Posts Tagged ‘Pro Bono column’

Affordable housing for all: Let’s make it an election priority

September 24th, 2015 by Celia Chandler

This post was first published on rabble.ca

Last week, I attended the AGM of Accommodation, Information and Support(AIS), a supportive housing provider for 104 Torontonians who have experienced mental health challenges and homelessness; many AIS tenants attended the meeting. Although AIS tenants have not had easy lives, they are lucky to have found permanent housing where they get the invaluable support services they need to live independently. Even as a mature organization with a 44-year history, AIS struggles to find money to create more housing. Each organizational resource ‑- financial and human -‑ is stretched to capacity, with no way to meet the burgeoning demand. The waitlist for people with mental health issues and/or addictions in Toronto has over 8,000 names — quadrupled in the last five years.

This is just one example of the critical need for a changed affordable housing landscape in Canada. Continue reading “Affordable housing for all: Let’s make it an election priority”

Millions of Canadians denied the right to vote in 2015 federal election

July 31st, 2015 by Priya Sarin

This post was first published on rabble.ca

Last week, the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice each ruled on separate Charter challenges to legislation affecting the rights of certain groups of Canadians to vote in the October 2015 federal election. Surprisingly, both courts permitted the impugned provisions at issue to continue in force and effectively denied these groups the right to vote.

The main focus of this article is the Court of Appeal’s decision regarding the right of Canadian expatriates to vote; however, I will first briefly address the Ontario Superior Court’s disappointing decision in Council of Canadians v. Canada related to  voter ID requirements (the “Voter ID Case”).
Continue reading “Millions of Canadians denied the right to vote in 2015 federal election”

What’s next in housing? Getting ready for the 2015 election

July 2nd, 2015 by Safia Lakhani

This post was first published on rabble.ca

Toronto’s housing crisis is well documented: the skyrocketing and prohibitive cost of rent, the lack of funding for repairs to community housing structures, and the growing wait list for affordable housing are just a few of the issues that have received media attention in the past year.

The facts are equally grim across the country: one in four Canadians spends more than 30 per cent of their income on housing, and an estimated 733,275 low-income Canadians are in extreme housing need, spending more than 50 per cent of their income on housing. Over 235,000 Canadians experience homelessness every year, and some 365,000 households are at risk of rent increases or eviction as a result of the end of operating agreements.

Continue reading “What’s next in housing? Getting ready for the 2015 election”

The Kokopenace case and Aboriginal representation in the administration of justice

May 29th, 2015 by Shelina Ali

This post was first published on rabble.ca

The recent backlash over the actions of prosecutors in the criminal trial of Bradley Barton, accused of the first degree murder of Cindy Gladue and found not guilty by a panel of 11 jurors, raised concerns over the treatment of Aboriginal victims by the justice system and how Ms. Gladue in particular was dehumanized by the way prosecutors presented evidence of the crimes committed against her. Some commentators noted that underrepresentation of Aboriginal peoples on juries in Edmonton was a problem and asked whether this underrepresentation played a role in the outcome in this case.

Continue reading “The Kokopenace case and Aboriginal representation in the administration of justice”

Why carding is back: Toronto Police lack effective civilian oversight

April 30th, 2015 by Brian Iler

This post was first published on rabble.ca

Carding, the infamous police practice of stopping individuals for questioning, is back with a vengeance in Toronto.

Its devastating impact on the lives of thousands of Torontonians is vividly and brilliantly illustrated by Desmond Cole’s piece in this month’s Toronto Life: “The Skin I’m In: I’ve been interrogated by police more than 50 times — all because I’m black.”

A 2010 exposé by the Toronto Star showed that carding was in widespread use, and inflicted on Black people at disproportionately high rates.
Continue reading “Why carding is back: Toronto Police lack effective civilian oversight”

Access to justice crisis: 15 years too long to wait for solutions

March 26th, 2015 by Celia Chandler

We have all heard about Canada’s increasingly underfunded legal aid programs, escalating private market legal costs, and the scarcity of lawyers, especially in smaller, rural and remote communities. This has resulted in what many have termed an access to justice crisis. Indeed, the Canadian Bar Association has set targets for 2030 to equalize access to civil justice, as reported in this column in August 2013. The Toronto Star recently reported on programs in New York City, Windsor, and England and Wales where Self-Represented Litigants (SRLs) get support from students and other advisers who are not lawyers but have some training to find their way through the system — significant in those jurisdictions. But 2030 is 15 years down the road and a long wait for large‑scale system change; in the meantime, we have to live with the significant negative consequences to the legal system.

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