The CRA audit determined that PGS was guilty of using 26 per cent of its resources for political activities, which included a letter-writing campaign to the Prime Minister and MPs to support a ban on nuclear weapons.

“All charitable definitions are based on a document from 1601 called the Statute of Elizabeth, that’s when charitable targets were identified,” says Bell. “The law was repealed several centuries later but still forms the bias in all common law for how a charitable purpose is defined.”