Category: Access to Justice Page 1 of 17

Disaster in the Making: UCP Government Grabs Control of the Alberta Law Foundation’s Funding Decisions

On April 28, 2025

By: Shaun Fluker, Jonnette Watson Hamilton, and Nigel Bankes

Bill Commented On: Bill 39 Financial Statutes Amendment Act 2025 (31^st Leg, 1^st Session, second reading)

PDF Version: Disaster in the Making: UCP Government Grabs Control of the Alberta Law Foundation’s Funding Decisions

Mixed together with an omnibus financial bill in the current session of the Legislature, the UCP government proposes to threaten the independence of the Alberta Law Foundation (Foundation), and in doing so, the independence of the legal profession. The bill also jeopardizes the core funding that the Foundation has historically provided to support not-for-profit organizations that help the Foundation deliver on its mandate, including poverty law clinics and those involved in public legal education. The Minister of Finance introduced Bill 39: Financial Statutes Amendment Act 2025 for first reading in the Legislature on March 10 and the Bill is currently in second reading. Section 7 of Bill 39 proposes to amend the Legal Profession Act, RSA 2000, c L-8 to change the rules governing how the Foundation allocates funding grants by inserting a large measure of political control, and to require the Foundation to increase its funding contribution to Legal Aid Alberta. Consistent with amendments imposed on Legal Aid Alberta by the UCP government in 2024, the UCP government seeks to give the Minister of Justice control over the funding of access to justice programs. In response to these proposed amendments, two of the three board members appointed to the Foundation by the Alberta UCP government have resigned.

Modernizing Professional Regulation is a Worthwhile Goal

By Collin May

On November 19, 2024

In Access to Justice, Ethics and the Legal Profession

By: Collin May

Matter Commented On: Review of Alberta Professional Regulation

PDF Version: Modernizing Professional Regulation is a Worthwhile Goal

Recently, more than one commentator has dismissed the Alberta government’s recent promises to reform professional regulation, including our own regulator, the Law Society of Alberta, as little more than grievance politics (see Shaun Fluker’s comment, here). However, the need to modernize Canada’s rather dated professional regulatory regime, with its excessive emphasis on self-governance, has been evident to many of us for a while now.

Alberta Threatens the Independence of its Legal Aid Program

By Shaun Fluker

On September 18, 2024

In Access to Justice

By: Shaun Fluker

Agreement comment on: Governance Agreement Respecting Legal Aid (September 6, 2024)

PDF Version: Alberta Threatens the Independence of its Legal Aid Program

In early September, the Alberta government announced it had signed a new five year (2024 – 2029) legal aid governance agreement with Legal Aid Alberta and the Law Society of Alberta. The government news release emphasized collaboration and a ‘shared understanding’ amongst the signatories on the importance of legal aid for access to justice. I read this narrative with suspicion because collaboration and ‘shared understanding’ are not words that I associate with the funding of public services by the UCP government. Moreover, only a couple of months have passed since the media reported that the Minister of Justice had unilaterally terminated negotiations on a new agreement in May; apparently seeking to impose a new funding structure for legal aid which critics allege would provide the Minister with significantly more control over the funding and operations of the legal aid program. This turn by the Minister from an authoritarian to a collaborative stance in just two months seems very unlikely to me, and my curiosity led to a closer look at the details in this new agreement. These details reveal that the Minister has not backed off plans to restructure legal aid, and the independence of legal aid in Alberta is under attack.

The 2020/2021 Year in Access to Justice on ABlawg

By Drew Yewchuk

On November 4, 2021

In Access to Justice

By: Drew Yewchuk

PDF Version: The 2020/2021 Year in Access to Justice on ABlawg

Event Commented On: Access to Justice Week 2021

The Canadian Bar Association’s annual Access to Justice Week in Alberta ran from October 25-31, 2021. This post is the annual look back at the past year of access to justice posts on ABlawg. The blog focuses on important cases that changed the law rather than programs that provided access to justice for underserved communities – the access to justice blog covers several of those initiatives, and some other changes not covered on ABlawg.

Domestic Violence and Access to Justice: A Mapping of Relevant Laws, Policies and Justice System Components Across Canada

By Jennifer Koshan

On December 7, 2020

In Access to Justice, Family, State Responses to Violence

By: Jennifer Koshan, Janet Mosher and Wanda Wiegers

PDF Version: Domestic Violence and Access to Justice: A Mapping of Relevant Laws, Policies and Justice System Components Across Canada

Matter Commented On: eBook on Domestic Violence Law across Canada, 2020 CanLIIDocs 3160

November 25 to December 10 marks the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence provincially, federally and internationally. This is therefore an apt time for the publication of our new eBook on domestic violence law across Canada on Can LII (available at 2020 CanLIIDocs 316 0). This eBook is the first resource to systematically document all of the laws and government policies that pertain to domestic violence across the country as a first step in providing access to justice. Several of the laws and policies we discuss in the eBook have been previously addressed in ABlawg posts (see e.g. Clare ’s Law: Unintended Consequ ences for Domestic Violence Victims?; Manda tory Dispute Resolution Coming Back to Alberta, But What About Domestic Violence Cases?; Alberta’s Family Violence Laws: Intersections, Inconsistencies and Access to Justice). This post reproduces the Introduction and User Guide for this new eBook, which is aimed at people working with and supporting survivors of domestic violence, as well as researchers and government actors.