By Terrance S. Carter, Jacqueline M. Demczur and Adriel N. Clayton

Readers of our Charity & NFP Law Updates may recall previous articles we have posted about the problems involving the politicization of charitable status. Of particular concern is the proposed draft legislation targeting charities offering reproductive health services that may become law in the upcoming 2025 Federal Budget. The federal government had initially introduced draft legislation through the “Notice of Ways and Means Motion to introduce a bill to amend the Income Tax Act and the Income Tax Regulations” tabled on October 29, 2024, and confirmed its intention to proceed in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement, as explained in Charity & NFP Law Bulletin No 530.

As detailed in our October 2024 Charity & NFP Law Update, the Department of Finance released a backgrounder at that time which proposed requiring charities that provide reproductive health services to publicly disclose, both in public communications and in annual information returns, if they do not provide abortion or birth control services, and if not, then to further provide information on how to access these services, or contact information for providers. Non-compliance could result in the revocation of charitable status for these charities.

As explained in our November 2024 Charity & NFP Law Update, the scope of the proposed legislation would apply not only to charities directly involved in reproductive services but also to other registered charities that “expressly or implicitly advertise” the services of another affected organization. This expansion risks drawing a much broader group of charities into the scope of the proposed amendment, including but not limited to many faith-based charities.

Of even greater concern is Recommendation 429 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance in its December 2024 Report 21 – Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the 2025 Budget. That report, which summarizes the proposals made by witnesses during the pre-budget hearings and presents the Committee’s recommendations for the 2025 Federal Budget, includes a recommendation that the federal government “no longer provide charitable status to anti-abortion organizations.”

This most recent legislative initiative must be understood in context. In May 2024, the Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans recommended revoking tax-exempt status for organizations accused of spreading “misinformation” about the seal harvest, the details of which were set out in the May 2024 Charity & NFP Law Update. This was followed later that year by the proposed legislation concerning reproductive health services discussed above. In our April 2025 Charity & NFP Law Update, we reported on concerns raised by Imagine Canada about these measures, which linked this proposed legislation on reproductive services involving charities to prior efforts by the previous federal government to link charitable registration to political or ideological considerations which resulted in audits of environmental charities over a decade ago.

Taken together, these initiatives reflect a growing risk that charitable status may, again, become politicized. Such politicization would undermine the neutrality of the charitable sector. While the current proposals focus on reproductive service charities, the precedent set by this legislation could easily extend to other organizations whose views or activities did not align with those of the government of the day.

For this reason, it is important that organizations across the full spectrum of the charitable sector carefully consider the implications of the proposed legislation. Although the Department of Finance’s Pre-Budget Consultations 2025 closes at 11:59 p.m. EST on August 28, 2025, those charities concerned about the independence and integrity of the charitable sector can still communicate their concerns to the Department of Finance as well as to their local Member of Parliament before the proposed legislation becomes law. To this end, a copy of this article is being sent to the Department of Finance prior to the Aug 28, 2025 deadline as an official submission by Carters on this issue. A link to our letter is available here.

​Read the August 2025 Charity & NFP Law Update