Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  The position of the Canadian Bar Association is that, if they meet the necessary threshold, however that is articulated, those cases where equality rights intersect with other charter rights should be supported completely, when one determines the essential basis of the charter issue involves multiple charter rights that include equality rights.

Justice committee  I don't know if we would answer the question exactly as phrased, but certainly, with regard to the desire to have the program extended to provincial law and policy in terms of equality rights challenges, part of the concern there is that there are certain issues, particularly issues affecting poor people, people of low income, or socially disadvantaged people, which are more often under provincial jurisdiction.

Justice committee  Certainly the advance cost is a positive development and is relevant in equality cases as well as aboriginal cases. What we would say on any policy question like that, such as whether advance costs should be required or that a request for costs should be made, is that careful consideration should be given to any policy to ensure that it's not undermining the basic rationale.

Justice committee  We have had discussion of this question because we're aware of these discussions. As far as the Canadian Bar Association is concerned, in some ways these will be administrative details that need to be worked out because of the granular nature of some of the considerations that need to be taken into account.

Justice committee  What we would say in response is that with the court challenges program, in its former incarnation on the equality rights side and today with the language rights program, lawyers already contribute a significant amount of pro bono and what we call “low bono”, which is when you receive lower fees than you normally would be able to and need to subsidize those from other work.

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  Yes, what we did in our consultations with members who are involved in these kinds of cases is establish that costs have raised exponentially, and certainly my colleague may wish to comment in terms of language rights cases. Things like expert witnesses are increasingly required.

Justice committee  Our position would be based on what our members have told us. We have 36,000 members across the country, jurists across the country, with a broad range of expertise who have worked with the program, both in terms of the language rights and the equality rights aspects of the program.

Justice committee  What we would say is that this would be an evolution of that original intent. That original intent continues to be valid today, as we see. We still see equality cases and language rights cases going before the court. On the need that was identified early on, I think potentially the wish was to resolve most of the issues, but what we've discovered through the years with the program is that there continue to be important issues to be brought before the courts.

Justice committee  Yes, we do think it would work, but we recognize that it would likely have to progress in consultation with provinces and territories. The idea of family law being an example of a potential area to start in is interesting, because I think what you've identified there is that there may be priority areas where there's an intersection between federal and provincial law.

Justice committee  Good morning. Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen members of the committee, the Canadian Bar Association appreciates this opportunity to comment on the Court Challenges Program, which is closely related to our mission. The Canadian Bar Association is a national association representing 36,000 jurists across Canada.