Good morning.
Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen members of the committee, the Canadian Bar Association appreciates this opportunity to comment on the Court Challenges Program, which is closely related to our mission.
The Canadian Bar Association is a national association representing 36,000 jurists across Canada. Among the association's primary objectives are to improve the law and the administration of justice. It is in that context that we wrote to you. The committee has in its possession the letter we sent it about the program.
The court challenges program is as important today as it was when it started, if not more important. By giving vulnerable individuals and groups the tools they need to exercise their basic rights, the program makes these rights real and not just words on a paper.
In renewing the program, it's critical the government reinstate the elements that best support this aim. In our view there are four.
The first is administration of the program by an organization that's independent from government.
The second is to continue, at its core, support for historically disadvantaged groups and official language minorities to enforce their equality and language rights under the Constitution through the courts.
The third important element of a reinstated program is to only fund those cases that have a systemic impact and that promise to improve conditions more broadly for the individuals and groups these rights are intended to protect.
Finally, it's extremely important the program continue to provide for meaningful and informed input into the development of the cases by the communities that will be most affected. This is done through support for consultation, as well as support for access to the program, and spreading information about the program and the rights it protects.
We've provided further detail on these important elements of a reinstated program, and we would invite you to review our submission.
With that said, the other major point we wanted to make today in the time we have respects this question of expanding the mandate of the program. We understand that is under consideration. We considered this question in light of the commitment by the government to reinstate the program in terms of equality and language rights, and to modernize it. It was in the spirit of understanding the framework that we considered what might be potential expansions to the mandate that would support that underlying rationale.
Our first recommendation, and the CBA has long made this recommendation, would be to extend equality rights funding to support cases that challenge provincial or territorial law or policy. These cases can be important precedents in their own right, with broad impact, and that has long been a limit that many have critiqued the program for.
Secondly, we advocate expanding the mandate to include complaints under the Official Languages Act, and it's for similar reasons we recommend that.
We also recommend, and this is our third potential addition to the mandate, that the program be flexible enough to support the entirety of a case that may raise or be based on other charter rights in intersection with equality rights. This is increasingly becoming common. A recent example is the Carter case, where not only section 15 but other charter rights were raised. I think it's evidence of the complexity of the issues that can raise equality issues in Canada today.
A fourth potential addition to the mandate would be to support systemic complaints against government under the Canadian Human Rights Act. This would be complaints before the Canadian Human Rights Commission. We have recently seen a case, the first nations child caring society complaint, that was an equality test case. They need support at the early stages. We would advocate that you consider extending the program to provide that support.
Finally, with respect to mandate expansion, we would urge this committee to strongly consider recommending that funding be provided to support test cases raising aboriginal rights, treaty rights, and the responsibilities of the federal government to indigenous peoples. We recognize that this would likely entail additional funding, an additional budgetary commitment to what is currently being committed, and that it would need to start with consultation with indigenous communities. However, we think this is an important addition that needs to be made.
That's all we will say on the issue of mandate expansion. Again, we would invite you to read our brief.
In closing, we would say that the objectives of the program are as important today as they were in 2006 and in 1986. Canadians still need the court challenges program to make equality rights and language rights real for the people those rights are intended to protect.
We really appreciate this opportunity to share the best advice that our members have for this committee and wish you the best in the important work that you have to do.
Thank you.