Permanent Collection · Hall of Selective Enforcement

The Gateway

Audit program, $13.4M, applied to sixty charities and no foundations

Dimensions: $135B in foundation assets, unaudited
Date: Manufactured 2012. Conserved 2026.

The Vitrine — Evidence

Figure01
Program budget
$13.4 million, 2012–2018.
Figure02
Who was audited
~60 advocacy charities (environmental, anti-poverty, human-rights). Zero large foundations, against ~$135B in collective tax-receipted assets.
Primary document03
Canada Without Poverty v. Attorney General of Canada — Ontario Superior Court of Justice (July 2018)
Struck down the 10% political-activity restriction as a violation of the Charter right to free expression.

Wall LabelAs authorized

Between 2012 and 2018 the Canada Revenue Agency conducted a program of political-activity audits, ensuring that charitable resources served charitable purposes. The Income Tax Act's limits on political activity were applied even-handedly, as a matter of routine compliance.

The museum presents the program as a model of neutral tax administration.

Conservation Notes

01
Placement
Framed as neutral tax compliance — the most boring surface available, so no one would ask which charities.
02
Layering
'Political activity' painted over 'advocacy we'd rather not fund'; the 10% threshold applied to the small, never the large.
03
Integration
Sixty advocacy organizations audited; zero foundations. The asymmetry was not a flaw in the program — it was the program.