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Prime Time Crime |
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Non-profit Industry
NOTE: There
were an estimated
161,000
non-profit and voluntary organizations operated
in Canada in 2003, posting $112 billion
in
revenues. |
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Greed and
Corruption |
Accountability |
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The War on Legal
Drugs |
Corporate Scandals
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Non-profit’s lottery distributes school funds
VICTORIA - The BC
Government came under fire for allowing a
parent organization
to distribute $1 million in provincial grants for playground equipment
using a random lottery. (Vancouver Sun)
PREVIOUS:
Poorest 30% of schools ineligible
Political hopscotch over playgrounds
Playground politics
West
side parents not allowed to give away playground grant
Orphans' Fund sale harpooned by red tape
VANCOUVER - CKNW
planned to hold its annual Orphans' Fund herring sale in New Westminster
on Sunday. But last week Department of Fisheries and Oceans officials
canned the event because of a 2006 ruling in the federal Court of
Appeal. (Vancouver Province) MORE:
Noah's Ark
Retold: 2007 Canadian version
Studies fault charities for veterans
WASHINGTON -
Eight veterans charities, including some of the nation's largest, gave
less than a third of the money raised to the causes they champion, far
below the recommended standard, the
American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP)
says in a report.(Washington Post) RELATED:
As mistrust grows, loyalty goes
National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS)
Outcome
indicators project
Charity won't tap war chest
TORONTO - The Heart
and Stroke Foundation of Ontario says putting 12,000 life-saving
defibrillators in community centres across the province is a priority –
but not a big enough priority to part with a slice of the charity's
burgeoning $130 million war chest. (Toronto Star) PREVIOUS:
Heart-stroke
charity builds war chest
Disaster charities breaking the rules
OTTAWA - Most Canadian
charities that provide disaster relief at home and abroad are breaking
the rules, suggests a new probe by the Canada Revenue Agency. (CP)
ICAN
suspended by Federal regulator
TORONTO - The federal
charity regulator has taken the rare step of suspending a Toronto
charity that claims to have given $244 million in aid to the poor – but
hasn't provided the proof to back that up. (Toronto Star)
SCC says kids sports leagues aren't charities
OTTAWA - Groups that
promote and organize youth sports do not qualify for charitable status
under the Income Tax Act, the Supreme Court of Canada said Friday in a
ruling with consequences for volunteer and community sporting bodies
across the country. However, the court also said "it may be desirable"
for Parliament to change the Income Tax Act through legislation, so that
sports associations can become charities. (CanWest) JUDGMENT:
AYSA v.
Canada, 2007 SCC 42
Poverty peddlers
MIAMI - Created to
fight poverty, the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust squandered millions of
dollars on insider deals, pet projects and bad loans. (Miami Herald) |
Red Cross yet to spend $200M of tsunami cash
OTTAWA - More than
three years after the Asian tsunami devastated several countries, $200
million of the $360 million donated to the Canadian Red Cross has still
not been spent. (Toronto Star)
Sikh Temple terror links alleged
VANCOUVER - More than
five years after a Surrey Sikh temple was denied charitable status for
alleged terrorist links, it is still raising funds, holding weekly
prayer services and hosting community events like last April's
controversial Vaisakhi parade. And the groups running the Dasmesh
Darbar temple are both registered non-profit societies in BC, despite a
secret Canada Revenue Agency report that said they "may be functioning
as part of a support network" for the terrorist International Sikh Youth
Federation. (Vancouver Sun) PREVIOUS:
Sikh
Terrorists
Activists reach pact with police
VANCOUVER - A
five-year struggle by the
Pivot Legal Society to
investigate the Vancouver Police Department has "come to a peaceful end"
with an agreement between the two sides, the VPD announced
yesterday. (Vancouver Province)
United Way chair fined for Livent misconduct
TORONTO - The head of
the United Way in Canada and two other auditors face fines and legal
costs totalling $1.55 million for professional misconduct in the Livent
Inc. accounting scandal. (Toronto Star)
Charitable empire has
high costs
The pleas for cash are
delivered by charities whose names alone could soften even the most
callous into making a donation.
Cancer Recovery Foundation.
Childhood Asthma Foundation.
Children's Emergency Foundation.
