Blog

Community legal clinics are demanding to meet with Attorney General Caroline Mulroney over the provincial government’s cuts to the legal aid budget, the full extent of which may only be announced next week after the legislature has risen for the summer.

[. . .]

It’s a similar situation at the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, where clinic director Avvy Go actually had the chance to meet with Mulroney earlier this year before the government revealed it was cutting legal aid funding. Go said she has been unsuccessful in trying to meet with Mulroney again since the budget was tabled.

“If I knew back then I would have talked to her more about why it’s so important not to cut clinics in particular,” Go told the Star. “I want to believe her when she says she wants to protect direct client services, I want to believe her, but I don’t think she understands that even a small percentage cut to the clinics would mean a cut to direct service. That’s something I hope I will have a chance to explain to her again.

“As someone who was trained as a lawyer, I would hope she appreciates how important this is.”