*_Speech by the Honourable Stéphane Dion on Restoring the Court Challenges Program_*

House of Commons

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on the government to fully restore the
court challenges program to ensure all Canadians are able to access the
protections of their Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Without any prior warning or consultation, the government decided in
September 2006 to cancel the court challenges program because it was
allegedly inefficient and too costly.

Was the court challenges program really inefficient and costly? False.
An independent study conducted in 2002-03 confirmed the value and
importance of this program for Canadians. Its value and importance were
also confirmed by countless testimonies and the program's strong record
on protecting the rights of disadvantaged Canadians and linguistic
minorities.

Just think about the Montfort Hospital, the only francophone hospital in
Ontario which, in the 1990s, survived efforts made by the Harris
government to close it down. Ms. Gisèle Lalonde, former chair of SOS
Montfort, said, "Without the court challenges program, [...] we wouldn't
be where we are now."

The Minister of the Environment, the Minister of Health and the Minister
of Finance were all part of the Harris government. Thanks to the court
challenges program, they lost the battle to close down the Montfort
Hospital. A few months after forming the federal government, they joined
forces with the current Prime Minister who had also lost a court case
against a beneficiary of the program. They managed to get the court
challenges program out of their way. It is the Minister of the Environment himself who announced the cancellation of the program. That was a vendetta.

Here is what Ms. Lalonde said after the announcement, "What the Harper
government is asking us to accept, however, exceeds in its deceit what
any other government may have done in the past. This is not just a
matter of cutting expenses. The [...] government is depriving the most
vulnerable in our society of access to justice system."

The government may have cancelled the court challenges program but it
could not erase its remarkable achievements. The program helped confirm that Canadians accused of a crime can have a trial in their own language and it helped reaffirm the right of official language minority groups to
manage their own school boards and to higher education in their mother
tongue.

The court challenges program helped homosexual couples achieve equality
protection, allowing them to secure spousal benefits and paving the way
on same sex marriage.

The program helped seniors secure employment insurance benefits, helped
women win pay equity cases and helped disabled groups fight VIA Rail for
the right to accessible trains.

Because of the court challenges program, the religious freedom of Sikh
Canadians has been confirmed, deaf persons have the right to receive
sign language service in hospitals and aboriginal Canadians living off
reserve have the right to vote in band elections.

These certainly sound like results to me, as I am sure they do to most
Canadians. They fly in the face of the government's suggestion that
lawyers were the primary beneficiaries of the court challenges program.

In an attempt to defend the government's decision to cancel the program, the Hon. member for Ottawa West---Nepean suggested that it made no sense
for the government to support a program designed to help groups
challenge its laws. Any government afraid to have its laws challenged in
court ought to take a second look at the soundness of those laws.
Regardless, the court challenges program was not about who wins and who loses. It was about ensuring that the justice system was accessible.

In 1982, Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Jean Chrétien, who were then the
prime minister and the justice minister, ratified the Canadian Charter
of Rights and Freedoms. In so doing, they were enshrining in the laws of
our country the values of diversity, tolerance, freedom and justice.
They made equality under the law the keystone of our democracy.

The court challenges program that had been created to help define
linguistic rights was broadened further to the enactment of the Charter
in order to help those who were trying to defend their right to equality. The court challenges program strengthened the Charter. This program ensured that the cost of a lawsuit would no longer deter those who wanted to fight for their rights. It gave practical expression to the principle of equality promised by the Charter.

But today, because of decisions made by this government, the Charter has
been weakened and is now out of reach for too many Canadians. The
termination of this program, that was after all not so expensive at only
$5.6 million a year, has meant that even middle class Canadians cannot
turn to the courts anymore.

Yet, there are still a good number of battles to fight, and rights to
win. The court challenges program is still needed. Between April and
September of 2006, 61 funding applications were submitted. The majority of these applications dealt with the rights of aboriginal Canadians, of
ethnocultural minorities, of disabled persons and of women. This
suggests that inequalities still exist in our society for these groups
and that solutions have to be found.

Therefore, we find ourselves at a crossroads. If we want to keep the
power of the charter in the hands of individual Canadians, if we want to
continue, as the charter instructs us to, to strive as a country for the
highest possible achievement, building a country in which the rights of
every Canadian are equally respected, then we must restore the court
challenges program. If we do not, accessing the charter will become the
exclusive privilege of the wealthy in our country, and its promise of
equal treatment will be broken.

Leading Canadian non-governmental organizations and individuals across
the country have spoken against the government's actions.

Bonnie Morton of the charter committee on poverty issues has called the
cancellation of the court challenges program "an attack on the Charter
itself and the human rights of everyone in Canada".

She has said: "If [Canadians] cannot ensure respect of their rights
because of financial barriers, Canada's constitutional democracy is
hollow. We turn the Charter into a paper guarantee, with no real meaning."

Yvonne Peters of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities has
explained: "Without the Court Challenges Program, Canada's
constitutional rights are real only for the wealthy. This offends basic
fairness. And it does not comply with the rule of law, which is a
fundamental principle of our Constitution."

Author and journalist Michel Gratton said: "It is illegal and
unconstitutional for a government to encourage assimilation."

Franco-Ontarian Michel Gratton was also the press secretary to former
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

The Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada is
taking the government to court in an attempt to restore the court
challenges program.

Jean-Guy Rioux of the association stated: "Cancellation of the program
shows a serious lack of respect for francophone Canadians living outside
Quebec, for anglophone Canadians living in Quebec and for all Canadians
who may need the protection of their government to assert their rights."

Even the Commissioner of Official Languages, Graham Fraser, has joined
the throng calling for the court challenges program to be
re-established. These voices can no longer be silenced. The government
must respond by restoring the court challenges program so that all
Canadians may continue to have access to the protection guaranteed by
the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Last year Canada celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms. Events that took place across the country
recognized that the charter was more than just a legal document. It has
helped us become one of the most successful multicultural, bilingual
federations on the face of the planet. It articulates our shared identity by reminding us and by tell the world where we want to go as a
nation. It is a vision of for what our country can and must strive.

I am immensely proud to lead the party that secured the charter for
Canadians. I think every Canadian prime minister ought to make a point
of publicly celebrating the charter, but last year the government made
the decision not to. It decided not to celebrate this integral part of
our Canadian identity.

We need the court challenges program today for the same reasons we
needed to enshrine the charter in law almost 26 years ago. Legislatures
are not perfect. Despite their best efforts to uphold our fundamental
Canadian values, parliamentarians sometimes make mistakes. When they do,
they need the charter to be accessible to all Canadians so it can guide
us back to the vision we all share of building a better Canada.

In 1992 the Mulroney government cancelled the court challenges program.
When we Liberals came back in government, we restored the court
challenges program. Now we have watched the Conservatives cancel it
again. It seems they have failed to learn from their mistakes. If they
do not reinstate the program, then the next Liberal government will
again, and this time we will double its funding.

James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4