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COURT CHALLENGES PROGRAM UNDERMINES OUR SOCIAL VALUES

In 1985 the federal government set up the Court Challenges Program which was intended to help "disadvantaged" groups and individuals bring court challenges under the Charter of Rights.

Since that time, millions of taxpayers' dollars have gone to hundreds of legal challenges in the courts. Who has benefited from this program? Certainly not the disadvantaged or the poor for whom the fund was intended.

Instead, the Program funds have mainly gone to interlocking feminist/homosexual organizations who also control the Program.

In its Annual Report 2001-2002, it was disclosed that its seven (7) member Board of Directors include Chantal Tie, the Chair of its Board of Directors, who is a member of the legal arm of the feminist movement, Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF); and lesbian Shelagh Day, former vice-president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) and also one of the founders of LEAF. The remaining Board members are human rights activists and "equality rights" lawyers.

The Equality Advisory Committee consists of representatives from the feminist organization, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (an affiliate of NAC), the feminist National Association of Women and the Law, and also LEAF (again!). Two homosexual organizations are represented on the Committee, including John Fisher from the activist lobby group, Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere (EGALE). One of the special committees set up by this Advisory Panel was a sub-committee to deal with transgender issues.

According to the financial statements included in the Annual Report, the only source of funds listed for the entire Program is the federal government. This amounts to $2,141,029 for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2002. This money came from the Heritage Department, with an additional $3,609 coming from the Human Resources Development Department. The Program signed a funding agreement with the Heritage Department which was in effect until March 31, 2003. It is noted from the Annual Report that the " … Board is requesting an increase in funding for the next contribution agreement with Canadian Heritage." We will have to await the next Annual Report to see whether the Program was successful in this regard.

Since the Program is a private corporation (although totally funded by the federal taxpayer), it is not subject to the provisions of the Access to Information Act so that it is not known exactly which organizations received funding and how much they received. Conveniently, the Program has a policy that " … respects the confidentiality of the applicants." According to the Annual Report, however, the Program has funded a total of 77 organizations in 2001-2002. It did disclose in the Report, however, the name of a few of these organizations, such as the Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law, which received funding to bring a court challenge to remove the spanking law (S.43) of the Criminal Code. Further, the Report does admit the homosexual lobby group, EGALE; as well as the intervenor, the Coalition of Canadian Liberal Rabbis for Same-Sex Marriage, were all funded by the Court Challenge Program on the same-sex marriage cases.

The Supreme Court of Canada decision (Sauve v The Chief Electoral Officer), which gave federal prisoners the right to vote, previously prohibited under the Canada Election Act, was also funded by the Court Challenge Program.

According to the statistical breakdown provided at the end of its Annual Report, between October 1994 and March 31, 2002, the Program has funded a total of twenty-three homosexual cases, four of which were before the Supreme Court of Canada. We have no doubt, however, that the Court Challenges Program will pay the costs of the homosexual interventions in the same-sex Reference case before the Supreme Court of Canada. Also, it is a certainty that the Program will also cover all legal costs of the homosexual organizations in arguing against the pro-family and faith-based organizations' application for Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

It is a gross injustice that this homosexual legal activity is funded by the unknowing taxpayers through the Court Challenge Program, while all of those fighting to uphold the traditional definition of marriage are forced to find their own funding in these costly undertakings.

The promotion by the Court Challenges Program of a narrow, anti-life/family agenda has profound implications for Canadian society. By assisting in the framing of the legal action for one side only in these controversial social issues, the Program gives that position an undue advantage and influence in the Canadian courts. This would appear to be defeating the very objectives of the Charter itself. The bias of the Program also means that the social values of Canadians are being determined by the courts through legal research and court costs paid by the taxpayers, even though, for the most part, the public does not support the values being argued and promoted. What about the rights and freedoms of the majority of Canadians? Under the Court Challenges Program, equality rights under the Charter do not apply to everyone - only to a favoured few.

Please write to:

Hon. John Manley, PC, MP
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Infrastructure
15th Floor, 55 Metcalfe Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A3

The Hon. Sheila Copps, PC, MP
Minister of Canadian Heritage
Les Terrasses de la Chaudière, 12th Floor
Hull, Quebec K1A 0M5

Your MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

Please also write to your local newspaper about this gross injustice and prejudice carried out by the Court Challenges Program, which is totally funded by the unknowing taxpayer even though these court challenges undermine many of their beliefs.

Please object to the bias of the Court Challenges Program.

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