Last night, on a live, Canadian national TV broadcast, the founder and president of Canada’s first religious television station, The Miracle Channel, explicitly directed viewers who wanted more information on how they should vote in Monday’s parliamentary election to the website of votemarriagecanada.ca. This website contains lists of endorsed candidates and says that the site’s purpose is “Working to Elect a Pro-traditional Marriage Parliament.”
The Miracle Channel is a registered charity in Canada. It appears to me that The Miracle Channel may have stepped out of compliance with Canada’s regulations regarding charities.
Miracle Channel President Dick Dewert delivered this indirect endorsement of anti-gay-marriage candidates at the conclusion of a three-day-long conference at the station. With him were three U.S. based preachers, including Rick Joyner, a Charlotte-area pastor who is a close friend of the disgraced and now repackaged former head of PTL, Jim Bakker.
Transcript and video, below the fold.
Download video (Quicktime, 3.8 MB, 1:06)
Now listen, we know, and everyone watching knows this from Canada, right now that we’re only one day away from a very important election. And you know elections are important because we choose leaders who then will make choices that will affect every one of us for the next number of years. And you know we’ve been encouraging you over the months here, over the weeks, to really search out who you’re going to vote for. But I’m going to say this. Do not stay at home, make sure you vote.
And you know I like what one leader said one time, he said, your vote is your right to pray for the country, and to pray for the nation, and we know the bible says we’re to pray for those in authority.
If you want more information about who you should vote for in your riding, let me just encourage you, go to promarriage.ca, www.promarriage.ca, or go to votemarriagecanada.ca. We’re believing that we are going to have a pro-marriage, pro-moral, pro-righteous Parliament, in this coming year.
As I mentioned above, The Miracle Channel is a registered charity in Canada and Dewert’s directions to viewers regarding votemarriagecanada.ca may have put them out of compliance with Canada’s regulations regarding charities.
According to the Canada Revenue Agency’s policy on political activities by charities, political activity involving direct or indirect support of, or opposition to, any political party or candidate by a charity is prohibited.
Dick Dewert has an interesting history of flaunting Canada’s broadcasting regulators. As is openly admitted in the history published on the Miracle Channel’s own website, before Christian television stations were licensed in Canada unlicensed broadcasters were importing and broadcasting the signal of the American Christian television channel, the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). Evidently Dewert was behind one of these unlicensed transmissions and was called before Canada’s broadcast regulators to explain himself. Later, the unsanctioned stations voluntarily shut down and a legitimate station license was eventually obtained for the Lethbridge, Alberta station.
The Miracle Channel is carried on both Canadian domestic satellite TV services and on a number of cable systems. It is also carried in the US on a single cable system in Albuquerque.