The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) has moved to revoke the status of the charitable wing of HonestReporting Canada, the billionaire-backed anti-Palestinian lobby group that bills itself as a “digital army for Israel.”
WAWOG Toronto and Just Peace Advocates have submitted two formal complaints to the CRA to investigate HRC’s charitable status.
After a lengthy audit, the CRA concluded that the HR Canada Charitable Organization (HRCCO) is not carrying out any charitable activities and is acting as a “conduit” for HonestReporting Canada, which is not itself a registered charity. The two organizations share key personnel, including an executive director, digital director, and research analyst, as well as office space and resources.
HRCCO’s stated purpose is advancing education through media analysis. But the organization’s educational claims are blatantly undermined by its tactics. Over the past two years, HRC has sent over 1,000 “action alerts” mobilizing its 70,000 members to target journalists, healthcare workers, and even minors—with personal attacks, sexual harassment, and racist and Islamophobic rhetoric.
According to CRA auditors, HRC’s activities include “promoting a particular viewpoint or creating a particular climate of opinion” that do not “advance education in a charitable sense.”
According to the CRA, “the Organization purposely created webpages that contained false/misleading information to provide the impression that it conducts its own activities.” It was specifically advised prior to being registered as a charity that monitoring journalism would not be considered a charitable activity.
CRA auditors also initially proposed a $336,145 fine to HRCCO as penalty for delivering undue private benefits to HRC. Among those benefits were HRC executive director Mike Fegelman’s 2022 salary of $209,189, and HRC staffer Rick Firth’s salary of $75,000. Also included was a $14,130 gift to the US-based Friedman Center, a non-profit run by Donald Trump’s former ambassador to Israel and personal bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman. The Friedman Center is dedicated to the cause of “advancing the cause of peace through Israeli sovereignty.” Both Friedman and his charity champion the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza under “One Jewish State.”
Our complaints to the CRA were grounded in ample evidence of HonestReporting Canada’s charity law violations. In response, HRCCO has launched two legal challenges to block the revocation, arguing that charity regulation falls under provincial jurisdiction—but similar arguments on behalf of organizations such as the Jewish National Fund of Canada have already been rejected by the Federal Court of Appeal.
Representing HRC/HRCCO in court has been Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg. That same law firm shares an address with the one listed on HRCCO’s charity page. Davies partner Elie Roth’s e-mail is additionally registered to HRCCO’s charity listing. As reported by Davide Mastracci for The Maple, Roth’s family foundation (The Aulis Charitable Foundation) is an HRC donor. HRCCO claims that revocation of its charitable status would harm the reputation of its directors. Co-director and co-founder Ken Rotman filed an affidavit arguing this designation would associate him with criminals and ‘terrorists,’ damaging his career as a private equity investment manager.
These associations should be damaging, and Rotman’s reaction is par for the course for an organization bankrolled by Canada’s billionaire class and their foundations. The Rotman Family Foundation joins the Azrieli Foundation, the Ronald S Roadburg Foundation, Linda Frum, Peter Munk and the Asper Foundation as some of HRC’s bigger funders. These foundations have maintained philanthropic public profiles while quietly funding HRC’s harassment and misinformation campaigns. That funding is then subsidized with Canadian tax dollars.
Notably, Canada Charity Partners recently had its charitable status revoked over being a conduit for “Israel Gives.” Among the non-qualifying donees was HRC’s Israel counterpart, Honest Reporting (Israel.)
As of right now, the revocation remains on hold until HRCCO’s court challenges are resolved.
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