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As shown in the excerpt below, in the publicly available Canadian tax returns, Tides Canada reported ZERO expenditures for political activity, for 2009.
Click on the image below for a larger, more legible version.
For the publicly available tax returns of Tides Canada where this information is reported, click here for Tides Canada Foundation, and here for Tides Canada Initiatives Society. See Line 5030.
"ZERO" Political Activity?
The reporting from Tides Canada that it did not spend any money on political activity in 2009 is difficult for me to reconcile with what Tides Canada Foundation reported to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in its U.S. tax return for 2009. Three reasons:
- One of Tides Canada's projects is Organizing for Change for which Tides Canada paid at least $90,125 in 2008/2009. As has been published in The National Post and in The Vancouver Sun, this project of Tides Canada sought to influence the leadership picks of both the Liberal and the NDP political parties in British Columbia.
- Tides Canada is a partner/supporter of The Dogwood Initiative which seeks to get the federal government to legislate a ban on oil tanker traffic on the north coast of B.C. Tides Canada paid at least $46,639 for the Dogwood Initiative, in 2009. An American foundation, the Bullitt Foundation, paid The Dogwood Initiative "to mobilize urban voters for a federal ban on coastal tankers."
- Open Media has referred to itself, at least that's how it seems to me, as a project of Tides Canada. Open Media mobilized nearly half a million Canadians to oppose user-based billing. "You've moved politics!", Open Media announced. Tides Canada's lawyer has stated that Tides Canada does not fund Open Media and that Open Media is not a project of Tides Canada. However, based on what was posted at the web-site of Open Media, I find that hard to believe. That information has since been removed but it can be seen here.
In addition to the above, I also note that in 2009, Tides Canada paid $5.3 million to 25 organizations, some of which appear to me to be involved in various forms of advocacy. For example, Living Oceans Society runs six campaigns that tell people to write letters to government. Pacific Wild also provides information on writing letters to government and encourages the public to "take action."
At least one organization, PETA, suggests that because of its advocacy work, it doesn't qualify as a charity so it receives donations through Tides Canada instead. PETA says, "Heads up, Canadians! For your retirement accounts, and donations and bequests to PETA in general, you may want to consider giving through the Tides Canada Foundation-PETA Fund. Tides Canada is a registered Canadian charity (http://tidescanada.org/), but PETA is not because of our advocacy work. The RRSP beneficiary paperwork is just as easy, so if Canadian tax credits are important, you can only get those benefits by making the beneficiary of your retirement accounts the Tides Canada-PETA Fund rather than specifying PETA." For information about the PETA Fund at Tides Canada, click here.
Tides Canada itself may not have been politically active, but as it appears to me, several of the organizations that are funded by Tides Canada, especially the organizations that receive the largest grants, are politically active. In my opinion, this raises a fair question: Does it make sense for a foundation that funds politically active organizations to claim that it is not politically active itself?
In previous years, Tides Canada Initiatives Society reported a total of $266,226 on political activity. Which political activities did Tides Canada support between 2004 and 2008? And why did Tides Canada report political activities during 2004 to 2008, but not in 2009?
Excerpts from Canadian Tax Returns:
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