FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 22, 2002

VANCOUVER - Canadian Bar Association BC Branch President, Mr. Carman Overholt, today called on the Attorney General to work with the legal profession to ensure access to justice in BC.

This morning, the Attorney General removed the entire Board of the Legal Services Society, and replaced them with a trustee selected by government. The Board had stated that the funding limits proposed by government were inadequate to allow the Society to deliver on its mandate to provide legal services to the growing number of people who cannot otherwise afford them.

"The Board was established, by BC law, to ensure representation and participation by justice system stakeholders and the community. They had a job to do, to protect the public interest. When they stood up to this government and did what was right, they were fired. We salute Chair Sandi Tremblay and the other members of the Board, for speaking up on behalf of those who are poor, marginalized, and without power, in the face of a government which seems to be targeting them for cuts."

"Last year, this government collected $91.6 million from a special tax that every person who uses a lawyer has to pay on their legal services a tax that is levied on no other profession in the province," said Mr. Overholt. "BC also receives at least $9 million in direct legal aid funding from the federal government. That’s over $100 million that we know about for sure, put right into General Revenues rather than legal aid."

"The government keeps saying that we have one of the top per-capita publicly funded legal aid plans in the country. That’s a deliberate distortion of the facts: the per-capita funding that comes from the average BC taxpayer is exactly zero. It is 100 per cent funded from the legal services tax and the federal government. The provincial government, in fact, makes money from legal aid in BC, because it pockets more than it spends from the legal services tax."

"This government proposes cutting legal aid funding down to $54 million and closing one-third of the courthouses in BC. The net result is a gross inequality in access to justice, and up to $46 million per year in diverted dollars--money this Attorney General told the last government should be put into Legal Aid."

The Canadian Bar Association has proposed working with the Attorney General and the judiciary to review services and find cost-savings, while protecting access to justice and legal aid. The Legal Services Society had also offered its full cooperation for a more collaborative approach to cost-cutting over three years.

"Consultation is an over-used word, but in this government’s case it’s an underused concept. How can anyone expect to make the justice system better, with significantly fewer resources, if the people who know it best aren’t involved in developing the plan?"

"Access to justice is not a frill--it is a right. When you close courthouses in smaller communities, and deny legal aid to poor people, you create a system where the scales of justice risk being tipped in favour of the powerful. Access to justice is a basic principle of our society, and we don’t mean ‘access for some’, we mean ‘equal access for all’."

At its National Mid-Winter Meeting in Moncton New Brunswick, CBA delegates from across Canada voted unanimously to urge the government of BC to reverse its decision to reduce legal aid funding, and to commit to a properly funded legal aid plan.

In speaking to the Council, CBABC President Overholt acknowledged that there are resource limitations which must be met in BC but that legal aid for poor people, and court access for people in smaller communities, are being targeted to bear the largest portion of cuts.

The National Council passed a resolution calling on the Attorney General to work with the CBA and other stakeholders to conduct a comprehensive review of the justice system to determine where savings might be made to fund legal aid and maintain courthouses in local communities.

"We believe there is more to be accomplished by all the partners in the justice system working together. We believe that there is the necessary will and commitment among the Bar, the judiciary and the Ministry to make real progress in the face of funding limits. We stand ready to help with that task, to ensure that access to justice is protected."

For more information:
Caroline Nevin, Associate Executive Director and Director of Communications and Government Relations
Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch
T: 604.687.3404 x320
Toll Free 1.888.687.3404
cnevin@bccba.org

Legal Services Society Backgrounders/News Releases
LSS Board Refuses to Implement Government Cuts to Legal Aid - February 7, 2002
Government Cuts to Legal Aid Would Launch New Era of Injustice - February 21, 2002
Legal Services Society Directed to Implement Legal Aid Cuts - February 25, 2002
Government Cuts to Legal Aid Funding Threaten Access to Justice
Legal Aid Services and Tariffs - Summary of Cuts
Legal Aid Cuts Services to be Continued
Legal Aid Services - Still to be Determined