Canada used to be a country in which there was some opportunity for the voiceless to have a voice; for the constitutionality of the actions of our governments to be challenged. It was a cumbersome process and it was flawed, yes, but the principles of human rights and accountability existed. Now, thanks to Steven Harper and the likes of John Baird and Vic Toews, the principle of constitutional accountability doesn't even exist in principle.
This post is a reminder of what was lost and to whom.
Below is a letter written to the Prime Minister in October of 2006 on behalf of over 175 concerned Canadian organizations. Even at this early stage of the Harper government, it was clear that the strategy was to use discretionary administrative and budgetary powers to dismantle important institutions that had been put in place by thoughtful former parliaments of our country. Canada's long-held democratic institutions have been eroded even more since then by these weasely methods.
Read 'em and weep.
Then VOTE dammit! The fundamentals of our country are at stake.
(Here's the link to the original letter posting: http://www.fafia-afai.org/en/node/365 )
----------------------------------
LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER
October 4, 2006
Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
80 Wellington Street, Ottawa,
K1A 0A2
Dear Prime Minister,
We write today to ask you to reinstate the Court Challenges Program. Only by reinstating the Program can you demonstrate that your government intends to respect the human rights of Canada’s people.
The Canadian Constitution establishes important constitutional rights, including the rights of official language minority groups to education and government services in their primary language and the rights of everyone to equality before and under the law and to equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination. However, these rights are empty unless the individuals and groups they are designed to protect can exercise and enforce them.
Since the Charter was adopted 25 years ago, successive federal governments have recognized that they have a responsibility to ensure that disadvantaged minorities have funding to take Charter cases forward.
The Court Challenges Program, by providing modest contributions to the cost of important test cases dealing with language and equality rights, has made these constitutional rights accessible to Canadians. Without the Court Challenges Program, Canada’s constitutional rights are real only for the wealthy. This is unfair. And it does not comply with the rule of law, which is a fundamental principle of our Constitution.
The Honourable John Baird has been quoted in the press as saying that it does not make sense “for the government to subsidize lawyers to challenge the government’s own laws in court.” This statement implies that: 1) lawyers are the prime beneficiaries of the Program and 2) the government should not support challenges to its own laws. On both counts, deeper analysis is needed.
First, the beneficiaries of the CCP are individuals and groups who believe that laws and policies discriminate against them or deny them their language rights. They cannot go forward without lawyers to represent them, since constitutional challenges are legally complex. Secondly, when a country like Canada enacts constitutional rights it takes for granted that residents, when they believe the government is violating their rights, can and will challenge the offending law or policy. If residents cannot use their rights because of financial barriers, then Canada’s constitutional democracy is hollow. Governments must care that the rights they embrace are not meaningless, and the CCP has provided a simple and modest way of ensuring that they are not. We should emphasize that what the CCP provides is far from universal access to the exercise of constitutional equality and language rights. The CCP provides only limited funds for selected test cases.
Critics of the CCP dislike some of the cases that it has supported: cases related to same sex marriage, voting rights for federal prisoners, criminal law provisions regarding hitting children. The fact that some individuals or groups do not agree with some of the test cases funded by the Program is not a reason to cancel it. No one among us is likely to agree with every single test case that appears. The point of a constitutional human rights regime is to ensure that diverse claims, perspectives and life experiences are respected and taken into account in the design of laws and policies. The equality guarantee and the language rights in the Constitution were designed to help minorities, whose views and needs may not be reflected by governments, to be heard on issues that affect them closely. Cancelling the Court Challenges Program mutes their voices further, and makes Canada a meaner, less tolerant society.
The Minister of Justice, the Honourable Vic Toews, has questioned the accountability of the Court Challenges Program. This is not a sustainable objection. The Court Challenges Program has an established track record as an effective and accountable institution that promotes access to justice. It provides quarterly reports on its activities to the government and publishes an annual report with statistics on the number and types of cases that it has funded. The annual reports are public documents and are available on the CCP’s website:www.ccppcj.ca . It has been evaluated on three separate occasions by independent evaluators, most recently in 2003-2004, and received an extremely positive report each time.
The CCP is subject to some legal restrictions on disclosing information about cases that are before the courts. This information is protected by solicitor-client privilege and cannot be released by CCP, in the same way that legal aid organizations cannot divulge information about their clients. The CCP’s responsibility to protect this information was affirmed by a Federal Court ruling in 2000 (L’Hirondelle v. The Queen).
In short, Prime Minister, criticisms of the Court Challenges Program are feeble, and the need for the Program is strong. It is disturbing that your Government, in a budget-cutting exercise, would take the step of cancelling this Program that is considered by many Canadians a cornerstone of our justice system.
