BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE COURT CHALLENGES PROGRAM GOES ON AND ON

The federally funded Court Challenges Program continues to support legal challenges, which it believes will result in fundamental changes to society in accordance with its own views.

According to the Program's Annual Report for the year 2000 - 2001, it is still administered by many representatives of homosexual and radical feminist organizations. These advocates sit in the driver's seat of the Program, moving the Program along in its own unique direction, backed by generous amounts of money from the Minister of Heritage, Sheila Copps.

Well-known lesbian activist, Shelagh Day, serves as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors, as well as Co-Chair of the Equality Rights Panel of the Program. Representatives from the legal arm of the feminist movement, the Women's Legal Education Action Fund (LEAF), as well as other human rights specialists and activists, sit on both the agency's board and equality panel. Similarly, its Advisory Committee is made up of feminist organizations, such as the Elizabeth Fry Society, National Association of Women and the Law, and LEAF, as well as homosexual groups, such as Ottawa-based EGALE (heavily funded by the Program) and the December 9 Coalition - a homosexual lobby group from BC.

According to this annual report, the Court Challenges Program held its annual meeting in Ottawa on November 17 - 19, 2000. At that meeting, intense discussions arose in regard to a member's resolution "to support of the struggle of transgendered persons." Although the members expressed sympathetic support for this "equality-seeking community," the members present were concerned that it was a funding group only and that its tax exempt status prevented it from openly advocating or lobbying on behalf of the transgendered population. We can expect, however, that the Program will compensate the transgendered community at a later date, by funding, on request, any legal challenges it chooses to launch.

The Program's financial report listed salary and benefits at a generous $417,675. (The Program obviously serves as a "make work" factory for its friends and supporters.)

In the year 2000 - 2001, the Program covered the costs of the following court cases, among others:

• An African Canadian man was subjected to a strip search in 1997 in a Subway Sandwich Shop in Toronto, following a police stakeout. The police ordered customers to leave the premises, and then commenced to strip search the accused by pulling down his trousers to find a bag of cocaine hidden between his buttocks. The accused was found guilty of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking. He appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court of Canada, thanks to the Court Challenges Program, arguing that he had been subjected to degrading public treatment by the police. The Supreme Court of Canada, in a 5-4 decision handed down on Dec 6, 2001, agreed with him, concluding that the accused had been searched in a manner that disregarded his dignity and physical integrity. The court concluded that strip searches should generally only be conducted in police stations, except under special circumstances. The Supreme Court of Canada took the unusual step in this case of acquitting the accused rather than ordering a new trial.
• An African Canadian was found guilty of sexual assault and unlawfully confining a young woman. He was funded by the Program to appeal his case to the Supreme Court of Canada on the grounds that the lower courts refused him permission to question potential jury members on their prejudices about African Canadian persons. (The complainant was also an African American and the accused introduced no evidence in the lower court, that anti-Black racism exists in Montreal where the offence occurred.)
• The Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law brought a legal action, challenging the right of parents or teachers to spank children. The Program funded the Foundation's appeal costs to the Ontario Court of Appeal. (The Foundation lost in the lower court - the expenses for which were previously covered by the Program.) According to the Annual Report, "This case is a powerful example of the struggle our society has with viewing children as persons with full rights."
• ·The Program funded a coalition of feminist groups, including LEAF, the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres and NAC, to uphold the rape shield law, which prohibits the court from hearing evidence of the complainant's prior sexual activity. (The accused's prior sexual activity, however, is disclosed to the court.)
• The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously affirmed the constitutionality of the rape shield law in a decision handed down October 12, 2001.
• The Program funded a woman who was denied Employment Insurance benefits because she had not worked the 700 required hours. The woman worked part time only and looked after her children in the remaining time. In a decision handed down March 2, 2001, it was concluded that the 700-hour threshold discriminates against women, in that women are more likely to be employed part time than men, due to women's greater contribution to child care and household responsibilities.

According to the Program's Annual Report," this case shows how seemingly neutral norms reflect the reality of a relatively privileged group [men]." (One wonders if there would be such a sympathetic decision if a man who worked part time had requested such a similar exemption.)

• A group of young persons from rural China smuggled into Canada brought a number of claims for refugee status, by way of funding from the Program, to argue the protection of the Charter in light of their disadvantage and lack of power owing to the fact they would face harm at the hands of their families, the Chinese government and the smugglers (snakeheads) should they be forced to return to China. The Immigration and Refugee Board handed down a decision on October 20, 2000 stating that the youths could validly seek refugee status.
• The lesbian Little Sister Book Store, whose material was seized at the border by Canada Customs, appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, claiming that Custom officials had violated the bookstore's freedom of expression and right to equality. On December 15, 2000, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the constitutionality of the obscenity law, and held that lesbian/homosexual material must conform to the obscenity law like that of everyone else. The judgment did state, however, that Canada Customs' actions of targeting the lesbian bookstore must stop.

In addition to these court challenges, the Program also funded several so-called "impact studies" to further the Charter's equality guarantees. For example, it funded the feminist National Women and the Law to "advance social and economic equality," and, in particular, the notion that "social condition" (poverty) should be included as a ground of human rights discrimination. The Program also funded EGALE in its "negotiations" with the federal government in connection with proposed changes in same-sex benefits, which resulted in Bill C-23. That is, it funded EGALE to lobby the government to support its special interest agenda.

We also know from EGALE's own material, that the Court Challenges Program has funded EGALE's three same-sex marriage challenges before the courts. This, however, will appear, presumably, in the Program's next Annual Report 2001-2002.

The only bright spot in the lamentable list of funding projects by the Program is the fact that it did fund a coalition of organizations for the disabled to intervene in the Latimer (mercy killing) case. We can be grateful that our tax money at least funded one (1) valuable case! However, this one funding project, commendable as it may be, is scarcely a consolation to offset the many damaging projects funded by this Program.

Please write to:

The Hon. Sheila Copps
Minister of Canadian Heritage
Jules Leger Bldg., 15 Eddy St.
Hull, Quebec K1A 0M5
Tel: (819) 997-7788
Fax: (819) 994-5987

The Hon. Paul Martin
Minister of Finance
L'Esplanade Laurier,
East Tower
140 O'Connor St., 21st Floor
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G5
Tel: (819) 996-7861
Fax: (819) 995-5176

Your MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

objecting to the government funding of the Court Challenges Program.

BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS