Thank you, Mr. Chairman, honourable members.
The Canadian Bar Association is pleased to have again an opportunity to speak in favour of the court challenges program.
The CBA is a national organization that represents over 37,000 jurists across Canada. We bring a rule of law perspective to our objectives of improving the law and improving the administration of justice. We believe that the elimination of the court challenges program will have a serious impact on the rule of law and the administration of justice in Canada.
You have before you two letters that we have written in the past few months, one to the Prime Minister and responsible ministers for the program, and another to your colleagues on the Canadian heritage committee. These outline our concerns about the program, and I will ask Ms. Buckley to elaborate on those.