The Canadian Bar Association has long supported the idea of establishing a court challenges foundation. We did some work toward that, including getting a charitable tax status for the court challenges program so it could start to raise funds independently of the federal government funding. Because of the concerns, and because it had already been abolished once, we wanted to try to avoid that situation again, including enlarging the mandate both in the language rights area and equality rights, considering the possibility of perhaps adding mobility rights in the charter, some of the other constitutional rights that have not really been explored, and really touching on the lives of people living with minority status. I think, though, that although we would look to diversify funds, without some central substantial funding from the federal government, it's not possible. That would be the ideal situation.
I think we're all keen to have the court challenges program re-established as quickly as possible. So perhaps the best thing would be two-phased: to re-establish it as it was in September of 2006, with a commitment to moving toward long-term, stable funding for the court challenges.