I remember very clearly the rationale that went into this program. I was a member of this committee around 1985 when the charter kicked in, and we had to have a look at and review all parts of Canadian legislation that were completely or partially out of touch with what the charter was saying and what the charter required.
Many of the laws that we had a look at hadn't been touched since about 1892 when they were compiling the Criminal Code, and, indeed, some of the ones from 1892 had been taken from 60 or 70 years previously, from the early 1800s. There was a very important need to make sure that we were up to date.
The job wasn't left just to this committee and/or the government to update our laws. A good case was made to have a number of these laws and these cases brought before the court and, indeed, the court challenges program, but it was believed that, after approximately 20 years of funding these and the challenges, Canada's laws were up to date. It's not that some of these issues don't continue to exist—of course they do, and of course they are a concern—but we have a judicial system in this country that gives lawyers the opportunity to challenge any laws or regulations that they find either discriminatory or not inclusive, and so that was the decision at the time.
I'm sure you track these things. I'm sure there continue to be challenges, perhaps less so than there were in the past, and as I say, there has to have been a decline since the 1980s in terms of the unacceptability or non-compliance of federal legislation.
Aren't there still quite a few challenges to different regulations and laws in this country that are conducted by the lawyers who represent these individuals? I know for sure that many of those non-profit groups continue to take on the Canadian government and use their own resources as opposed to taxpayers' resources. Is that a fair comment?