Contrary to the Fund’s submissions, the Minister’s conduct does not warrant this Court granting the appeal. As explained, that remedy is most exceptional. There is no egregious conduct amounting to a serious abuse of process where no remedies will do. Satisfactory remedies are available here and will be ordered.
A Quick Summary of the Appeal
- Who: Jewish National Fund of Canada (JNF Canada) is appealing the Minister of National Revenue’s decision to revoke its charitable status (under ss. 172(3) of the Income Tax Act).
- Why: JNF Canada (among other things) argues that the decision to revoke their charitable registration is “fatally tainted by bias.”
- “The Fund says that over a period of thirty years or so, the Minister and, more broadly, the Canada Revenue Agency, actively considered letters, petitions, and other materials from parties who wanted the Fund’s registration revoked because it is Jewish. It asserts that in making the decision in this case, the Minister succumbed to a weighty and illegitimate pressure campaign against the Fund. The Minister denies the allegations of bias and maintains that the Fund’s books and records show that it did not comply with several legal requirements for charitable organizations.”
- When: The case began in 2024 and the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) has released three decisions on various motions put forward by JNF Canada.
- March 31, 2025: JNF asked the FCA to amend its Notice of Application and for a time extension. The judge allowed some of the amendments and dismissed the request for an extension of time.
- June 10, 2025: JNF asked the FCA to order that the CRA provide additional disclosure (materials/evidence). The judge partially granted the motion and ordered “the Minister to provide certain further materials together with an updated affidavit explaining the scope of CRA’s supplementary search of its records and certifying that no further relevant materials are within its possession.”
- March 26, 2026: JNF asked the FCA to grant the appeal (and thereby effectively reinstate their charitable registration) or if the appeal continues, for “a strict order requiring compliance with the June 10, 2025 Order” (which JNF asserted the CRA had not complied with). The judge denied granting the appeal because there was “no egregious conduct amounting to a serious abuse of process where no remedies will do. [Rather], satisfactory remedies are available here and will be ordered.” The judge found the CRA did not adequately comply with the June 10, 2025 order and therefore found that “the Minister must conduct a further search for certain documents, confirm the adequacy of certain previous searches, and provide a further affidavit on the nature and scope of certain searches.”
- What now: The appeal panel will consider the evidence brought by the parties and make a decision on the issues (including claims of bias).
JNF Canada is celebrating the March 26th decision, completely ignoring the fact that the judge rejected their request to grant the appeal and reinstate their charitable status. This is not surprising, as they have lost at every significant step in their attempts to regain their tax-exempt status. The President of JNF Canada, Nathan Disenhouse, said: “For us, this represents a big victory…We do not want long and protracted litigation with Minister Champagne and his officials. We simply want to get back to doing charitable work.” Yet, the judge explicitly stated in his decision that “This administrative appeal is starting to resemble a full-scale action for abuse of public office with numerous discoveries. It is crawling slowly at great expense to all concerned, including the Court.” JNF Canada is responsible for this protracted litigation. It appears as though they would like to extend the litigation if only to delay the real possibility that their charitable registration is gone, for good.
Quick note, this case is separate from JNF Canada’s motion for an interlocutory injunction (in other words, they wanted an injunction that would require a retraction of the Notice of Intent to Revoke (NITR) which would inherently reinstate JNF Canada’s charitable status). JNF Canada lost this motion (November 8, 2024) and their appeal (June 2, 2025).
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