MAC And The CRA: Report Cites Discrimination In Probe Of Canadian Muslim Charity
The Muslim Association of Canada has welcomed an expert’s review into the government revenue agency’s auditing practices, which found serious deficiencies that carried risks of “capturing innocent activity through associational connections.” The review comes after the Canadian Revenue Agency itself admitted a “lack of rigour” in its selection of charities to audit for terrorist links.
The independent study, carried out by the University of Manitoba’s law professor Michelle Gallant and published in spring 2026, criticized the Canadian Revenue Agency for having adopted discriminatory practices and a dragnet approach of “over-inclusion” in its selection of Muslim charities such as the Muslim Association. “Any anointing of the notion that associations — connections — indicates terrorist abuse risks overidentification and the attraction of ‘guilt’ by association,” she found.
The Muslim Association had taken the revenue agency to the Ontario Superior Court to stop the revenue agency’s audit, claiming that it violated the principles of freedom of religion and equality. Professor Gallant’s report indicated that biases had led to the revenue agency’s targeting the Muslim Association on dubious grounds of terrorist links. This process first became mainstreamed twenty years ago during the peak of the “War on Terror”, particularly under the rightwing regime of Stephen Harper (2006-15). In this context, the revenue agency’s Review and Analysis division linked the charity to nebulous insinuations of foreign political links and terrorism finance.
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Among other things, Gallant recommended that the agency familiarize itself with religions and cultures such as Islam and provide periodic recommendations of which associations to avoid. ““I think,” she said in an interview, “that if the charities directorate was a little more forthcoming in educating, specifically — don’t interact, don’t be doing things here, we’re suspicious about these things — then charities can make a choice, right?”
The Muslim Association, whose network of schools, charities, and social services service over 150 thousand people, welcomed the findings. Its president for strategy, Sharaf Sharafeldin, said, ““This independent academic review, which confirms there were no links to terrorism financing or extremism, is significant because it reinforces the Ontario Superior Court’s concerns regarding the CRA’s findings and brings meaningful closure to Canadians, particularly the Canadian Muslim community.”
In a statement, the charity said, “The findings are significant not only for MAC, but for the broader Muslim charitable sector in Canada and the CRA. Muslim charities play an important role in Canadian society through education, community services, and humanitarian work.
MAC remains committed to working constructively with regulators and policymakers to support oversight processes that are fair, evidence-based, and consistent with fundamental freedoms, including freedom of religion and association. MAC will continue serving Canadian families and communities through education, community programming, and faith-based services across Canada.”
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