Category Archives: Access to Justice

Law Students Provide Legal Information to Flood Victims

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Matter commented on: Flood Relief Legal Information Sessions

 In the days following the July flooding of Calgary and other areas of Southern Alberta, the various U of C law student Facebook pages lit up with offers of help for fellow law students. My classmates offered up their spare bedrooms and just like countless other Albertans, they offered up their time and energy. Some helped out their neighbours while others spent days removing mud from Calgary parks so that summer festivals could take place. And perhaps not surprisingly my classmates also harnessed their newly acquired legal skills, which came coupled with a vibrant enthusiasm.

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No (Soup) Practice For You!

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Case considered: Lameman v Alberta, 2012 ABCA 59

Introduction

On March 1, 2012 the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of Justice Yamauchi dismissing the application of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation to have English lawyers appear on their behalf. In a blog on Justice Yamauchi’s decision, I suggested that the decision was legally sound but raised questions of public policy in relation to whether the practice of law should be so rigorously constrained. Specifically, I questioned whether “there [could] not be a more nuanced or careful approach to the provision of legal services, in which consumer and public interests are protected, but the availability of competent and helpful legal advice is not irrationally restricted.” (Unauthorized Practice and Access to Justice).

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In forma pauperis: A Constitutional Right to Access to Justice

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Case commented on: Toronto Dominion Bank v. Beaton, 2012 ABQB 125

Access to justice is a hot topic: it is the stuff of judicial speeches; test case litigation; law society initiatives; and the list goes on. In Toronto Dominion Bank v Beaton, 2012 ABQB 125, which dealt with the seemingly routine issue of whether the court could order a fee waiver for transcripts for a leave to appeal application, Justice Joanne Veit of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench held that there is a constitutional right to access to justice, but that it was not breached in the circumstances of the case.

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“The proof of the pudding is in the eating” that litigation is not the best way to quantify interim costs.

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Case considered: R v Caron, 2011 ABCA 385

Gilles Caron has been a very present figure before the Alberta courts since ABlawg began posting comments in late 2007 (see here). Caron is challenging the constitutionality of Alberta’s legislation on the basis that the province’s laws are not enacted in both English and French. That issue is now before the Court of Appeal (see 2010 ABCA 343 and here). Caron’s litigation has also involved an access to justice component in that he has pursued interim costs awards to fund his litigation. That issue went to the Supreme Court of Canada, which ruled that the Alberta government was required to fund Caron’s language rights challenge (see 2011 SCC 5, [2011] 1 SCR 78 and here). The lingering question was, to what extent was such funding required? That issue was recently considered by the Alberta Court of Appeal. In a decision written by Justice Jean Côté, Caron was awarded far less funding than he sought for the Court of Appeal litigation, and in the form of a loan rather than a grant (see 2011 ABCA 385).

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Cost Decision from Canadian Human Rights Commission Case: Implications for Albertans

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Decision considered: Canadian Human Rights Commission v Canada (AG), 2011 SCC 53 (“Mowat“)

The Supreme Court of Canada’s (“SCC”) decision about costs in the Mowat case was released in October, and this will have significant ramifications in cases under the Canadian Human Rights Act, RSC 1985, c H-6 (CHRA). (See my blog on the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal for a discussion of the facts of the case here). The issue of costs in the context of human rights cases is significant, as it may become an access to justice issue, especially in cases with public interest issues.

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