining to interventions in law of charity cases in Canadian courts.

July 19, 2016 Occasional Paper Open Document
Charitable Activities under the Income Tax Act: An Historical Perspective

Pemsel Case Foundation Board member Carl Juneau is a former federal government official, who served in an executive role in the Canada Revenue Agency Charities Directorate and as a policy advisor in the Department of Finance. He has been following developments in Canadian charity law for more than four decades.

July 19, 2016 Occasional Paper Open Document
Political Activities and the Meaning of “Substantially All” –An Analysis for Registered Charities

University of Toronto Law School student Alicia Grant reviewed the treatment of the term “substantially all” in various Income Tax Act and other contexts and reports on her findings.

June 22, 2016 Occasional Paper Open Document
The Canadian Income Tax Act and the Concepts of Charitable Purposes and Activities

 Pemsel Case Foundation board member Carl Juneau explores the question of purposes and activities and proposes reform that would simplify both administration of, and compliance with, the regulatory regime under which resisted charities work.  

October 14, 2016 Occasional Paper Open Document
Regulating the Foreign Activities of Charities: A Comparative Perspective

Australian academic, Natalie Silver, has examined the approaches used by four countries to regulate charities’ conduct abroad and reports on her findings.

August 11, 2017 Occasional Paper Open Document
Charitable Sector Reform: First Steps to Reality

A Look at Some Potential Changes:  Former finance official Edward Short suggests how to focus the income tax act meaning of a charity more on the framework provided by the common law, and considers the consequences for other criteria for registration and the related policy issues that would arise.  

February 26, 2018 Occasional Paper Open Document
‘Ancillary’, ‘Incidental’ and Canadian registered charities – Concepts and Meanings

University of Toronto Law Student, Leigha Haney, explores the “Incidental and Ancillary” doctrine, and considers how it applies to Federal registered charities in Canada.  

May 29, 2018 Occasional Paper Open Document
Charity versus Politics: Reforming the Judicial, Legislative and Administrative Treatment of the Charity-Politics Distinction

Legal scholar and Pemsel Foundation Board member, Adam Parachin, examines regulation of Canadian registered charities’ political purposes and activities and the policy basis for doing so.

June 20, 2018 Occasional Paper Open Document
Report of the Senate Special Committee on the Charitable Sector – A Response

Pemsel Case Foundation former Executive Director Peter Broder has written a paper exploring the various recommendations in the report of the senate special committee on the charitable sector, which was released last summer.

October 2, 2019 Occasional Paper Open Document
Direction and Control Series June 9, 2020 Occasional Paper Open Document
Disbursement Quota Research Series October 18, 2021 Occasional Paper Open Document
The Appealing Illusion

The Pemsel Case Foundation Board Member Bob Wyatt has written a paper discussing the existing process for appealing charity registration refusal or revocation decisions and the increasingly common view amongst sector leaders and their advisors that such appeals should be heard by the Tax Court of Canada and involve a . . .

February 7, 2024 Occasional Paper Open Document