Commitment to the protection of the Charter rights of disadvantaged individuals and groups is one of Canada’s core values. Prime Minister, you recognized this commitment in the last election campaign, when you stated that if elected, a Conservative government would “articulate Canada’s core values on the world stage,” including “the rule of law”, “human rights” and “compassion for the less fortunate.”
In May, 2006, your Government appeared before a UN Committee in Geneva to defend its commitment to human rights in Canada, and described the Court Challenges Program as evidence of this commitment. Your Government wrote to the UN Committee:
The Court Challenges Program (CCP) provides funding for test cases of national significance in order to clarify the understanding of the rights of official language minority communities and the equality rights of disadvantaged groups. …
It is not possible for the government to support all court challenges, but this uniquely Canadian program has been successful in supporting a number of important court cases that have had direct impacts on the implementation of linguistic and equality rights in Canada. A recent evaluation found that there remain dimensions of the constitutional provisions currently covered by the CCP that still require clarification and the current program was extended to March 2009.
The cancellation of the Program stands in contradiction to the position that you and your Government have taken publicly on the Charter and human rights.
Finally, cancelling the Program shows profound disrespect for the francophones who live in provinces outside of Quebec, the anglophones in Quebec, and for all Canadian residents who may need the protection of equality rights, including women, Aboriginal peoples, people with disabilities, members of racialized minorities, immigrants, refugees, lesbians and gay men, children and seniors.
The laws of Canada are never perfect. Those who need to point out the imperfections in our laws, in order that they may live on an equal footing with others, deserve to be heard. By cancelling the Court Challenges Program, your Government has indicated that they will not be and do not deserve to be.
Please reverse this decision and give us back a Canada that supports human rights.
Sincerely,
Nathalie Des Rosiers
La doyenne
Faculte de droit civil
Universite d’Ottawa
A. Wayne McKay
Professor of Law
Dalhousie Law School
back to top
On behalf of
Action Canada for Population and Development
Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes (AOcVF)
African Canadian Legal Clinic
Alberta Association for Community Living
Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians / L'Alliance pour l'ÉgalitÉ des Personnes
Aveugles du Canada (AEBC)
ARCH Disability Law Centre/ ARCH Centre du droit des personnes handicapées
Association des juristes d'expression française de la Colombie-Britannique
Association des juristes d'expression française du Nouveau-Brunswick - AJEFNB
Association of Chinese Canadian Lawyers of Ontario
B.C. Human Rights Coalition
BC Coalition of People with Disabilities
Brain Injury Association Network (B.I.A.N.)
Breast Cancer Action Montreal
Canadian Arab Federation
Canadian Association for Community Living
Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS)
Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT)
Canadian Association of the Deaf / L'Association des Sourds du Canada
Canadian Auto Workers Union CAW-TCA CANADA
Canadian Bar Association/ L’Association du Barreau Canadien
Canadian Council for Refugees/ Conseil canadien pour les réfugiés
Canadian Council of Muslim Women
Canadian Federation of Students/Fédération canadienne des étudiantes et étudiants
Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action
Canadian Hard of Hearing Association
Canadian Health Coalition
Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) University of Ottawa,
Faculty of Law
Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW)/
Canadian Union of Public Employees / Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique
Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 2204
Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3260
Canadian Women's Health Network
Canadians for Equal Families
Canadians for Equal Marriage / Canadiens et Canadiennes pour le droit égal au mariage
Centre d'aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractére sexuel (Calacs) région Côte-Nord
Centre d'aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel (CALACS) de Rimouski
Centre de Communication Adaptée (CCA)
Centre de femmes l'Éclaircie
Centre d'éducation des femmes
Centre Entre-Femmes de Rouyn-Noranda
Centre québécois de la déficience auditive / Quebec Centre for the Hearing Impaired
CFT French Legal Aid Services/Services d'aide juridique du CFT
Charter Committee on Poverty Issues
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
Child Care Workers of Eastern Ontario
Chinese Canadian National Council, Ottawa Chapter
Coalition of Persons with Disabilities (COD) - NL
Community Advocates Network
Community Business and Professional Association of Canada
Confédération des organismes de personnes handicapées du Québec (COPHAN)
Congress of Black Women of Canada, Manitoba Chapter
Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD)/ Conseil des Canadiens avec Déficiences
Cross-Disabilities, Genders, and Sexualities Working Group
Dalhousie Legal Aid Service
DisAbled Women's Network (DAWN) Ontario/Le Réseau des femmes handicapées de l'Ontario
DisAbled Women's Network Canada (DAWN Canada)
Disabled Workers' Complex Case Network Inc.
Dundurn Community Legal Services
East Toronto Community Legal Services Inc.
