“We commend your government’s decision to restore funding to the Court Challenges Program (CCP). We applaud your commitment to ‘work continuously to make Canada more diverse, inclusive and equitable.’ And we share the Minister of Justice’s expectation that reinstatement of the CCP ‘will increase access to justice for vulnerable groups and official-language communities.’
“However, in expanding the human rights focus of the CCP to include claims under sections 2, 3, 7, and 27 of the Charter, without any requirement for an equality rights focus except in relation to section 27, your government appears to have abandoned a key commitment to protecting and advancing substantive equality and access to justice for disadvantaged groups and official-language minority communities.”
The Legal Network is one of more than 70 signatories to this letter.