Starting from addresses around Toronto and now from his new,
three-storey lakefront house in Muskoka, 57-year-old fundraising
consultant
Craig Copland has
helped create an empire of health charities that has taken tens of
millions of dollars from Canadians. (Toronto Star) MORE:
Xentel DM board of directors
Xentel DM
Native group misspent $6.4M, audit reveals
WINNIPEG - A
Manitoba native group misspent more than $6 million in federal
health-care funds on exotic trips and unjustified payments to the
organization's CEO, a federal audit has revealed. MORE:
Audit of Anishinaabe Mino-Ayaawin
Inc. (AMA) 1998-2005
Funding irregularities referred to RCMP $7M
misspent, health-care audit finds
Charity status revoked
OTTAWA - The
North American Missing Children's
Association, a national
organization that solicits donations door to door, has had its
registered charity status revoked after an investigation by the Citizen
into the group's finances. (Ottawa Citizen) |
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Breast cancer fundraising walk axed
WINNIPEG - The
CancerCare Manitoba Foundation is halting the Weekend to End Breast
Cancer - one of its largest annual fundraisers that garners about a
third of all donations that fund cancer research, equipment and
programs. In two years, the event raised $5.7 million. However, 43
per cent of the event's total went toward things like administration,
food and shelter for participants. (Winnipeg Free Press) |
Judge suspends operations
The presidency
of the national Metis organization remains in limbo after an Ontario
judge suspended the operations of its elected body. The presidency has
been in dispute since July 31, when the
Metis National Council
board of governors ousted Clem Chartier, of Buffalo Narrows, and
replaced him with the president of the British Columbia Metis, Bruce
Dumont. (Saskatoon Star Phoenix) |
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UN turns
blind eye to million dollar aid fraud
UN - Tsunami
reconstruction funds worth $500 million (US) are being lost to fraud and
corruption because of the failure by the United Nations to implement its
own anti-fraud measures. (SMH) |
$1.4B tax scams nail
donors
Canada's coffers have
been cheated of more than $1.4 billion by scams that provided taxpayers
with inflated charitable receipts they used to reduce their income tax. (Toronto Star) |
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OK with donations
VANCOUVER - A nasty war of
words broke out about an unusually large $170,000 donation made during
the 2005 campaign to Vision mayoral candidate Jim Green from John
Lefebvre, who made a fortune on an Internet money-transfer service for
gamblers and gave much of it away to social causes, including the Dalai
Lama's Vancouver Centre for Peace and Education and the David Suzuki
Foundation. (Vancouver Province) |
Charity's ploy' horrifying'
TORONTO - Give $150 to save the life of a Canadian needing an organ
transplant. That's the message being aggressively telemarketed to
millions of homes nationwide by a Toronto-based charity called the
Organ Donation and Transplant Association of Canada.
Of the roughly $4 million the charity has told the federal
Charities Directorate it raised in the last three years, the
majority was spent on telemarketing, office expenses and other
unknown items.
(Toronto Star) |
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Good deeds no longer protection
LONDON - Caught in
the crossfire, executed in cold blood or simply hounded out of
violent regions, aid workers seem more under fire than ever before,
and their killers are rarely, if ever, brought to justice.
(Reuters) |
Americans donated $295B in 2006
NEW YORK -
Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charitable causes last year,
setting a new record and besting the 2005 total that had been
boosted by a surge in aid to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and
Wilma and the Asian tsunami. (AP) |
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Tax bill shocks housing society
EDMONTON - Changes
to provincial rules made in 1998 treat certain non-profit housing
projects, such as those that charge rent, as taxable. City
assessors have just recently started checking local non-profit
housing projects to see if they meet the rule change. (Edmonton
Journal) |
Tigers use pressure to raise funds, police say
MONTREAL - The
Tamil Tigers
terrorist group has been aggressively fundraising in Montreal using
a sophisticated pre-authorized payment scheme and other methods to
collect money from the city's 25,000-strong Tamil community,
according to the RCMP. (National Post) Tamil
alleged to have funnelled cash |
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Terror charities
For years,
Canadian Khalid Awan boasted about his close relationship with one
of the most powerful Sikh terrorists operating today. Last week,
Awan was sentenced to 14 years in prison by a New York judge for
financing a terrorist organization that might "murder, kidnap or
maim a person outside of the United States." (Vancouver Sun) |
Wiretaps snared money man
For Hezbollah: cheap smokes, fake
viagra
US court convicts Khalid Awan |
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Few
Canadian charities audited
OTTAWA -
Fewer than 1% of charities are audited in
Canada, despite a post-9/11 crackdown on terrorist financing, the Air
India inquiry heard Thursday. University of Toronto law professor
David Duff testified that the Canada Revenue Agency was auditing more
charities in the mid-1990s when concerns arose because the terrorist
Babbar Khalsa had been given tax-exempt status. (CanWest) |
Canada Revenue
officials doing what they can
Information on suspicious charities stalled for years, inquiry told
Money sleuths kept in dark
Agency unclear how terror information used
Millions
in terrorist assets flowing free
Tracking the funding of terror
Vancouver Sun: Air India bombing
Air India Inquiry
Air India Flight 182 |
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Funding scandal claims minister
TORONTO A scandal over $32 million in
grants to multicultural groups has cost Ontario Immigration and
Citizenship Minister
Michael Colle
his job and jolted Premier
Dalton McGuinty’s
government with an election just 11 weeks away. (Toronto Star)
Colle resigns over auditor's report |
Ontario scraps troubled grant process
The million dollar surprise
Fundraiser for Colle links group that got 'slush fund' grants
Colle aide's group tied to
'slush funds'
Ontario 'slush fund' figure has
peculiar ties
Ontario
grants probe derailed |
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Daycare parents triumph
TORONTO - The
wall of secrecy surrounding abuses in daycares has tumbled less than 24
hours after a Star investigation documented troubling problems in
centres across Ontario. (Toronto Star) |
Website exposes dodgy daycares
Dirty little secrets: abuse in daycare
Childcare troubles: documents
Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services |
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Six arrests in kickback probe
TORONTO - The
former campaign chair for two Toronto mayors faces fraud and bribery
charges in connection with the misappropriation of federal government
grants. (Toronto Star) |
Boondoggle arrests
Police arrest six more in HRDC
boondoggle probe
AG
Annual Report 2000: HRDC - Grants and Contributions |
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Mistrial declared in Muslim charity case
DALLAS - The
biggest terror-financing trial since Sept. 11 ended in confusion
Monday, with no one convicted and many acquittals thrown out after
three jurors took the rare step of disputing the verdict. (AP)
Documents said to
provide insight into Hamas support in US |
Holy Land Foundation for Relief and
Development
What is CAIR?
