Official Languages Committee on June 12th, 2007

[Christopher Schafer]

To answer that question, personally I don't think it's relevant. I am sure that groups that have received the court challenges program funding in the past may have been candidates for different parties in the past. I do believe, to answer your question, that Mr. Carpay was a Reform Party candidate at some point.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I still have time, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. D'amours, I am told that the vote is at 11 o'clock, so your—

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chairman, whether it is at 11 o'clock or 11:15, I still have at least two minutes, do I not? I can at least go to 10:45.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. D'Amours, I would not want to give you more time than the others.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

It cannot be more time, since I have not used up my five minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

That is why I wanted to tell you that I might have to shorten your time. We may have to cut back to four minutes for everyone, so that everyone can have a chance to speak. You have one minute left. Is that all right?

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have one minute left.

Mr. Schafer, I have one last question. Is it possible that some members of the CCF's advisory committee might also be former members of the Reform Party?

[Christopher Schafer]

It's possible I myself am a former member of the Reform Party, but again, I stress that I don't think that's relevant, as I'm sure people who have received court challenges program funding in the past may have, or still do, belong to different political parties across the ideological spectrum.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Schafer, out of respect for the groups who are before us, whether the anglophone groups from Quebec or those from elsewhere in the country, we need to clarify something. You say that your organization is non-partisan, and you say that you are opposed to the Court Challenges Program. It just so happens that the executive directors are members of the Reform Party or the Conservative Party.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. D'Amours, that will be the end of your time. You had a little over four minutes, and the following turns will be shorter.

Yes, Mr. Godin?

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I just checked with our desk: the vote will be at 11:15 or 11:20, so in about 30 minutes from now. So we do not need to shorten the question period.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

I apologize to members and the witnesses. In that case... One moment, Mr. Chong has a point of order.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Mr. Chair, we have to be very careful when we have witnesses in front of this committee. I was not at all, until today, familiar with the Canadian Constitution Foundation. I was never a member of the Reform Party. It is a federally registered charity, and under Canadian law it must be non-partisan. I think we should be very careful about questioning the non-partisan nature of organizations that appear in front of committee that are federally registered charities.

These witnesses appear in front of us, and I've never heard of this organization before. I don't think there's anything wrong in asking questions about where the funding comes from, or who the members of the organization are, but I think we have to be very careful about implying that it may not be non-partisan in nature.

So I would urge caution to members of this committee with respect to that line of questioning.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Very well.

Mr. Nadeau.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Mr. Chairman, Mr. D'Amours still has one minute left. I will then speak for five minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

The clerk has just informed me that the bell will start to ring at 10:45 for a period of 30 minutes. The timer indicates that Mr. D'Amours has already had 4 minutes and 30 seconds, so he has 30 seconds left.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Chairman, I hope that no one tries to sidetrack my question so that people forget the point that I am making.

I want to come back to my question, Mr. Schafer. I apologize to the other witnesses, but this is an important clarification that needs to be made.

You say that you are non-partisan. I will not go into details with you on comments that have been made by some of these people, since the members opposite, on the government side, might change their points of order. People talk about non-partisanship, but this is so partisan that there are many people who have run for office, for example, for the Conservatives in 2006. We know that the Court Challenges Program was eliminated after that. There was also the Reform Party in 1993, and people like Ezra Levant and company.

Is this a Conservative group or a genuine advocacy group?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. D'Amours.

We will now go to the second speaker in our third round.

Mr. Nadeau, you have five minutes.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Mr. Schafer, could you please answer the question asked by my colleague, Mr. D'Amours.

[Christopher Schafer]

I don't believe we're a partisan or biased organization. We represent the interests of all Canadians. Our group is a charitable organization; therefore, we have restrictions on our activities in terms of maintaining our charitable status. If you look at other groups that received court challenges program funding in the past, such as LEAF, Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, one could make a plausible argument that they too are partisan, as the member would state.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you very much for explaining your partisan politics.

I would like to put some questions to the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada.

Some questions were put to you earlier. We heard that you represent nine national organizations. If I understand correctly, you also represent nine provincial organizations and three territorial organizations. I attended the summit two weeks ago, and it was a very rewarding experience. All in all, 33 Canadian francophone minority organizations were represented.

Because you are an umbrella group, I would like to know whether you have heard how the organizations feel about the fact that the current Conservative government has abolished the program. What sort of things do they say?

[Luc Harvey, Conservative, Louis-Hébert, QC]

Mr. Chairman, I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. Harvey.

[Luc Harvey, Conservative, Louis-Hébert, QC]

An entity that cannot comment on the Court Challenges Program is being asked to make comments about this situation. We tried to establish a principle which was already complicated from the beginning. We should be careful not to lead Ms. Boudreau down the wrong path.