Thank you, honourable member. First, to quickly respond to a previous question, let me reassure you that we have read the report tabled by the Standing Committee on Official Languages. This is an extremely important document. It is long and has a lot for communities to think about. I think that the entire committee should be proud of having tabled such a document and made it available to Canadians.
As for your question, Mr. Godin, it's clear that we can only speculate since there were no consultations and the reasons given don't hold water. I can say, however, that some majority groups were not happy with some decisions made by the board of directors of the Court Challenges Program. However, that is part of the job. When it comes to ensuring minority rights, some members of the majority—no matter whether it is a linguistic majority or whether it concerns equality—will never believe in some of the rights recognized by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That is why the Charter was written. If we didn't need to recognize some rights in the Canadian Constitution if those rights were recognized by all Canadians, particularly with regard to section 15, which refers to race, religion, handicap and so forth, we would not need the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. You believed that it was necessary to have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; now, it has to be tested to see how it will be applied in reality. Sometimes, not everyone is happy. Some groups don't like some decisions made by the courts. At the very least, the Charter had to be tested. Even if people are not happy, this right has been recognized.
Is that why the Court Challenges Program was abolished? We cannot say.