Islamic Association of Palestine
Shutting down terrorist financial networks
USA v. Holy Land Foundation for Relief & Development documents |
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Former bureaucrat arrested
EDMONTON - A former
senior bureaucrat in Alberta's addictions treatment agency has been
formally charged for allegedly defrauding the province of more than
$630,000. Police began a criminal investigation after Alberta's auditor
general, Fred Dunn, found evidence suggesting
Lloyd Carr
diverted almost $635,000 over two years
by setting up five fake contracts. (CBC) |
Alta. agency director
probed for theft
Public donations list would put rumours to rest
Auditor
reveals massive fraud at AADAC
Report of the AG: November 2006 .pdf
AADAC bilked by gambler |
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The
farmers ruined by subsidy
America’s 25,000 cotton
farmers receive subsidies totalling some $4B, allowing them to
undercut their developing competitors. The subsidies were ruled
illegal by the World Trade Organisation three years ago, yet only 10
per cent have been dropped so far, and Washington still pays many
times more in subsidies to these farmers than it gives in aid to
Africa each year. As a result, world cotton prices are now at
the lowest since the Great Depression of the 1930s. (Times
online) |
Non-profit is
lucrative for founder
When he launched
the first National Night Out in 1984, Matt A. Peskin envisioned an event
in which people across America would turn on their lights and sit on
their porches in a symbolic gesture to fight crime. His
organization, the
National Association of Town Watch,
devoted about a third of its budget in 2005 to pay Peskin a $255,000
salary and $42,000 in benefits, according to the group's most recent tax
filings. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
RELATED:
The NonProfit Times |
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Muslim report a study in bias
The
conclusions of the Canadian Federation of
Students recently released report on
Muslim students were dutifully reported by the CBC, the Toronto Star
and a dozen other media outlets. Less attention was paid to how the
report reached these conclusions, and who comprised this task force.
(Sun Media)
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Missing: $2B in child-care
funding
OTTAWA - More than $2 billion
in federal child-care funding has flowed into a virtual
accountability void in the last three years. Officials in
Ottawa have few clues as to how well the cash was spent by most
provinces since 2004. Provincial reports are months or even
years overdue - when they’re provided at all (CP) |
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Millions in Iraq aid wasted
WASHINGTON -
The quarterly report by
US auditors
also warns that corruption abounds in the country, and
that billions of dollars budgeted to the Iraqi government remains
unspent. (CTV)MORE: 5 names in
alleged Iraq contracting scam Auditors
say billions wasted in Iraq |
Exotic
dancers' 'stigma' too much for charity
The Breast Cancer Society of
Canada
has rejected the offer of thousands of dollars from a
fundraising group of exotic dancers in Vancouver. Exotic
Dancers for Cancer holds an annual charity event in memory of a
former dancer who lost her life to the disease.
(CBC) |
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Toronto man faces charges in charity
scam
TORONTO - Toronto
police say officers observed the man going door-to-door in the
upscale Rosedale community on Monday, collecting money for a charity
he called "Violence Against Kids." Detectives learned no such
charity exists. (CTV) |
Hector
Marroquin's revenge
LOS ANGELES
- Connie Rice knew it all along. She knew that Hector Marroquin,
veteran of the 18th Street Gang and a self-proclaimed anti-gang
activist, was still in the life. (LA Weekly) PREVIOUS:
Did City Hall fund a gun runner?
Broken
bridges |
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Calls for audit of GVHC
VANCOUVER - The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is
calling on the provincial government to immediately conduct an audit
into the activities, procedures and management of the Greater
Vancouver Housing Corporation (GVHC).
