Richard Fowler: Horgan government must support 'meaningful access to justice' by properly funding legal aid

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Association of Legal Aid Lawyers was incorporated in 2018 with the specific goal of advocating for improved funding for legal aid.

B.C. has an access-to-justice and legal aid crisis. The recent provincial budget does nothing to address this crisis; up to eight pilot-project legal clinics is a band-aid on a severed limb. The government’s response to this crisis is to fill potholes when the bridge to access to justice collapsed a long time ago.

Parents are going to court, struggling with the financial and emotional consequences of a family breakdown without a lawyer. Mothers and fathers who for many complex reasons are struggling raising their children are appearing in court without a lawyer — fighting against experienced lawyers representing the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

Canadian democracy is governed by the rule-of-law. A fundamental principle of this rule is that every person within Canada is to be afforded the same protections of the law and justice. As stated by our former chief justice Beverley McLachlin: “There is no justice without access to justice.” B.C. used to be a leader in the provision of legal aid in Canada. It now ranks very close to the bottom in terms of per-capita funding. This is despite the fact that Individuals and businesses who pay for legal services in B.C. pay a seven-per-cent tax on those services. When this tax on legal fees was introduced in March 1992, its goal was to fund legal aid.

 

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