Shae Fischer took this photo of a young female quail.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Shae Fisher
October 08, 2022 – 6:31 PM
A Kelowna wildlife non-profit is in hot water after issuing a news release endorsing candidates.
Yesterday, Oct. 7, WildAid Canada issued a news release stating “Mayoral candidate Tom Dyas and Councilor candidates Ron Cannan, Sachsen Coolecut, Chris Williams, Dan Schlosser are not involved in the real estate business and will offer a more diverse approach to the planning of our city’s future .”
According to the Income Tax Act, non-profits cannot devote any resources to directly or indirectly supporting a political party.
“The release that was sent out was sent out by accident, it wasn’t supposed to be represented by WildAid,” said executive director Joe Duff, adding it was intended to be from independent board member Charles Fipke.
He said the article was initially supposed to be about wildlife in Kelowna “but it changed and when it changed, we removed our name from it and it became an independent article… I neglected to remove the WildAid that was in the lower footings,” Duff said.
“It was an honest mistake, unfortunately,” he said. He said he noticed the mistake when he received the first media call about it.
He said WildAid will send a revised press release this weekend once the board of directors has approved it.
Charles Fipke made his fortune in diamonds and is also a chairman of Cantex, a mining company that shares a Kelowna address with WildAid Canada, according to their websites.
Fipke and Cantex could not be reached for comment Saturday afternoon, Oct. 8th.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Carli Berry or call 250-864-7494 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won’t censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2022
