Access to Justice
-
February 20, 2024
Nova Scotia opens new grant to aid in ending racism, inequality
Community organizations in Nova Scotia can now apply for a new grant for projects aimed at ending racism and inequity through removing “barriers” in various sectors — including the justice system.
-
February 20, 2024
Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board numbers speak for themselves | Kathy Laird and Voy Stelmaszynski
There is little justice to be found for Ontarians who have to turn to Ontario’s busiest tribunal — the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). The LTB has been failing badly since 2019, when the current government began removing its experienced adjudicators and moved the LTB under the leadership of Tribunals Ontario, a mega-cluster of tribunals.
-
February 20, 2024
Animal photos are good for your health
Human and animal health are linked, including in ways that you may not have suspected.
-
February 16, 2024
Elected regulator ousted for racist comments | Sara Blake
A regulator of a profession may remove an elected member who refuses to sign the regulator’s code of conduct for elected members: Agnew v. Manitoba Dental Assn. [2023] M.J. No. 169.
-
February 15, 2024
B.C. invests $29M in legal aid for family violence victims, prompted by constitutional challenge
British Columbia is soon to have a “historic level of access to legal aid services” through the expansion of legal aid eligibility criteria, allowing more people in the province to receive legal representation through a new family law clinic model. The B.C. government is investing $29.1 million in this over the next three years, allowing Legal Aid BC to have the capacity to serve 4,500 new family law clients.
-
February 14, 2024
Court rules PM, justice minister ‘failed’ litigants & courts with many tardy judicial appointments
A Federal Court judge has refused to order the Trudeau government to fill the present high level of 75 superior court vacancies within specified timeframes; instead the judge recognized a “constitutional convention” that judicial vacancies “must be filled within a reasonable time” and declared his “expectation” that Ottawa will begin to discharge its unfulfilled constitutional duty to fix the country’s “untenable and appalling crisis and critical judicial vacancy situation,” including by reducing the vacancies to the mid-40s “within a reasonable time.”
-
February 14, 2024
Federal Court grants Amnesty International leave to intervene in racial discrimination class action
The Federal Court has granted Amnesty International Canada leave to intervene in the certification motion of a class action concerning allegations that the federal government has discriminated against Black employees for decades.
-
February 13, 2024
Envisioning a people-centered A2J research, data agenda | Adrian Di Giovanni and Matthew Burnett
In the words of Supreme Court Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, chair of the Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters, “Good data and information are essential … the first step in removing the barriers to effective dispute resolution and remodeling the justice system as a people-centred institution.”
-
February 13, 2024
SCC’s output fell to 34 judgments in 2023, renewing questions, concerns within the bar
Is the Supreme Court of Canada giving enough legal guidance to Canadians, particularly in private law cases? It’s a question simmering within the legal community, one that attracts the attention of academics and litigators and that might benefit from the court shedding some light, especially because the numbers of cases the nine judges hear and decide have been trending down for more than a decade, without explanation.
-
February 08, 2024
Barring intervener counsel from pleading in person at SCC ‘improves access to justice’: CJ Wagner
The Supreme Court of Canada’s controversial policy of restricting intervener counsel to virtual appearances, rather than giving them the same hybrid option as party counsel to appear in person before the judges, “offers substantial savings, especially to those farthest from Ottawa” and “as such levels the playing field and improves access to justice,” Chief Justice of Canada Richard Wagner told the Canadian Bar Association (CBA).