Leadership Update
- STARTS
Summary of JNF Litigation Re: Revocation of Charitable Status (April 28, 2025)
• Summary of steps leading to revocation:
On May 2, 2014, CRA commences an audit of JNF’s charitable status for 2011 and 2012.
On August 20, 2019, CRA first issued a notice of intention to revoke JNF’s charitable status (“NITR”).
The NITR led to a long series of discussions and negotiations with CRA regarding why JNF believed that CRA should not proceed with its NITR;
On June 26, 2024, CRA issued a confirmation of the NITR (“Confirmation”);
As a result of the Confirmation, on July 24, 2024, JNF commenced a statutory appeal in the Federal Court of Appeal against the Confirmation (Court File No. “A-245-24”).
The final step consequent upon the issuance of a NITR and a Confirmation, is for CRA, via the Minister of National Revenue (“Minister”) to publish the NITR in the Canada Gazette. Upon such publication, revocation becomes official and a charity loses its charitable status.
Ordinarily, CRA has an administrative practice that, once a statutory appeal such as A-245-24 is commenced, the Minister will not take the final publication step until the affected charity has the ability to go to court to obtain a stay to prevent CRA from taking the final act of publication.
With JNF, CRA went contrary to this administrative practice - on August 10, 2024, the Minister went ahead and published the NITR in the Canada Gazette (“Publication”). As a result, JNF immediately lost its charitable status.
• JNF took immediate additional steps in the courts to address the Publication.
• First, on August 20, 2024, JNF commenced a judicial review proceeding in the Federal Court (Court File No. T-2135-24) asserting that the Publication was unlawful and demanding a retraction.
At the same time, JNF brough an urgent motion for an interlocutory injunction asking that the Court order that an immediate, interim retraction be published until the ultimate merits of the judicial review could be considered by the Court (“First Injunction Motion”).
The First Injunction Motion was heard by Justice Whyte Nowak of the Federal Court, who rendered her decision on November 8, 2024 (“First Injunction Decision”).
She denied JNF’s request for an interim injunction. In doing so, she did not even deal with the usual test for the grant of an interlocutory injunction. Rather, she denied the motion on a preliminary ground of jurisdiction. She held that the Federal Court did not have jurisdiction to entertain the dispute and that, rather, only the Federal Court of Appeal had the jurisdiction to entertain any challenge to CRA’s actions.
