OTTAWA (CP) - The Canadian Bar Association is urging the federal government to reinstate the court challenges program and restore its budget.

The association says the program, recently cut by the Conservative government, is necessary to protect the constitutional rights of all Canadians, not just those with deep pockets.

Parker MacCarthy, of Duncan, B.C., president of the association, wrote in an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper that equality and language rights guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms "would have remained simply rights on paper" without the program.

The Trudeau-era program provided money so that minority and other marginal groups could finance legal challenges based on Charter arguments.

The challenges helped disabled children and their families, French-speaking minority groups, women who have experienced sexual assault, aboriginal groups and gay men and lesbians.

MacCarthy's letter says "striking down discriminatory laws alleviates the historical disadvantage experienced by vulnerable groups" and adds that "a more egalitarian society benefits us all."

When the Conservatives announced the budget cut to the program last month, they said it would save taxpayers $5.6 million over two years.

The program has long been a Conservative target. They killed it once before, in 1992, only to have it revived in 1994 after the Liberals regained power.