B’nai Brith’s presence in Canada extends back to 1875. It claims to be Canada’s “oldest human rights organization” and a leader in combating racism and “dedicated to racism, antisemitism, and hatred in all its forms, championing the rights of the marginalized while providing basic human needs for members of our community.”
Yet, as Jamila Ewais, a researcher at the Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF), stated “It’s as if criticism of Palestinian human rights activism were the whole raison d’être of B’nai Brith Canada.”
Since 1967, B’nai B’rith has registered 45 charities with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Currently, 13 remain registered — 3 of which act as the main national organizations. The remainder have been revoked: 2 by audit, 26 for failure to file, and finally 4 voluntarily revoked their charitable status.
Some key points:
➙ The three main organizations are the League for Human Rights, B’nai Brith of Canada Foundation, and the National Organization of Canada.
➙ There is significant overlap in the Board of Directors for the three main organizations.
➙ B’nai Brith charities and associated non-profits received $9.7 million in federal government funding since 2006.
➙ The CRA revoked two charities by audit: the B’nai Brith Foundation District No. 22 and The League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith. They sent the Notice of Intention to Revoke (NITR) in 2014 and officially revoked the charities in 2021.
➙ The CRA listed the following reasons for revocation of these two charities: failing to devote its resources to charitable activities they carried on themselves, gifting to non-qualified donees, failing to be constituted exclusively for charitable purpose, failing to maintain books and records, and issuing donation receipts for directed donations.
The non-qualified donees noted by the CRA in the NITR for The League For Human Rights Of B’nai B’rith included the Institute for International Affairs, Parliament Hill Office, Canada-Israel Public Affairs Committee, and B’nai Brith Canada District No. 22.
The CRA found that during the audit period (2010-2011) that 46-47% of the B’nai Brith Foundation District No. 22 total expenditures went to non-qualified donees. The CRA also noted that 76-80% of total expenditures went towards non-charitable activities. The non-qualified donees in this case were mainly associated B’nai Brith organizations that lacked charitable status. Another key aspect of the audit was a finding that the Organization existed, “at least in part, to further the B’nai Brith Canada group’s political purposes by financing its political activities.” The audit revealed that the “group’s political activities include partisan political activities [and] are of such a frequency and quantity that would necessarily involve a significant devotion of resources”.
Read IJV’s post about B’nai Brith’s recent annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents.
Read the full revocation papers, and information regarding donees and donors for the current and revoked B’nai Brith charities.
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