The amendment does not do that. It is clear now that it did require some explanation.
The amendment does not allow the CRA to crack down on any organization it does not like. It allows CRA to ensure that the charitable tax credit is used for charitable purposes. That is the reason the charitable tax credit exists. It has never been the case that Revenue Canada identifies a political organization and says, you can't speak. Rather, it says to charitable organizations that use the charitable tax credit to pay their bills that the resulting revenues they bring in should be used for charity. That is what the charitable tax credit is for. If you want to bring in a lobbying tax credit—anybody who wants to engage in lobbying activities gets a tax credit—then just say so, but don't lie to the Canadian people and tell them it's about charity. It's not about charity. It's about lobbyists and advocates using taxpayers' money in order to advance their political agendas. That's what the government is trying to transform this tax credit into.
Frankly, if organizations that are charitable but have political objectives want to advance those objectives, there's no reason why they can't simply set up a separate bank account, and say, in bank account number one, we have the dollars we've raised using the charitable tax credit so we're going to use that for charity. In bank account number two, we raise money for political advocacy and lobbying, and as a result it's not eligible for a charitable tax credit because it's not for charitable works, so we will use that bank account for lobbying and advocacy. There would be no problem with any organization doing this.
Mr. Julian likes the idea of giving tax credits to lobbyists, because he happens to like the lobbyists who use it, but I'm curious. When inevitably other organizations that he doesn't agree with start to do exactly the same thing, you can bet that the NDP will have a very different view.
As for the government claiming that they're suddenly in favour of freedom of expression and want to defend people's right to speak out, this is the same government that said that soup kitchens and recreational camps for poor people and food banks should lose their summer students if they don't subscribe to the Prime Minister's personal values test. They're prepared to crack down on organizations that don't meet the right ideological and political test—no problem with that—but at the same time they want to give a tax credit for lobbying activities, which thus far have been almost entirely related to organizations that are trying to shut down whole industries in this country and put vulnerable, low-income people, indigenous people and other working Canadians out of jobs.
If that's what they want to run on—the idea of giving a tax break to those kinds of groups—they will have to take responsibility for how that money is used.