Tax Court WIN ignored by Canada Revenue Agency

JMJ Feb.12,2014 The following letter is one I wrote to Canada Revenue Agency. The Tax Court of Canada in the spring sent me a document to show that L’Ecole Notre Dame du Nord represented by myself won the right to an extension “ for the reasons that you stated.” The main reason I stated was that Consumers Branch in Regina under Ministry of Justice was blatantly stopping our constitutional right to run a Catholic School. Therefore their cancellation of our Non- Profit Corporation status should be ignored. I sent a copy of the Tax Court Judgement to C.R.A. On Friday Martine Mandeville phoned me to tell me they are cancelling the mission’s charity status. She seemed to have not read the letter I sent or ignored the contents. Worse she did not understand that the judgement was from the Federal Tax Court and not some provincial decision. There is no provincial Tax Court. All donations of 2013 will get a charitable tax receipt. All present donations are the same. If the Minister who is now Finelay does not stop or reverse Mandeville’s decision we will go to the Supreme Tax Court of Canada again and will likely win again. We appreciate all donations and see no reason why we can’t continue to give tax receipts in the future. Thank- you. Gay January 01, 2014 Ms. Martine Mandeville Charities Redress Station Ottawa, Canada Dear Madam, Thank-you for the opportunity to provide additional information concerning the threatened revocation of the Charities Status of L’ Ecole Notre Dame du Nord. Your deadline for more additional information is January 20. You will note that I have enclosed the judgement of the Tax Court of Canada that the Charity has a right to an extended appeal. Since that court decision I have had no direction from C.R. A. until your phone call and registered letter dated Dec.13 which was in my hands Dec. 27.( Post Office 175km. away.) This gives me limited time to prepare a reply and does not seem consistent with the Tax Court Decision. There are some serious constitutional issue that need to be addressed and should be examined at length. I will attempt to list them: 1. Freedom of Religion 2. Freedom of Association 3. The Right of each person to have an education 4.The Right of Catholic Schools to exist and the Right of Catholic Schools to be Catholic. 5. Equality throughout Canada in areas of Human Rights and in law. 6. No Arbitrary separation of Canada and of Saskatchewan in particular, so that certain laws, policies and rights do not exist above an invented boundary. 7. The Manitoba School Question and its historic and legal precedent and implications. These should be the table of contents of a legal brief. Some were mentioned briefly in the papers prepared for the Tax Court. To us the issue is important for our specific mission but the implications are far reaching. A ruling against us would put the Federal- Provincial balance on its head. It would state a provincial civil servant decision, not even a policy, a law, nor a court decision can nullify constitutional guarantees and federal jurisdiction. I will attempt to begin to address these seven points but can in no way expand the discussion to its full legal and historic coverage. They will not necessarily be in order and will be connected. History :Since 1970 there has been an arbitrary line in Saskatchewan that used to be called D.N.S( District of Northern Services.) It was used as an ideological area for radicals to experiment in autonomy and in many ways in fiscal irresponsibility. The Regina government allowed it a maximum amount of freedom . One of its policies was to drive out any presence of Catholic education and to deminish as much as possible the Catholic influence. In 1985 D.N.S. was officially disbanded but its policies were allowed to continue de facto. In 1995 we went up North, My husband fought fires and we worked at reestablishing ourselves as teachers. The schools were essentially dysfunctional and full of drug use which was protected with a firm policy that you could not tell parents that their children were on drugs. I secured a position in Brabant Lake where the situation was worse. Essentially children were deprived of any semblance of education. We still had five children who needed an education. The teacher and her boyfriend was using drugs right in the school and supplying them to the community. Another teacher came along but would not give our children report cards or a grade. The Caswell children were being deprived of an education while others in reality were not being educated.. Illiteracy was almost total except for a few adults who had gone to residential school. We established the school and mission because we saw a compellung need. It has existed solely on private donations for 18 years. We complied with all the regulations provincially and federally since 1997. However one or two civil servants in the Department of Justice decided to run an harassment policy on us. Our opposition to drugs made enemies in La Ronge among an elite. The charity has always done many things besides run a school which include summer camps, a safe house for children and others et c. It became apparent that no matter how we filled out forms that a few civil servants were determined to stop us. They knew that they could stop the Ministry of Education and CRA from approving us so they used their position to the hilt. It is very unconstitutional to allow a handful of Regina civil servants in Consumer Branch to veto decisions in education and in Ottawa. An accountant who was willing to help us was astounded at their arbitrary extremes. In one instance a financial statement was stamped approved. Then two years later it was rejected.. It also seems unreasonable that CRA should make the criteria for approval these people who have admitted that they are opposed to Catholic education, they are opposed to private schools, they are opposed to us. If there are some civil servants who are opposed to the BNA Act which specifies the right of Catholic Schools to exist, who are opposed to the Charter of Rights which states everyone has a right to an education and parents have a right to decide the education of their children then that is unfortunate. They have a right to hold those views but not to act on them in their position. Parents who want their children to go to L’École Notre Dame du Nord have been flatly told to pull them and have been given many and serious threats. Their rights are most certainly violated The children’s right to an education is also violated. Many adults have gone to the school as their opportunity to get an education. They have also been threatened many times. However the Ministry of Justice , Parole Branch has used the school as an alternative to jail and the Ministry of Social Services uses it for training of recipients. That is the case at present. Obviously they have no difficulty recognising it as a school. No one has been denied post secondary education, and training after graduation from the mission school. . Many students who have gone to the school have graduated elsewhere with no unusual difficulty. As one grade XII graduate said “ If it hadn’t been for Caswells I’d be in jail.” We have enclosed a copy of the last “ Brabant Lake Times “ of the latest grade XII graduate and ceremony. ( Page 4) Notice the Member of Parliament, the RCMP officer and two deacons have no difficulty recognising it as a school, WE NO LONGER HAVE RULE BY LAW, BUT BY MEN WHEN ONE OR TWO PROVINCIAL CIVIL SERVANTS CAN VETO THE HIGHEST LAW OF THE LAND. I feel that these are sufficient opening remarks to defend the right of Catholic Schools and Independent Schools to exist and the right of Our Lady of the North School to exist. We will continue as necessary. Thank- you for your consideration of these initial comments. Sincerely, Mrs. Gay Caswell c.c. Hon. Gail Shea, Minister for Canada Revenue Agency c.c. Hon. Rob Clarke, Desnethé- Missinippi- Churchill River c.c. Hon. Gordon Wyant, Minister of Justice, Regina c.c. Hon. Ken Cheveldayoff, Regina T