Egale Canada
Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario - Bluewater Local
Elizabeth Fry Society of Manitoba
Ethno Racial People with Disabilities Coalition of Ontario (ERDCO)
Excalibur Learning Resource Centre Canada Corp
Family Alliance Ontario
Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada (FCFA)
Fédération des associations de juristes d’expression française de common law inc.
Fédération des femmes du Québec
Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC
Feminist Coalition of Newfoundland and Labrador
Feminists for Just and Equitable Public Policy (FemJEPP)
Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU)
Greater Vancouver Association of the Deaf
Grey-Bruce Community Legal Clinic
Halton Community Legal Services
Hamilton Mountain Legal & Community Services
Income Security Advocacy Centre
Institut Canadien De Recherches Sur Le Femmes (ICREF)
Jamaican Canadian Association, Toronto
Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice
John Howard Society of Manitoba Inc.
Justice for Girls
Kamloops and District Elizabeth Fry Society
Kelowna Women's Resource Centre
Kenora Community Legal Clinic Suite
Kensington Bellwoods Community Legal Services
Kitchen Table Collective (KTC)
La Table Régionale des Organismes Volontaires d'Éducation Populaire de la Montérégie (TROVEPM)
L'Association multi-ethnique pour l'intégration des personnes handicapées
Law Office of Mary Eberts
Law Union of Ontario
Le Centre francophone de Toronto
Le Comité des langues officielles de l’Association du Barreau de l’Ontario /The
Official Languages Committee of the Ontario Bar Association
Le Front commun des personnes assistées sociales du Québec
Le Mouvement Action Chômage Pabok Inc
Le Regroupement des comités logement et associations de locataires du Québec (RCLALQ)
Les Centres d’Accueil Héritage, Toronto
Les Frères et Soeurs d'Émile-Nelligan
Let's Teach About Women
LIFT - Low Income Families Together
Ligue des droits et libertés du Québec
Mad Student's Society
Maison l'Océane
Malaspina Faculty Association
MATCH International
Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic
Mokami Status of Women Council
Mouvement d'éducation populaire autonome de Lanaudière (MÉPAL)
Mouvement d'education populaire et d'action communautaire du Québec
National Action Committee on the Status of Women(NAC)/Le Comité Canadien
D'Action Sur le Statut de la Femme(CCA)
National Association of Women and the Law/Association nationale Femmes et droit
National Council of Women of Canada/Le Conseil national des femmes du Canada
National Eating Disorder Information Centre
Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women
Nipissing Community Legal Clinic/La Clinique Juridique Communitaire de Nipissing
North Bay & District Labour Council
North Bay Network for Social Action
Northern Society for Domestic Peace
Nouveau Départ National
Okanagan Advocacy and Resource Society (OARS)
Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI)
Osgoode Hall Law Union
Pacific DisAbled Women's Network (Pacific DAWN)
Parkdale Community Legal Services
PEI Council of the Disabled
PRAXIS Conflict Consulting
Promotion handicap Estrie Inc.
Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan
Provincial Council of Women of Manitoba, Inc.
Public Service Alliance of Canada/Alliance de la Fonction publique du Canada
Quebec Community Groups Network
Quebec English School Boards Association (Association des commissions scolaires anglophones du Québec)
Quebec Native Women/Femmes Autochtones du Québec
Refugee Law Office, Toronto
Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario
Regroupement des centres de femmes du Québec
Regroupement de femmes de l'Abitibi-Témiscamingue
Regroupement des associations de personnes traumatisées cranio-cérébrales du Qubébec (RAPTCCQ)
Regroupement provincial des maisons d'hébergement et de transition pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale
Regroupement québécois des Centres d'aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel (RQCALACS)
Response: A Thousand Voices
Roach, Schwartz and Associates
Saskatchewan Voice of People with Disabilities
Selkirk College Faculty Association
Smith & Hughes Law Firm
Social Planning and Research Council of British Columbia (SPARC BC Society)
Société Logique
South Ottawa Community Legal Services
South-East Ottawa Centre for a Healthy Community /Centre du sud-est d'Ottawa
pour une communauté en santé
Students, Recent Graduates, and Legal Workers working group (Law Union of Ontario)
The Canadian Hearing Society/ La Société Canadienne de l' Ouïe
The North Shore Women's Centre
Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
Toronto Women for a Just and Healthy Planet
Toronto Women's Call to Action
Transportation Action Now
United in Marriage (a program of the United Church of Canada)
University of Victoria Association for Women
University of Western Ontario Faculty Association
Urban Alliance on Race Relation
Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter
Victoria Youth Empowerment Society
West Coast Women's Legal Education & Action Fund (LEAF)
Women Elders in Action (WE*ACT)
Women for a Just and Healthy Planet
Women of Halton Action Movement, WHAM
Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), Toronto Chapter
Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund Inc. (LEAF)
Women's Health Clinic, Winnipeg
Womenspace
Yukon Status of Women Council
