Advance human rights and uphold the duty of religious neutrality: Pre-Budget 2025 response
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: September 1, 2014
Publisher Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Publication: Freethought Newswire
Original Link: https://www.bchumanist.ca/pre_budget_2025_response
Publication Date: July 18, 2024
Organization: British Columbia Humanist Association
Organization Description: The British Columbia Humanist Association has been providing a community and voice for Humanists, atheists, agnostics, and the non-religious of Metro Vancouver and British Columbia since 1982. We support the growth of Humanist communities across BC, provide Humanist ceremonies, and campaign for progressive and secular values.
In its brief to the House of Commons Finance Committee’s Pre-Budget 2025 consultation, the BC Humanist Association (BCHA) today called on the government to end charitable status for anti-abortion organizations, remove the privileged status of religion in charity law and repeal the clergy residence deduction.
In the 2021 election, the Liberal Party promised to “no longer provide charity status to anti-abortion organizations” but has thus far failed to deliver on that promise. Budget 2025 represents the last chance for the government to fulfill that promise before the next federal election.
Reiterating its call for a legislated definition of a charity, the BCHA’s brief notes that “The process to modernize Canadian charity law appears to have stalled out.” The BCHA points to other Commonwealth countries that have put the definition of a charity into law, rather than relying on 17th-century precedent. Notably, England and Wales ended the privilege of theistic worldviews by permitting the advancement of religion to include worldviews that do not include a belief in a god.
Finally, the BCHA points to its 2021 report, An Extra Burden, to note that the government could raise another $100 million annually by repealing the clergy residence deduction. That deduction permits religious officials to deduct housing costs from their income taxes, amounting to a subsidy of thousands of dollars per clergy member.
Submit your own brief before 11:59 pm EDT on Friday, August 2, 2024.
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