By Dean Beeby

OTTAWA — The Canada Revenue Agency says it pays no attention to pro-government or anti-government political leanings when it chooses which charities to audit for their political activities.

But charities targeted in the first wave of agency audits were largely opponents of the Harper government’s energy and pipeline policies, an analysis shows, suggesting bias in their selection.

“The CRA does not conduct research into the political views of any charity, and it does not base its decision to audit any charities on this criterion,” said agency spokesman Noel Carisse.

The head of the charities directorate, Cathy Hawara, said last month that political ideology was indeed a factor, telling a Toronto newspaper: “We also gave consideration to … what you might call political leanings, to make sure that we weren’t only focusing on one side of the political spectrum.”

Hawara later said she had mischaracterized the CRA’s selection process.

“What position a charity might take on any given issue, what views they might have, what perspective they have on a particular policy issue, isn’t really of concern to us — and isn’t a triggering factor,” she said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Rather, Hawara said, the agency seeks balance by targeting groups from each of four charitable categories, that is, relief of poverty, advancement of religion, advancement of education and benefit to the community — the last a grab-bag that includes environmental and human-rights groups.

She said the agency also considers any formal complaints from citizens, lobby groups, MPs or even cabinet ministers. Such external complaints were taken seriously enough to have generated some 30 “leads” for further investigation, though the CRA will not provide details.

The newly formed political-activity audit group, consisting of nine people in Ottawa and six auditors across Canada, set itself a goal of 10 audits for 2012-2013, its first year of operation.

The agency does not publicly identify which charities it targets, citing confidentiality provisions of the Income Tax Act.

But information gathered by The Canadian Press shows at least half of the 10 political-activity audits slated for 2012-2013 were conducted on charities in one narrow category — environmental groups, all of whom oppose government energy policies.

This group of initial audits included Tides Canada Foundation, Tides Canada Initiatives Society, Ecology Action Centre, Equiterre, Environmental Defence Canada Inc., with the David Suzuki Foundation following early in the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

A Nova Scotia charities lawyer with several hundred clients also says the political-activity audits he knows about are all in the environmental sector.

“The organizations I am aware of that have been audited, or are still in process, are in the environmental community,” said Richard Bridge in Middleton, N.S.

CRA’s initial focus on environmental groups closely follows inflammatory statements by Conservative cabinet ministers shortly before and after the 2012 federal budget, which announced $8 million for the new political-activity audits.

Environmental groups had a “radical agenda,” Joe Oliver at Natural Resources said in January that year. The groups were used to “launder offshore funds,” said Environment Minister Peter Kent in May.