Canadian Heritage committee  I will tell you quite honestly that REAL Women was not excluded per se: they never applied. Any Canadian can apply under the program, as long as they are eligible under the funding criteria set out in the contribution agreement. The purpose of the program is to assert and promote the rights to language equality.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'd first like to clear something up about conflicts of interest. Keep in mind that under our structure, members of the board of directors, for example, Ms. Morton and Mr. Matte, don't make any financial decisions. There is a real separation between members of the board of directors and groups responsible for making those decisions.

Canadian Heritage committee  Good morning. A number of questions have been raised by witnesses before this committee, and a number of our comments are included in our brief. I would like to make a few comments. With respect to the concern that only one side of an issue is funded by the program, we should remember that the original intention in creating the CCP was to provide funding for test cases under the equality and language provisions of the Charter and Constitution.