Tories defend end to law program benefitting seniors, women,
Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2006 8:33 am
Man what a bunch of dirty low life heartless scum Harper and his cronies are.The Conservatives are under fire for killing a legal-aid program that has assisted Canadian minority groups in a series of historic court victories over the last three decades.
The cancellation of the Court Challenges Program was slammed Wednesday by the country's largest legal organization, opposition parties, and at least one Tory provincial government.
The Trudeau-era program has helped fund successful court challenges that broadened the rights of Canadian seniors, women, the disabled, homosexuals, religious groups, aboriginals, and minority-language groups.
The federal Tories announced this week that cutting the program would save taxpayers $5.6 million over two years.
Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams - a provincial Tory and a lawyer - called the cuts worrisome and distanced himself from the "right-wing" federal Conservatives.
The opposition Liberals noted the irony of the cuts coming just months after a famous pre-election quip by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
"He said, 'Don't worry, if you elect me as a prime minister, the courts will hold me in check'," Liberal MP Omar Alghabra told a news conference.
"(Then) what does he do? He cancels the Court Challenges Program, which is supposed to hold him in check."
The program helped fund court battles that gave seniors employment-insurance benefits, and gave deaf people the right to get sign-language service in hospitals.
It helped women win pay-equity cases, and simplified the necessary argument for a sexual-assault conviction.
It funded cases that opened schools for French-Canadians, guaranteed English-language rights in Quebec, and helped affirm religious freedoms like Sikh children's right to carry a kirpan.
It helped homosexuals win equality protection under the Charter of Rights in landmark 1990s cases that led to a slew of new legal benefits and eventually paved the path to same-sex marriage.
But the program has long drawn the ire of the Tories, who already killed it in 1992 the last time they were in power.
The Liberals revived it in 1994 upon returning to office, and its continued existence has long been a sore spot to conservatives.
It seems to me the tories are scared of these groups and others who wish to get their constitutional rights under the Charter they are guaranteed enforced by the courts.
Is this another way for the tories to keep "control"? so to speak.
Wow these guys have to go before they destroy the country.
You can read the rest here