Inside the tax agency’s years-long fight with the charity behind a world-class athletic centre in Burnaby

In October 2020, Canada Revenue Agency staff discussed the findings of an audit that they had begun three years earlier at a prominent B.C. charity.

“We have concerns that there is currently no charitable activity and we struggle to see how that can change in the future,” one CRA auditor wrote in her contemporaneous notes after the call.

The auditor added that the case presented a “complex issue, especially given the high profile of this foundation in the community.”

The charity under scrutiny was the Fortius Foundation.

Fortius was launched with great fanfare in 2012, with headlines touting a record-breaking philanthropic donation. A world-class athletic facility bearing its name would go on to serve athletes ranging from local amateurs and youths to professionals and international champions.