Mr. Speaker, I acknowledge your indication of the time and I want to make sure my colleague has the opportunity to sum up at the end of the debate.
I want to follow on the comments of the hon. member who just spoke. I found it interesting that he on the one hand calls for accountability through the democratic process and for policy to be shaped by the democratic process, yet intertwined in his talk is support for the Court Challenges Program. I found a real inconsistency when we look at what is actually going on here.
My experience prior to coming to this great House was that I worked in a business environment and had some exposure to certain business practices. One of the things that is brought to mind is the generally accepted accounting principles and practices that are norms and structures for the business environment.
Why are those principles put in place? They are there to ensure that business processes are structured in such a way that there is not even the appearance of a conflict of interest or the appearance of misuse. They protect the processes against any kind of misuse. The problem with the Court Challenges Program is it does not have that kind of protection for the taxpayer.
One of the new terms we have heard coined in Canada lately is the term of judicial activism. I see that as the will of special interest groups using unelected judges to override the parliamentary or democratic process which if successful imposes the will of the minority on the majority. This is of particular concern to us with this program.
Since the charter of rights, and the hon. member who just spoke made mention of this, many social policy debates have shifted from the political arena and from the democratic process into the courts. My concern and the concern of many of the members of my party is that special interest groups are imposing their particular positions on the will of the majority.
Policy matters should properly be handled not by taxpayer funded special interest groups presenting their cases before unelected judges but by common support and elected representatives debating and deciding these issues in parliament and legislatures. This is the foundation of our country, the democratic process, yet we are seeing it overridden by programs like the Court Challenges Program.
I quote an example. The Lawyers Weekly , in a 1992 issue stated that 75% of the Women's Legal and Education Fund, LEAF for short, which is known as a feminist activist group, had interventions before the Supreme Court of Canada which were funded by the Court Challenges Program. Many of their interventions were funded by this program. The group LEAF intervened on a number of cases. Borowski, Daigle, Lemay and Sullivan were all cases dealing with the laws around abortion. In these same cases another group, REAL Women of Canada, had also been granted intervenor status by the Supreme Court of Canada but they were refused funding by the Court Challenges Program.
Regardless of where one sits on these particular cases or on this issue, there is a fairness issue here that is obvious. Even if one is going to endorse this program one would think there would be some component of fairness. But when one side of the argument is funded and not the other and it is done in such a heavily weighted fashion, there are clearly some significant problems with the process.
These are the kinds of examples which illustrate that certain groups with certain ideologies and certain opinions are being endorsed and funded by taxpayers. I liken it to being forced to pay someone to beat you up with a stick. That is what is happening to Canadian taxpayers thanks to this program.
I know my time is short so I will move to my concluding remarks to ensure that my colleague has time to summarize.
Our party's position is that we would like to ensure that the foundation which built this country, the democratic process that gives Canadians an opportunity to shape policy in the public arena but not through the court system is what is entrenched. Those are all detailed in our policy. We stand behind them and that is what members will see in the House as we represent our positions.