Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
May I say, I fully agree with everything that my long-time friend, Ms. Go, has just said.
Egale Canada Human Rights Trust welcomes the opportunity to present to the committee today. Egale is Canada's only national charity promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans human rights through research, education, and community engagement. Founded in 1995, Egale was one of the top consumers of the court challenges program during its former existence under the skilled leadership of then executive director, John Fisher.
Allow me to brag a little bit. No other group has been more successful in achieving equality through the courts and through the use of the court challenges program.
Egale welcomes plans to reinstate the court challenges program and the opportunity to assist this committee in its important work. I might say, in reference to Ms. Go's comments about the stagnation of the jurisprudence, that I actually won the last section 15 case in the Supreme Court of Canada. It was the Hislop case, in 2007, almost 10 years ago. That should tell us something. Reinstatement provides an opportunity to critically assess the positive features and limitations of the former program, while also imagining what a more effective version might look like.
Canada is a leader in the world in ensuring protection from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. Canada was one of the first countries in the world to legalize equal marriage. That progress is in no small part due to the impact of the CCP. However, in the years since the CCP was cancelled, Canada has rested on its laurels.
Canada has fallen behind other countries in advancing the rights of sexual minorities, particularly in recognizing the rights of transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, and intersex persons. It will come as no surprise to you that I'm going to urge you all to vote in favour of the bill to add gender identity and gender expression. It's a welcome development. However, it's noteworthy that since the court challenges program was cancelled in 2006, not a single case has reached the Supreme Court of Canada that considers gender identity or gender expression as an analogous ground. In my view, that's no coincidence.
It's to be remembered that when section 15 of the charter was approved in 1982, legislators declined to expressly include sexual orientation, let alone gender identity, in its language. However, the door was left open for the inclusion of sexual orientation as an analogous ground. This was recognized in the report of the former parliamentary committee on equality rights by Patrick Boyer on compliance with section 15.
Regrettably, none of the report's recommendations on law reform respecting sexual orientation were taken up by Parliament despite a promise by then attorney general John Crosbie to do so. It was clear that there was a lack of political will to do the right thing. Members of our community would have to fight to establish their rights in the courts. We did so, and we won. Perfect equality is a goal towards which we should always strive as a society. Canada has come far on that journey, but it still has a long way to go. A revived court challenges program will assist our country to advance.
I do have a written submission that I urge you to consult, but I'll highlight some of the recommendations that we're making.
We strongly support the reinstatement of the court challenges program, an excellent program that Egale used frequently. That program has made a significant contribution to cases helping to reduce discrimination based on sexual orientation. As my colleague Ms. Go has highlighted, it's no coincidence that the termination of the court challenges program has coincided with the stagnation in the jurisprudence regarding section 15. There has been no progress on gender identity and gender expression equivalent to that which was made on sexual orientation. A renewed court challenges program, quite frankly, is a matter of fairness. It will help level the playing field between marginalized groups and governments. If we had spent a tiny fraction of the monies that are expended defending charter violations to protect charter rights, we would be a much better country.
It's really important to realize that one of the things the court challenges program did was to present a way to engage the private bar. The amount of resources that were devoted by the private bar to these cases far exceeded the amount of resources that were expended by the government. It is a classic leveraging of private resources and mobilizing of those private resources through government seed money, and I might also say, it developed excellence in the bar.
CCP will enhance equality, and improved equality enhances the quality of life for all Canadians. We have only to look to the example of North Carolina to realize what happens when you promote inequality. There are devastating economic consequences for everyone.
The court challenges program administration should be independent and cost-effective, and as a consumer, I can tell you that we were very satisfied with the previous administration of the program. We believe that funding of consultations should be included in the court challenges program again. We recognize that caps on funding cases are needed, but they will need to be set at higher levels. The amount for trials was especially quite inadequate.
As with the language rights support program, funding should be based on merit. Previously the program would not allow funding with respect to tribunals, and it would not allow funding of matters under provincial jurisdiction. I always found that bizarre, because the federal government appears in court all the time on matters that involve provincial jurisdiction. They have a right to appear if the charter is engaged. It's not meddling in provincial jurisdiction. The federal government always has an interest in promoting and protecting charter rights.
The tribunal should be irrelevant. Lots of people go to tribunals these days. In the province of Quebec, for example, most gays and lesbians use the provincial human rights mechanisms to redress wrongs. That is the model used by the language rights support program. I've talked to lawyers who work with that program, and they find that it works exceptionally well. It's better to have wise people like Ms. Go look at the cases that come forward and assess them based on which ones are likely to have the greatest impact on protecting and promoting charter rights.
Thank you very much. I will be happy to answer your questions, and I urge you to have a look at our 10-page written submission.