Canadian Rights Body Files Complaint Against 21 'RSS-Linked Charities' Ahead of Bhagwat’s Visit
New Delhi: A Canadian human rights organisation filed a complaint with the Canada Revenue Agency asking it to examine the charitable status of 21 registered Canadian charities over their alleged ties to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ahead of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s visit to Canada on Monday (August 31).
The complaint from Just Peace Advocates (JPA) comes amid widespread opposition to Bhagwat’s US and Canada visits. Over 40 Canadian civil society and community organisations, as well as thousands of other individuals, had sent letters to Canadian Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree to prevent Bhagwat’s entry into Canada, a statement released by JPA said.
JPA’s complaint mentions the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh Canada, Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of Canada, Vishwa Hindu Parishad of Ontario and Sewa Canada International Aid Inc. and others with alleged RSS links.
“The complaint, using data from Sciences Po’s Center for International Research (CERI), identifies approximately $46 million moving between RSS-affiliated organisations in Canada, and a further $21.5 million sent from those organizations to RSS-linked groups abroad,” the statement said.
JPA has questioned the eligibility of these organisations since Canadian charity law requires registered charities to deliver a benefit to the public and organisations that “discriminate on religious grounds or run contrary to public policy” cannot be charitable.
“The complaint argues that organisations advancing an ideology built on the subordination of non-Hindu minorities cannot meet that standard, whatever their spending records show,” JPA’s statement said.
‘Revoke all RSS-linked organisations’
“RSS’s sophisticated and opaque transnational network of organisations operates worldwide and harvests funds under the guise of charitable donations, while evading accountability, including, but not limited to, it seems the provisions of the Income Tax Act,” JPA said, while referring to the RSS as a century-old paramilitary brotherhood.
JPA’s review of the financial links between RSS-affiliated organisations in Canada identified 11 affiliated organisations connected to the 21 registered charities named in its complaint. It classified four as core Sangh organisations, three as Sangh-embedded organisations and four as Sangh allies.
The complaint also alleges that some of these organisations have engaged in partisan activity, discriminatory behaviour and/or violence, citing independent reporting and Indian government reports.
JPA has also asked the CRA to examine whether the charities meet the requirements of the Canadian public benefit test. It has asked the agency to investigate whether the organisations have violated the Income Tax Act by failing to “devote their resources to their own charitable activities, supporting non-qualified donees or submitting inaccurate T3010 returns.”
“The Hindu far-right in Canada has not only funded and abetted their counterparts in India but also advanced divisiveness domestically, from its growing ties to the Canadian right-wing to its direct role in stoking tensions between Canadian Hindus and their Sikh and Muslim neighbours,” the statement said, asking if Bhagwat was here to ask for donations for the RSS.
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