VANCOUVER, April 22, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Joyce Arthur, Director of the BC Pro-Choice Action Network (BCPCAN), has sent a letter to the Charities Directorate and the federal Minister of National Revenue demanding that the charitable tax status of the Pro-Life Society of BC (PLSBC) be revoked. Arthur requests that the Charities Directorate conduct an audit of PLSBC arguing that the pro-life group is operating outside of the guidelines for registered charities.
Arthur’s claims, however, are completely hypocritical. Ted Gerk, a former spokesperson for PLSBC who is mentioned in Arthur’s documentation to the Charities Directorate, told LifeSite that Arthur has demonstrated her own duplicity with the claims. In her letter to the Charities Directorate dated March 25, she cites several “activities” which she says are “contrary” to the guidelines for registered charities. In her list of such activities she includes: “intervening in legal cases” and concludes that due to these activities “grounds exist to revoke the charitable tax designation.”
However, Gerk points out that in a signed affidavit dated March 7 (less than three weeks before her letter to the Charities Directorate) Arthur herself said her BCPCAN supports the application of several pro-abortion groups to be interveners in a court case against BC pro-lifer Jim Demers. Of note, among the groups Arthur says she supports for intervenor status are several registered charities such as the Everywoman’s Health Centre Society.