Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's a pleasure to appear before the committee today to speak to my private member's bill, Bill C-316, the court challenges program act.
The genesis of this bill was the work we did in the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in the 42nd Parliament. In that committee's “Access to Justice” report, one of the key recommendations was to enshrine the Court Challenges Program in law.
Canada is an open, inclusive democracy in large part because the rights of individuals are respected. However, during our hearings in that committee, we learned that it is often too easy to take for granted the many rights and freedoms that we enjoy as Canadians.
The court challenges program protects and reinforces our constitutional rights by providing financial support to persons and organizations seeking to put test cases of national significance before the courts. More specifically, the program provides funding to protect our constitutional and quasi-constitutional official language and human rights.
First created in the 1970s, the court challenges program plays a decisive role in helping Canadians clarify and affirm their rights, especially their official language and equality rights. Although the program was cancelled in 2006, our government restored it in 2017. We expanded it to cover rights that had not initially been included but that are protected by specific sections of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms respecting fundamental freedoms, including democratic rights, freedom of expression, the right to life and freedom and security of the person.
The program has, over the years, been used many times to protect the rights and freedoms of Canadians. It has provided funds to disabled Canadians to help ensure they are treated fairly; it has helped to clarify the rights of LGBTQ+ people to marry whom they love; and it has strengthened the rights of official language minorities to protect their rights and preserve their culture.
The Court Challenges Program also provided support to important cases such as Andrews v. Law Society of British Columbia, wherein the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a law society could not prevent a qualified permanent resident from practising law in Canada simply because they were not a Canadian citizen. Think of the relevance of this ruling today as we try to recruit doctors and nurses from abroad.
The court challenges program reinforced the rights of francophone minorities in British Columbia, helping, in particular, to protect the rights of francophone children to receive French-language instruction of quality equal to that of English-language instruction.
In its June 2020 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada reaffirmed the importance of education in the official language of one's choice. The court also acknowledged the central role that section 23 of the Charter plays in enhancing the vitality of official language minorities communities.
I know that some may ask....
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