About Us

The Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic (CSALC) is a community based legal clinic funded by Legal Aid Ontario which provides free legal services to low income, non-English speaking clients from the Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian communities in Ontario. We are non-profit and are independent from the government. Our Clinic is overseen by a volunteer community-based Board of Directors.

In addition to providing direct legal services, we empower the communities we serve through public legal education. Over the years, many people have attended our education workshops and have received the multi-lingual brochures we produce on various areas of the law.

Advocating for law reform is another priority of our Clinic. Our Clinic has been involved in test case litigation, organizing grassroots campaigns, and making numerous submissions to all levels of government and to international human rights bodies to advance the rights of our clients and the broader communities of disadvantaged groups.

Watch our 30th anniversary video to learn more about CSALC’s history and its work:

The Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic is operated by a team of dedicated staff members, each of whom speaks at least one of the following languages: Cantonese, Mandarin and Vietnamese.  Our staff members include lawyers, community legal workers, paralegal, law student and office manager.

We are governed by a volunteer Board of Directors elected by our members. Our Board of Directors is chosen to reflect the diverse communities we serve. They oversee the administration and policies of the Clinic and ensure the Clinic’s services remain relevant to the needs of the communities.

We are funded by Legal Aid Ontario (LAO).  LAO has a website, http://www.legalaid.on.ca which contains information about other legal clinics and legal aid services.  The funding for this website is also provided by LAO.