Thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone.
On behalf of the Société des Acadiens et Acadiennes du Nouveau-Brunswick, I would first like to thank committee members for this opportunity to present our position on the Court Challenges Program and its importance to all official language communities in Canada.
My name is Ghislaine Foulem, and I am the Acting Director General of the SAANB.
As you know, the SAANB is a provincial organization that defends and promotes the rights and interests of the Acadian community in New Brunswick. In that capacity, it has a number of times received support from the Court Challenges Program, support that made it possible for us to achieve significant gains for all Acadians and francophones in the province.
If you would allow, I will give you a number of concrete examples that demonstrate how important the Court Challenges Program is.
In 2001, we received CCP support for the Charlebois case on bilingualism in municipalities. That support enabled us to obtain amendments to the Official Languages Act of our province. For almost eight years now, the SAANB and a resident of New Brunswick have been seeking to have the RCMP recognize its linguistic obligations in providing police services on behalf of the province of New Brunswick.
The Federal Court ruled in our favour, but Justice Canada and the RCMP appealed the ruling. In October of this year, the case will come before the Supreme Court. That proves how well-founded our arguments are. It goes without saying that, without CCP support, we could not have waged the legal battle needed to achieve respect and recognition of the principle of equality for official language communities found in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, under sections 16.1 and 20, as well as in the New Brunswick Official Languages Act.
A number of other court challenges have been made possible by the CCP, including a challenge to the federal riding boundary map that enabled us to keep communities of interest together, the case of the Forum des maires de la Péninsule acadienne versus the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and the case of parents in Saint-Sauveur who fought against closure of the town's school.
We have also used the Court Challenges Program to conduct legal research on the New Brunswick Regional Health Authorities Act, post-secondary education, and the legal status of professional associations.
We have to acknowledge that, every time the courts rule in our favour, in whole or in part, a large step forward is made towards strengthening the vitality and fostering the development of Acadia and New Brunswick. However, there is still a great deal left to do in the areas of health, education, and the language in which services are delivered, to name but a few, in order to achieve genuine linguistic equality for official language communities, even in Canada's only officially bilingual province.
I will give you one last example which, in our mind, constitutes a breach of the act, for which official language communities are all too often forced to bear the repercussions. As the principle spokesperson for the Acadian community, the SAANB was not consulted in the program review undertaken by the Conservative government. And I should point out that the review led to eliminating support for the Canada Volunteerism Initiative, cuts to Status of Women Canada, cuts to literacy programs, the elimination of international practicum programs for young people, and—at the head of the list—elimination of the Court Challenges Program. Yet, pursuant to the Official Languages Act of Canada, the government has an obligation to consult communities on any political issues, or any program, that might have an impact on them.
The Acadian and francophone communities believe that these measures are undermining the very foundations of our ability to mobilize and defend our rights, though without the Court Challenges Program our communities cannot prove that.
Of course—and I would like to reassure all committee members on that score—neither the SAANB nor the Acadian community sector organizations like to go before the courts as a first recourse to obtain justice. As far as we can, we prefer to work through cooperation, consultation and dialogue. In fact, that is what we did by sending an open letter to the Prime Minister in October, and by taking part in the national movement to counter the budget cuts.
At the initiative of the Moncton University Students Federation and of the Fédération des jeunes francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick, a coalition has been established. In the Atlantic region, the Société nationale de l'Acadie has begun a petition on the Internet, and a francophone team made up of official language minority community representatives has also met with some 40 members of Parliament in Ottawa, members of different political parties, to help them become more aware of the repercussions these cuts are having on their communities. We have not been successful, however.
When the rights of francophone citizens seem to be clearly ignored or violated by the government, which formulates and is responsible for applying legislation, do we have any choice but to go to the courts? But as our case against the RCMP clearly shows, challenging some government decisions is a cumbersome and lengthy process.
Our financial and human resources are extremely limited, and without CCP support we are, in a sense, a hostage, without any ability to defend ourselves. The federal government has an army of legal counsel, paid using taxpayers' money, to defend the decisions that threaten our gains, violate our rights, and run counter to its own obligations.
The Official Languages Commissioner shares the fears of official language communities. Before this committee, Graham Fraser stated that the government's actions, and in some cases the government's failure to act, sow doubt regarding the sincerity of its commitment to implement the new Part VII of the Official Languages Act. Yet we remember the considerable support Bill S-3 received from the Conservatives, who are now the party in power. The Court Challenges Program was the last recourse for official language communities who felt that the authorities had violated their rights.
By refusing to reinstitute the Court Challenges Program, the government is seriously undermining the ability of civil society to express its democratic will, it is undermining the development of our communities, and it is tarnishing Canada's international reputation for justice and democracy.
In conclusion, I would add that the SAANB has every confidence in your committee's work. We are counting on you to persuade Prime Minister Harper to overturn a decision that all official language communities are decrying with a single voice. This is not a question of political partisanship. It is a question of simple justice and fairness.
Thank you.