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OTTAWA - The Canadian Bar Association's work on emerging professional issues—including legal aid, multi-disciplinary competition and title insurance—as well as the independence of the judiciary will be outlined by CBA National President Barry L. Gorlick, QC, during his visit to Halifax, April 26-27, 1999.
Mr. Gorlick is attending a Council Meeting of the CBA's Nova Scotia's Branch in Halifax. He will address the Nova Scotia Council Meeting on Monday, April 26, at the Sheraton Halifax, in the Halifax Ballroom C.
He will outline the CBA's position on legal aid. "Our goal is to get the federal government to see legal aid as an essential requirement for citizens in Canada - like medical care. We will lobby to increase funding to legal aid plans, to link funding to compliance with minimum national standards for legal aid services, possibly through federal legislation, and to establish appropriate eligibility criteria for civil and criminal legal aid coverage throughout the country," says Mr. Gorlick.
The public is becoming increasingly aware of court activities and judicial decision making. High profile cases such as the recent BC judgment on child pornography, Latimer, the sexual assault trial of Gerald Regan in Nova Scotia, captured public attention and generated debate about the judges' decisions.
"Judges seem to be under attack. They are being challenged by those who disagree with their interpretation of the law, and who accuse them of going too far, of interfering with Parliament and the legislatures," says Mr. Gorlick.
"To isolate a decision with unpopular ramifications, and to put in the balance the value of an independent judicial decision is dishonest and misleading. We certainly cannot stand quietly by while some discredit our highest institutions by attacking judges who are doing their jobs."
Elected CBA president in 1998, Barry Gorlick has long been active in the Manitoba Branch and at the National level of the CBA. He chaired the Civil Litigation Section in Manitoba in 1984-85 and later was president of the Branch in 1993-94. At the National level, he has been a member of the Executive Committee since 1994.

The Canadian Bar Association is dedicated to improvement in the law and the administration of justice. Some 36,000 lawyers, notaries, law teachers, and law students from across Canada are members.

Contact: Hannah Bernstein, Canadian Bar Association 865 Carling Avenue, Suite 500, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5S8 Tel: (613) 237-2925, E-mail: hannahb@cba.org