Spotlight on Election 2019 and #LegalAidMatters

  • October 04, 2019

With less than two weeks until election day, time is becoming short for our votes and our voices to be heard. As legal professionals, we know well that government decisions have an impact on our community and profession.

As the country enters the final stretch of the campaign, the CBA has been bringing to the public and decision-makers its calls to action on the sustainable legal aid funding as a cornerstone of improved access to justice.

The Every Lawyer Podcast: Exploring Legal Aid

Our guest, lawyer John Gillis, is the Chair of the CBA’s Access to Justice Subcommittee and CEO at his firm Gilbert McGloan Gillis in Saint John, New Brunswick. He is the founder of a free legal clinic, and he won the CBA’s Pro Bono and Volunteer Service Award in 2018.

Party platforms on justice issues

Learn more about the law, crime and justice components of each national party’s platform at CBA National magazine.

#LegalAidMatters letter writing campaign

The CBA’s campaign emphasizes the fact that legal aid is a poorly funded patchwork of services across the country, which means it is not available to many of the people who need it most. The campaign calls on the federal political parties to pledge to take leadership on rebuilding Canada’s legal aid system.

The CBA makes it easy to contact your candidates about the issue, with a letter-writing tool on the CBA website. Enter your name and home address, and the software will find the candidates from five major parties running in your riding. You can write to candidates from each of five parties or to individual candidates. The tool provides ready-made text options, tailored for varying tones, as well as opportunities to add personal anecdotes or individual perspectives on legal aid.

Once the letter’s contents are arranged, the “Send” feature delivers it to your choice of recipients. You will also be given a prompt to post the letter on Facebook or Twitter or to share it with friends and colleagues.

And do not forget to vote!