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FIRST READING: Canada finally gets around to stripping non-profit status from a terrorist group

It took 17 months, and happened only because the terror group didn't file proper paperwork

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FIRST READING: Canada finally gets around to stripping non-profit status from a terrorist group Back to video

Seventeen months after Canada designated Samidoun as a terror entity, authorities have only just gotten around to stripping the group of its non-profit status.

And even that wasn’t because of the group’s open support of violence, or its alleged exploitation of the Canadian charitable sector in order to wire money to terrorists.

Rather, it was because their paperwork wasn’t in order.

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On March 27, Corporations Canada pulled the registration of Samidoun, an anti-Israel organization added to Canada’s official list of terror entities in October 2024.

In a statement at the time by Public Safety Canada, Samidoun was accused not only of advocating for violent terrorism, but of helping to fundraise for for the PFLP, an active Gazan terror group.

A U.S. statement issued on the same day would be more explicit, accusing Samidoun of exploiting the charitable sector in order to bankroll extremist violence. Samidoun is a “sham fundraiser whose efforts have supported terrorism,” said a statement by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Nevertheless, none of this proved sufficient to get Samidoun stricken from Canada’s official list of legal non-profits.

For 17 months after its terror designation, Samidoun retained an active listing on Corporations Canada’s official database. This included a business number (1279374-1) and the names and addresses of three Samidoun directors.

A note would eventually be added to the listing warning observers that they were reviewing the details of a terrorist organization, and that any contact with it might risk criminal prosecution.

“It is a criminal offence for anyone in Canada … to directly or indirectly provide property knowing that it will be used by or benefit a terrorist group,” read the alert.

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Still, the registration remained active, and would end only after a technical violation of the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act.

Samidoun appears to have stopped submitting annual filings after its terror designation, and it was this that ultimately got the organization “dissolved for non-compliance.”

Canada’s inability to purge terrorist groups from its non-profit database is made all the more egregious by the fact that top-level officials have publicly expressed outrage with the status quo, and yet have still failed to do anything about it.

Six months ago, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly called it “completely unacceptable” that Samidoun was still a federally registered not-for-profit.

“I have therefore directed government officials to urgently look at any and all options to formally dissolve Samidoun as well as any and all listed terrorist entities in Canada,” she wrote in a statement at the time.

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Still, even if the March 27 deregistration was merely a consequence of missed paperwork, it remains the only material consequence that Samidoun or its organizers have suffered in the wake of their terrorist designation.

No Samidoun organizers have faced charges, and Samidoun co-founder Charlotte Kates has remained free to enter and exit the country at will. Last September, for instance, she was able to travel to Athens International Airport, where she was refused entry to Greece under the terms of a European Union ban on Samidoun.

Since the terror designation, Samidoun’s website and various social media accounts have remained active.

The former still has a statement expressing the group’s intention to ignore the terror designation, referring to Canada as a “settler-colonial state built on genocide.” That statement, like many issued by Samidoun, also reaffirms the group’s allegiance to “Al-Aqsa Flood,” Hamas’s official name for the October 7 terrorist attacks.

Samidoun members have even continued to attend anti-Israel protests in the Vancouver area. Surrey, B.C., resident Dave Diewert was listed as one of Samidoun’s three directors in its Corporations Canada filings.

Last October, a man appearing to match Diewert’s description was identified by the New Westminster Times at an anti-Israel protest held on the front steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

The site was routinely used for Samidoun rallies prior to the group’s terror designation. It was on the front steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery where participants at a Samidoun-organized event were photographed burning a Canadian flag and declaring “death to Canada.”

It was also at a Samidoun-organized Vancouver Art Gallery event that Kates delivered a speech declaring “long live October 7th,” and describing Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters” and “our heroes.”

The latter incident prompted Vancouver Police to recommend charges of incitement of hatred, but the BC Prosecution Service never followed up on the file.

In a very rare moment of the monarchy doing something of substance for Canada, King Charles III may have helped indirectly defuse U.S. President Donald Trump’s constant annexation threats against Canada.

That’s according to a new book by royal biographer Robert Hardman.

Hardman describes interviewing Trump about his relationship with the British royal family, when the president suddenly asked Hardman’s thoughts about annexing Canada as U.S. territory.

“Attempting to acquire it would undoubtedly make the King of Canada unhappy,” Hardman described himself replying. He then described Trump as saying, “I guess it’s not going to happen,” attributing the change of mind to the president’s respect for the royal family.

While the U.K. will routinely use the royal family as diplomatic envoys for British interests, the privilege isn’t typically afforded to Canada.

Two of the only exceptions were 1950s-era visits by Queen Elizabeth II to the United States, including one where she met U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Although the U.S. press generally reported them as visits from the British monarch, the Queen was actually there in her capacity as the Canadian Head of State.

Reportedly, Canadian officials spent so much time reminding their U.S. counterparts of the distinction that the idea of touring around the Queen of Canada was ultimately scrapped.

Trump’s semi-regular statements referring to Canada as the 51st state have never been taken all that seriously in the U.S. Multiple U.S. polls show that it’s one of the most unpopular issues that Trump mentions, with one January survey finding just 17 per cent of Americans think it is a good idea.

First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.

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