Who we can fund:

You are an individual or a group whose official language rights covered by the CCP may have been breached;

OR

You are a non-profit organization that represents an individual or a group whose official language rights covered by the CCP may have been breached.

What we can fund:

Your application concerns one of the official language rights covered by the CCP.

Your application is a test case. A test case is a case that:

  1. Raises an issue that has not yet been addressed by the courts; or
  2. Brings an issue about which a lower-level court has already rendered decision but hat is not likely to go further in an appeal; or
  3. Brings an issue that was decided by courts but the judgments remain contradictory.

Your case is of national importance and could assert and clarify one of the official language rights covered by the CCP.

If your application is based on an eligible provision of the Official Languages Act, you must also meet the following two criteria:

  1. You have filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Official Languages in the case subject to your funding application and you are entitled to apply to the Court for a remedy under Part X of the Official Languages Act, pursuant to subsections 77(1), (2), and (3); and
  2. The Commissioner of Official Languages will not appear before the Court on your behalf pursuant to paragraph 78(1)(b).

What we cannot fund:

A for-profit organization.

The same litigation of the same case funded at the same court level by the CCP, the former Court Challenges Program of Canada, or the former Language Rights Support Program.

Complaints, prosecutions or challenges presented solely:

  1. In terms of provincial or territorial laws relating to the protection of official language rights; or
  2. Against provincial or territorial laws, policies or practices other than ones covered by the CCP.

Public education, community development, lobbying or political advocacy.

More than one applicant per test case.

Maximum eligible funding

Funding available for a trial is limited to $150,000

Funding available for leave to appeal is limited to $25,000

Funding available for an appeal is limited to $60,000

The maximum amounts provided for litigation and legal interventions are applied separately to each level of judicial proceedings. Accordingly, separate applications for funding must be presented at each judicial level.

Accessibility funding

To ensure equal access to CCP funded activities, accessibility funding of up to $5,000 is available for expenses related to accessibility.

Applicants are encouraged to consider applying for accessibility funding, which can cover, for example: interpretation or translation, production of documents in alternate media, travel costs for an attendant, and child care costs.

Requests for accessibility funding must be made in writing and must include: 1) a detailed explanation of the request, and 2) a projected budget for the amount of accessibility funding requested. The decision-making panel has the sole discretion to determine whether circumstances exist that justify accessibility funding and the amount of accessibility funding.