Ottawa, April 13, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Family news in Focus reported Tuesday that the Canadian federal government has quietly extended the notorious Court Challenges Program (CCP) for five more years. The program, begun in 1985, has been used by the ruling Liberals to fund costs incurred by radical social change groups for Charter of Rights legal challenges seeking to impose unpopular law changes.
Focus reported that the current Court Challenges Program agreement was to expire March 31 but Liberal Senator Jack Austin stated “It is the intention of the government to renew the Court Challenges Program for an additional five years”. In a 2003 report REAL Women of Canada noted that since the CCP was set up “millions of taxpayers’ dollars have gone to hundreds of legal challenges in the courts. Who has benefited from this program? Certainly not the disadvantaged or the poor for whom the fund was intended”. “Instead,” said the organization which has been battling the CCP since its creation, “the Program funds have mainly gone to interlocking feminist/homosexual organizations who also control the Program”. Unbelievably, the names of groups and individuals that receive taxpayer money through the CCP are considered secret and cannot even be discovered through requests made under the Access to Information Act. Family News in Focus says that “Among those known to have received funds are the Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law which fought unsuccessfully to deny parents the right of parents to spank their children and Egale and a homosexual couple in their bid to legalize same-sex marriage.”
Worse yet, says Focus, “Pro-life and traditional family groups… have consistently been denied CCP funds”. These groups have had to raise their own funds to intervene in the cases launched by the groups so richly funded by tax dollars for their challenges to the government’s own laws. This latest development reinforces increasing concerns that Paul Martin appears to be committed to the same anti-family, anti-life social change agenda that his autocratic predecessor Jean Chretien was determined to impose on Canada and the world. Family News in Focus story https://www.fotf.ca/familyfacts/tfn/2004/041304.html See also, Spanking wars go to court Taxpayers footing the $45,000 bill through Court Challenges Program https://www.theinterim.com/2000/jan/01spanking.html Court Challenges Program Undermines Our Social Values https://www.realwomenca.com/newsletter/2003_july_aug/article_8.html Fraser Institute report on the Court Challenges Program https://www.fraserinstitute.ca/admin/books/chapterfiles/The%20Court%20Challenges%20Program-pp15-16.pdf