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LIBERAL GOVERNMENT RENEWS COURT CHALLENGES PROGRAM

By C. Gwendolyn Landolt
National Vice President
REAL Women of Canada

The Liberal government appears to be determined to keep the Court Challenges Program (CCP) afloat.

The object of the program is to bring test cases of so-called national significance before the courts to change the law in favour of the position espoused by special interest groups which operate and benefit from the program. For example, according to its Annual Report, 2002-2003, the program's Equality Advisory Committee includes representatives from three feminist groups as well as two homosexual groups - all of which have received grants from the program in recent years.

The Department of Canadian Heritage, under Sheila Copps (Hamilton-East), has been the sole source of funds for the program over the years. As Minister of Heritage, Ms. Copps renewed an agreement with the CCP in March 31, 1998, which was to run until March 21, 2003.

According to the report of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chantal Tie, included in the Court Challenges 2002-2003 Annual Report, the CCP operated with a 20% deficit during the previous five-year. The Board of the CCP (an independently incorporated organization at arm's length from the government, and to which the Access to Information Act does not apply) made a request to Canadian Heritage for a short-term, one-year renewal of the contribution agreement to the program, pending a decision about its request for an increase in funding from the Heritage Department. According to Ms. Tie's statement, this renewal was granted for one year, which ended in March 2003.

In April 2004, Canadian Heritage committed itself to a further five-year agreement with the CCP. The previous agreement with the CCP was to provide $2.75 million a year for the five-year period. It is unknown, however, whether the 20% increase as requested by the CCP, was granted in this new agreement.

Pro-family, traditional organizations have never received a penny from the fund. REAL Women has twice applied to the program and has been refused both times. In fact, when we first applied in the Borowski case (1987), our application for funds was torn apart by one of the feminist lawyers, who advised us that, as our arguments did not support equality rights for women, there was no possibility that we would be funded. Apparently, the equality rights for the unborn child are not an issue for the program.

History of the Court Challenges Program

The CCP was initially established to provide funding for language rights issues, but was expanded in 1985 to include challenges to federal legislation regarding equality issues.

The Mulroney government, in February 1992, cancelled the program, supposedly as part of a deficit reduction effort, but in reality, because the program was so discriminatory; it funded only left-of-center organizations and issues. The Mulroney government also claimed that the program was no longer necessary because the equality and language rights in Canada had already been established, with a substantial body of case law in existence by that time.

The cancellation of the program led to howls of rage from the special interest groups who had benefited so enormously from it.

Consequently, the Liberal government included in its "Red Book" in the 1993 election, a provision to re-establish the program. Allan Rock, the Minister of Justice, reinstated the program in October 1994, and it has remained in existence since that time burdening not only Canadian taxpayers, but also our country's democratic process.

The reason why the Liberal government continues to support the CCP is because the program permits "progressive" changes in the law without the government actually being held accountable to the public.

That is, the program is an effective way of using taxpayers' money to do an end run around the democratic process by allowing public policy to be determined by the courts, not the legislature. Simply put, the program permits politically correct changes in the law, by way of the appointed unaccountable courts, without having to place controversial issues before Parliament. It is an elitist approach to government, which is doing enormous damage to the social values of our country.

The program should be scrapped immediately. It not only discriminates on the basis of political, social and religious beliefs (only the politically correct are acceptable to the program), it also enables and enhances the opportunities for appointed judges to change the values of this nation in accordance with their own personal ideologies and perspectives. The program is profoundly undemocratic and is depriving Canadians of Parliamentary democracy.

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