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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 2002

OTTAWA—The Canadian Bar Association report on the constitutional right to legal aid says there is a case to be made for expanding the right of all Canadians to the legal representation they need.

CBA Past-President Daphne Dumont, Q.C., of Charlottetown presented the study, Making the Case: The Right to Publicly-Funded Legal Representation in Canada, on Saturday, Feb. 16.

The report includes a detailed analysis of the findings contained in eight papers from experts in the fields of constitutional law and access to justice who agreed to consider the existence and extent of a constitutional right to legal aid in Canada.

"Although at present, Canada's policy makers do not have a clear constitutional obligation to ensure that Canadians can actually access our justice system to enforce their legal rights, there is an implied right to legal aid in certain circumstances," said Daphne Dumont. "More importantly, the experts we consulted found that there is significant scope for expanding the obligation to make access to justice more of a reality."

The parameters of this right are cloudy, explains Dumont. But experts and the CBA believe the time is right to extend legal aid entitlements to cover more types of cases and to make more people eligible for publicly-funded legal representation.

"The report sheds light on the fact that government leaders have a choice," said Daphne Dumont. "They can sit back and let our most vulnerable citizens struggle to bring their cases to court to establish meaningful legal rights or they can accept responsibility to clarify and expand the right of all Canadians to the legal representation they need because it is the right thing to do."

The CBA has been lobbying federal and provincial governments for many years to improve Canada's chronically underfunded legal aid system.

"The Law Aid Watch initiated by the CBA a year-and-a-half ago, has made Canada-wide headlines telling legislators and the media about legal aid horror stories," said Dumont. "These real-life stories are the direct result of inadequate funding for legal aid at the federal and provincial levels," she said.

Without legal aid, a segment of the population cannot take advantage of the protection and guarantees offered by our legal system and are therefore denied true access to justice.

"Every day, CBA members see the frustrations, share the delays and recognize the costs as unrepresented people struggle to assert their rights. They know that justice is not being served and that justice will not be served until the poorest in our society have equal access to legal advice and to the courts," said Dumont.

Following its release, the report will be circulated widely within the legal profession. The CBA's Legal Aid Liaison Committee will review the document and propose a CBA response to be debated at the CBA Annual Conference next August in London, Ontario.

The report is being released by Daphne Dumont at the CBA's Mid-Winter Meeting, 3:30 p.m. Saturday Feb. 16, 2002, at the Delta Beauséjour, Ballroom B & C in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Also on the CBA Council agenda is a panel discussion on whether Canada needs a security perimeter with the U.S., featuring former N.B. Premier Frank McKenna, MP Peter McKay and Patrick Del Vecchio of the U.S. Embassy, and a debate on cameras in the courts. The 2002 CBA Mid-Winter Meeting of Council is open to accredited media.

The Canadian Bar Association is dedicated to improvement in the law and the administration of justice. Some 37,000 lawyers, notaries, law teachers and law students from across Canada are members.

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CONTACT: Hannah Bernstein, Canadian Bar Association, 500 - 865 Carling Ave. , Ottawa, ON, K1S 5S8 Tel: (613) 237-2925, ext. 146; E-mail: hannahb@cba.org. From Feb. 15-17, (506) 877-1898.