Is there a problem with accountability in Canada's charitable sector? The answer would seem to be a resounding "yes"!
In October 1996, John Bryden, MP (Hamilton-Wentworth) presented the report "Canada's Charities: A Need For Reform" that got quickly "forgotten" by the government, and got very little coverage by the media. The report details a number of problems with charity accountability in Canada, and references several antismoking groups -- including The Canadian Council on Smoking and Health, the Canadian Cancer Society, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
With respect to the nonprofit lobby group the Non Smokers' Rights Association and a charity called the Smoking and Health Action Foundation, Bryden made the following observation:
"...in comparing the charity's T3010 form with the non-profit group's annual financial statement, it appeared that the charity's revenues - mostly in the form of government grants - were being used to pay the salaries and operating costs of the advocacy organization that shared the same premises and apparently the same paid personnel." He quotes the NSRA's own brochure on the relationship between the two organizations and goes on to remark: "Since the courts have decreed that educating the public to a particular point of view is 'political' in nature and therefore not a charitable activity, and 'work with the media' for an avowed lobby group could be nothing other than lobbying, it appeared that the NSRA/SHAF was caught dead to rights."
Bryden reports that his questions about the relationship between the two groups were never answered, due to the lack of mechanisms for accountability.
The public deserves answers, especially with respect to organizations that have become so influential that they are changing public policy.
These are the groups that are dumping on tax-paying Canadian smokers, hoping that a barrage of intolerance will force them to knuckle under to these groups' agendas.