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TORONTO
- A coalition of advocates for minorities, women and
the disabled is seeking to join a court challenge to
the widely criticized federal Conservative government's
decision to cancel a decades-old program that provided
money for equality-focused legal fights.
In
an application to be filed Tuesday in Federal Court,
the coalition argues the death of the court challenges
program will damage efforts to ensure charter rights
are respected.
"This
case raises issues of critical legal, national importance
and public interest concerning access to justice for
historically disadvantaged groups," Laurie Beachell,
of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, states
in a supporting affidavit.
"The
issue of access to justice is of particular significance
to people with disabilities who face multiple barriers."
In
one of its first acts after coming to office, Prime
Minister Stephen Harper's minority Tory government axed
the court challenges program in September last year,
saying it was not providing good value.
The
government said it would save taxpayers almost $3 million
a year.
"The
court challenges program was the mechanism through which
people without substantial means were able to exercise
their charter rights," David Baker, a Toronto lawyer
acting for the coalition, said in an interview Monday.
"It
gave a voice and it gave access to justice to a group
of people who otherwise would not be able to bring forward
their cases."
The
national non-profit program was initially established
in 1978 with the aim of helping minority linguistic
groups, but was expanded in 1982 and again in 1985 for
others seeking equality under Section 15 of the Charter
of Rights and Freedoms.
Over
the years, those groups have won numerous landmark battles
with the program's help.
One
example involved the council's tortuous but ultimately
victorious fight with Via Rail over the accessibility
of its passenger trains, which upheld in March by the
Supreme Court of Canada.
The
program has also helped women win pay-equity cases and
gays win equality protection.
"It's
a complete muzzling of the people for whom Section 15
was intended," Baker said.
Supporters,
however, have applauded Harper's decision on the grounds
the government was funding left-wing interest groups
to attack bedrock conservative values but not, for example,
anti-abortion cases.
The
coalition is seeking intervener status in a challenge
to be heard in February in Moncton, N.B., launched last
October by the Federation des communautes francophones
et acadienne du Canada.
Sharon
McIvor, of Merritt, B.C., who successfully fought the
federal government over an Indian Act provision that
denied status to thousands of Aboriginal women and their
descendants, now faces the prospect of losing because
she can't afford to defend against Ottawa's appeal.
"I
face a very substantial access-to-justice barrier to
holding this historic legal precedent," McIvor
states in an affidavit on behalf of the Feminist Alliance
for International Action.
The
decision to axe the program has drawn the wrath of numerous
groups and individuals.
The
official languages commissioner denounced it as "the
product of a seriously flawed decision-making process,"
while the Liberal opposition, Newfoundland Premier Danny
Williams, and a national lawyers group have also attacked
the decision.
The
Tories first killed the program when in power in 1992
but the Liberals reinstated it in its current guise
in 1994.
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