In an effort to overcome the realties of unmet legal needs in South Western Ontario, the Halton Community Legal Services (HCLS) has created the Legal Health Check-Up project… Ab Currie holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto. He has been conducting policy research on legal aid and other access to justice issues for more than 25 years and has authored about 50 reports, articles and book chapters on access to justice topics.
This post is part of our Personal perspectives on access to justice series. At its most basic, access to justice means an appropriate level of assistance with legal issues for people when they need help to protect basic rights or needs.These basic rights include housing, access to social supports and assistance, education, employment, medical care, child custody, spousal or child support, defending one’s autonomy or obtaining protection from abuse…
Ed Montigny has been a staff lawyer at ARCH Disability Law Centre since 2009.
John Warren is vice-chair of the board of directors of Dying with Dignity Canada.The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) has been seeking to change the laws in Canada that govern physician-assisted suicide for people who are terminally ill since they initiated the “right to die with dignity” lawsuit (Carter v. Canada), in which we provided evidence, in 2011. This Wednesday, Oct. 15, we’ll join many interveners to present additional evidence to the Supreme Court of Canada. *Editor’s note: interveners include the LAO-funded specialty legal clinic HALCO, the HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic (Ontario)
In this series, legal sector professionals, experts, advocates and people with hands-on experience of the justice system share their views and knowledge about the many facets of access to justice.
Wrongful convictions are an international problem. Our Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted decided there was a need for an International Wrongful Conviction day. Wrongful Conviction Day informs the general public, on an international level, that wrongful convictions have occurred, are occurring and will continue to occur in the future. There’s a need to change our system to uncover them and avoid them in future. James Lockyer, a principal at Lockyer Posner Campbell, is co-founder and lead counsel of the Association in Defense of the Wrongfully Convicted, an organization that advocates for the wrongly convicted.
