Canadian Heritage committee  The members of the organization are set out. They are the historically disadvantaged groups and individuals. The program is structured very much following the contribution agreement. So the people who are eligible to be applicants under the court challenges program are also eligible to become members of the court challenges program.

Canadian Heritage committee  Some of the members are also beneficiaries, yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, but you're talking about the members...the members of the board or the members of the organizations?

Canadian Heritage committee  Right.

Canadian Heritage committee  Some of them, yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  The applicant would have to make sure that the request fulfils all criteria to obtain financing, meaning the issue must relate to equality rights or linguistic rights. If indeed, the matter deals with equality rights or a federal government policy, assistance would be available, but there would certainly have to be an element of—

Canadian Heritage committee  I have to confirm that the criteria are set out very clearly in the contribution agreement. They're followed very closely, and the evaluation in 2003 confirmed that the program was doing exactly what the government's mandate was for the court challenges program. Every application that comes through is reviewed on its own merits.

Canadian Heritage committee  Let me just add—

Canadian Heritage committee  Let me answer very quickly in terms of the balance. If REAL Women wanted to make an application to fund a case that would advance equality rights for women, certainly I would think they're an eligible group. Whether the issue they would bring forward would be eligible under the vision, if you will, of human rights legislation, international and Canadian....

Canadian Heritage committee  That was the program before ours.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  If I may just add something, what we were saying was that since the reinstatement of the program in 1994, we have not received an application from REAL Women. I think Mr. Matte did say that we did not know about anything prior to that time, because we don't have any records or access to those records prior to 1994.

Canadian Heritage committee  They may have applied prior to 1994.

Canadian Heritage committee  I can assure you that the people who will be appointed to those panels, that is, people who are experts in the areas of equality rights and language rights, have a very good knowledge of every fundamental document dealing with human rights, nationally and internationally. You can find on our website the names of the people who will sit on those panels and who will make decisions.

Canadian Heritage committee  Certainly. The criteria for eligibility for funding under the Court Challenges Program are spelled out in the contribution agreement we gave you a copy of. The program is intended for historically-disadvantaged individuals and groups as well as official language minority communities.