The taxpayer participated in a leveraged donation arrangement and filed his return on a timely basis. Two months later, he received a CRA letter stating that the return would not be assessed until the tax shelter was audited - unless his donation claim was withdrawn. Similar letters were issued to the other "GTS program" participants, as well as to participants in other gifting tax shelters. The Minister admitted that the main reason the taxpayer's return had not been assessed was "to discourage participation in these tax shelters" (para. 3, also para. 9).
Harrington J allowed the taxpayer's mandamus application, so that the Minister was required to assess the taxpayer's return within 30 days. The reasoning in Ficek was persuasive, as the decision to audit was "so tainted by the real reason for the GTS program that the audit is an excuse for delay, not a reason for delay" (para. 40). The factual differences - for example, that a taxpayer in this case could voluntarily waive the claimed credit and claim it back in subsequent years - were immaterial. Here it was "plain and obvious that Mr. McNally's rights have been trampled upon for extraneous purposes" (para. 41).