Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to the committee, Mr. McKinnon. I'm privileged to be here today.
Mr. McKinnon, I want to thank you for introducing this bill. You said that a private member's bill shouldn't include provisions for the disbursement of public funds; that's done in accordance with the procedure and Standing Orders of the House of Commons.
Mr. McKinnon, you mentioned that your bill concerned only a small part of…. I disagree with you: Your bill is very important. It's very important that the court challenges program be made permanent. As you noted, Conservative governments cancelled the program twice. Consequently, it's very important that it be made permanent, and many thanks to you for the work you've done through this bill.
I also want to thank you for the contribution you made, with other colleagues and me, to Bill C-13, which helped to modernize the Official Languages Act. You supported the bill together with 300 other members of the House of Commons. All the parties voted for the bill, which wasn't that hard to do. I thank you for the work you've done.
As you know, Montfort Hospital in Ontario is still open thanks to the court challenges program. Ontario's Conservative government had cut off funding for the program and wanted to abolish it. The program made it possible to preserve Montfort Hospital, which provides services to Ontario francophones. Thank you for your bill.
Here's my first question. We're obviously talking about the official languages situation across Canada, and that's important, but you also mentioned persons with special needs. Would you please tell us more about the fact that this bill will also protect the rights of special needs individuals? You are also a major human rights advocate.