In terms of the money that we're talking about here, it's non-existent. Where Mr. Fast is trying to create a sense of a beneficiary conflict is in the sense of those who benefit from the decisions that may flow from the court challenges program. And in that case, I'll say mea culpa, Mr. Chairman. I'll say mea culpa. I am in conflict because I've benefited personally because my rights as a francophone, a minority in Ontario, are now better defended because of the court challenges program. This is a benefit that I have, and I don't think there's a problem with that. If Mr. Fast has a problem with that, he should say so.
In terms of the mechanism, if he has a problem with, essentially, peer evaluation, which is what we have here, then he should also bring forward and question the Canada Council's methods, as another example to the one that my colleague, Mr. Scott, has given, for allocating public money. For the Canada Council, it's peer evaluation that is given. This is a very similar concept that we have here. This concept that he's trying to perpetuate, or enhance the conflict about, is just non-existent, and I wish we could get off that.
The other thing I think I need to say here is that I don't sense from my colleagues on the opposition a great deal of angst when it comes to linguistic rights. I didn't sense through the witnesses that we, on this side, convened a great deal of angst when it came to the rights of seniors, people with disabilities, or aboriginals. The witnesses who they suggested and where I felt some angst from their side were in matters dealing with sexual orientation and same-sex marriages in particular.
Are we going to scrap the entire....? It's not “are we”; this government has scrapped the entire court challenges program, in my opinion, because of the government's hang-ups with matters of sexual orientation. And that's a shame, Mr. Chairman. None of the other explanations we've had make sense.
I'd like to ask the parliamentary secretary if he would be prepared to try to find out if there is a review.... Well, there is a review. That's what the government said they did. Can we get that review, Mr. Chairman, in front of this committee so we understand on what basis, if it's not what I'm proposing, the government decided to scrap the court challenges program?