Status of Women Committee on Dec. 11th, 2007

[Carole Tremblay]

There will be two significant issues in the coming years, or perhaps in the coming months, on which the federal government will have to take a position. I will only talk about one of them. For example, how will the termination of matrimonial regimes in the Aboriginal communities play out? Lawmakers are likely to take a position on this. This is something that we will need to follow. Because the Court Challenges Program no longer exists, we will have to see whether what the federal government puts in place is deemed appropriate by the 11 Aboriginal communities in Canada. We will have to follow that issue very closely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

Professor Sheppard, are you there?

[Colleen Sheppard]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

You have one minute to wrap up, please.

We'll hear from Professor Sheppard, followed by Professor Mahoney.

[Colleen Sheppard]

Thank you.

I think equality is a widely endorsed ideal in our country, yet its realization remains to be seen. In many ways, we may be seeing problems of inequality worsening with globalization. There is the rise of precarious jobs and continued systemic violence, so there is still very much a problem with inequality.

To finish up, I think that you--you as a committee, you as members of Parliament--have been entrusted by the citizens of Canada to ensure that our rights, our democracy, and our conceptions of citizenship and equality are advanced. I hope that in your deliberations and in your work you can look at this small part of the puzzle, the court challenges program, and think about what it means to the broader objectives and values we hold dear.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

Go ahead, Professor Mahoney.

[Prof. Kathleen Mahoney]

Thank you.

In summary, I would say that the court challenges program is very good public policy. It is in the public interest to maintain it and to improve it.

I would conclude by saying that anyone who doubts this statement should look at the history of the cases funded by court challenges. I would defy anyone to say that any one of those results is not in the public interest, because there was enormous progress made for peanuts, as was said earlier. While there was very little investment, the return on investment was huge.

To foolishly destroy this program is not in the public interest and will not benefit Canadians, because racism and sexism and all the other forms of discrimination are not a good thing, and basically the bottom line is that anything that can assist in ridding our country of those negative aspects is a good thing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you very much.

Thank you all for being here. You have been pioneers in your field. You have enough scars to show for it. We're very thankful that you are here, and we apologize for the short time we gave you, but we appreciate your input. As we move forward, you have helped us in developing our response to the cancellation of the court challenges program.

I thank you. Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year, and may blessings be with you.

I adjourn the meeting.