It seems that CUPE (you remember CUPE, right? they are anti-Israel, pro-Hezbollah...) is trying to reverse the Prime Minister's decision to put the Court Challenges Program out of its (our) misery. They've started a "Save the CCP" website, encouraging Canadians to bombard the PM and his staff with emails. From a more credible source I might buy it, but Canada's largest union is notorious for being a special interest group catering to special interest groups.

As taxpayers, we've had enough with special interest groups being funded by the government. If you really feel you have a case, then find people who are on your side and agree with you to fund it - stop taking the money out of my pocket. Here's a good idea - if CUPE thinks the cases that go through the CCP are so worthwhile, let them fund it! Or let them find a Canadian George Soros to back them.

Want a good laugh? The CCP website has a section on your "rights" that reads as follows...

Did You Know That...

* Until the 1920's, no women in Canada were allowed to vote, and that it wasn't until the 1960's that all Canadian women could vote?
* Aboriginal children were forced to go to residential schools where they were stripped of their culture and their language?
* In the 1940's, Japanese Canadians were put in prison camps in Canada just because they were of Japanese ancestry?
* Until the 1970's, there were laws in Canada that allowed governments to sterilize women and men with disabilities without their knowledge or consent?

Yet the CCP had absolutely nothing to do with changing any of the above. Most of those changes were organized and driven privately, or the government simply changed them on their own. The Court Challenges Program didn't even exist for most of that time! Yet the only thing they refer to on that "rights" page as having been accomplished by them is

One example where funding was given to individuals and to a group is the Egan case. In the Egan case, a gay couple, Mr. Egan and Mr. Nesbit, challenged a law that gave government benefits to couples of the opposite sex, but refused those benefits to same sex couples. They argued that this law violated Section 15 because it was unfair to gay men and lesbians. The Program's funding helped Mr. Egan and Mr. Nesbit pay the costs of taking the case to court.

Bravo. You didn't give me the right to vote, but you let two gay men collect each other's insurance. Yup, they've made a huge difference here in Canada. Let me write them a cheque!

Yet here's an example of a very successful private case that went in front of the Quebec Supreme Court and has already succeeded in changing the way Canadian patients are treated: Chaoulli vs. Quebec.

Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General) [2005] 1 S.C.R. 791, 2005 SCC 35 was a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada where the Court ruled that the Quebec Health Insurance Act and the Hospital Insurance Act prohibiting private medical insurance violated the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. In a 4 to 3 decision, the Court found the Acts violated Quebeckers' rights to life and security of person under the Quebec Charter; as such the ruling is only binding in Quebec. Three of the seven judges also found that the laws violated section seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The highly controversial nature of this ruling has brought much of the current Canadian public health system into question.

FYI, CUPE wasn't pleased... that should tell you something right there.

As Canadians, are we going to continue to fund special interest groups that break down the fabric of our country, or are we just going to let this blasted program die? I say we send it to a publicly funded heath institution, and let it die on a stretcher in a hallway. But that's just me...

Why don't we, as taxpayers and citizens, counter the negative effects of CUPE by writing to the PM and Jim Flaherty, expressing our support for them pulling the plug on the Court Challenges Program?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper can be reached at the very easy to remember pm@pm.gc.ca

Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, can be reached at jflaherty@fin.gc.ca

Don't waste your money anymore!