(CTF) |
Cook
Studio goes bankrupt
VANCOUVER - According to the
federal and provincial governments, in the past five years alone,
Cook Studio received nearly $2 million to provide culinary and
catering training to at-risk youth and people on income
assistance. (Vancouver Sun) |
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Mega church launches an audit
TORONTO - A
Toronto mega church whose spending practices were questioned in a
recent Star investigation has hired a public
relations firm specializing in "crisis communication" and launched
an internal financial probe, a spokesman said yesterday.
(Toronto Star) |
Trouble started right away
REGINA
- Department of Community Resources officials first became aware of
problems at the Oyate Safe House in July 2003 - just over two
months after the ill-fated Regina facility opened its doors.
(Regina Leader-Post) PREVIOUS: Oyate Safe House anything but
safe Oyate House for teens riddled
with problems |
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Fontaine downplays substance abuse report
WINNIPEG - Phil
Fontaine, Canada’s top First Nations leader may suggest it's racist
to question how residential school survivors spend their
compensation cheques, but the national agency created to help the
victims has raised the very same worries. A recent report by the
Aboriginal Healing Foundation,
based on interviews with more than 100 people who had received
cheques under earlier compensation agreements, says recipients saw
many negative impacts. (CP)
Big
money, big problems
Cheques in mail, huckster on phone
Residential school payouts a magnet
for fraud, drug dealers
Cabinet approves $2B residential school deal
Legal fees for abuse could top
$1B
Court upholds $25M payment
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Ottawa pays $45.6M to lawyers
Millions
at stake
Three
families, three ways to heal
No going
home for kids sent to foster homes
Defending the biggest legal pay day in Canadian history
Regina lawyer's fee: up to $40M
Dispute delays payments to victimized
natives
Lawyers
set to be paid $80M in school abuse
deal
Cabinet approves $2B residential school
deal
Woodlands
survivor calls cheque an insult
BC Institutional Legacy Trust
Fund
Woodlands justice in
doubt
Survivors wait while lawyers
squabble
Putting a Price on
Suffering
This time, abusers are lawyers |
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Charity probes financials
HAMILTON - The Morgan Firestone Foundation, which dispenses
millions of dollars a year to Canadian charities, has launched an
investigation into its own financial affairs. (Hamilton
Spectator) MORE: Dowhaniuk's sudden
resignation shocks his friends |
New research funding rules
OTTAWA -
Institutional conflicts of interest at Canadian universities are
becoming such a concern with the growing commercialization of
research that Ottawa's granting councils are bringing in rules to
deal with the new possibility. (CanWest) |
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MADD disputes donations
charge
TORONTO -
Top MADD Canada officials publicly challenged the results
of a Toronto Star investigation into the charity's
fundraising practices yesterday, saying the national group had
federal clearance to blend fundraising and good works on its balance
sheet. (Toronto Star)
When failure to police yourself against crimes you
haven't committed becomes a crime |
Fundraising
furor sparks audit at MADD
MADD
suspends fundraising
MADD's outspoken founder
punished
MADD's costs' anger charity's
volunteers
MADD rejects 'disgruntled'
critics
Activist cash: Overview MADD |
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Cancer walk costs
questioned
EDMONTON - Alberta's biggest charity walk, which
raises millions of dollars from thousands of participants each year,
spends about 40 cents of every dollar on costs, according to
information on its website. "One hundred per cent of all
donations go directly to Alberta
Cancer Foundation," according to the
website. The foundation contracts the organization of the walk
to a company called CauseForce Inc., but Linda Mickelson, CEO of the foundation,
wouldn't say how much the firm charges, citing
confidentiality. MORE: CauseForce CEO Brian Pendleton |
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Aid not reaching Afghan hospital
OTTAWA - Armed with
video clips taken just three weeks ago showing desperate hospital
conditions and starving children, an international research group
disputes Ottawa's claims that progress is being made in rebuilding
southern Afghanistan. (Toronto Star) |
CIDA criticized for lack of accountability
CIDA can't monitor millions in handouts
Auditor General's 2005 report on
CIDA |
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Charities admit fundraising mess
TORONTO - Two prominent Canadian charities –
Sick Kids Foundation
and
World Vision Canada
– have admitted to using a discredited fundraising technique and are
moving swiftly to clean up their act. Each has been using
commission-based techniques frowned upon in the charity world
because they can lead to aggressive tactics. When canvassers get
paid only if you donate, there's a tendency to embellish or even lie
– anything to close the deal and sign up a donor to a monthly giving
plan. (Toronto Star) |
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Great
charities can be found, but it takes
legwork
Charity tax dodge
entangles parish
Canadians
suspicious of church charities
25,000 per day die of hunger
Charities sue OPM over
exclusion
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