Alberta’s Justice Ministry has halted negotiations with Legal Aid Alberta and the Alberta Law Society for a new governance agreement and terminated its current agreement, leaving the legal aid system in Alberta broke and on the brink of collapse.
Legal Aid Alberta’s contract with the government expired on Sunday. If nothing changes, the province will be left without an operating legal aid system at the close of business one week from yesterday – at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.
So after next Tuesday, many of Alberta’s most vulnerable citizens would have no choice but to represent themselves if they come in conflict with the law. The average legal aid client in Alberta makes less than $10,000 a year.
“The Legal Aid Alberta Governance Agreement has expired, and the Government of Alberta has decided not to renew it,” Legal Aid Alberta President and CEO Gianpaolo Panusa, KC, said in an email to legal aid lawyers yesterday. “This means LAA is currently without a contractual agreement to provide legal aid services to Albertans.”
Mr. Panusa’s email says Legal Aid Alberta has been trying to negotiate a new agreement for several months, but “despite the good faith efforts of LAA and the Law Society in the negotiation process, the Ministry suddenly halted negotiations and terminated the Governance Agreement.” That happened on May 10, five days before a new agreement was scheduled to be signed.
This story leaked out to social media only yesterday afternoon, so at this hour it’s hard to know if this is a malicious policy of the United Conservative Party Government to undermine our justice system’s requirement for fair criminal trials no matter how poor the defendant may be or is merely an example of administrative incompetence.
Either possibility would be on brand for the UCP.
A news release from the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Calgary, the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association of Edmonton, and other provincial defence lawyers’ groups yesterday predicted the government’s action “will trigger a complete breakdown of an already overtaxed and under-resourced system.”
“The impact will be felt more sharply by those overrepresented in the criminal justice system and more likely to be financial disadvantaged such as those who are LBGTQ2S+, racialized and mentally vulnerable,” the news release warned.
The defence lawyers’ groups also noted that “the government’s unceremonious cancellation of the scheduled signing” of an expected agreement “was followed by silence before a last-minute ultimatum that would fundamentally change who controlled the delivery of legal aid services in Alberta.”
“It is a central principle of fundamental justice that the person prosecuting an individual must be separate and independent from the person conducting their defence,” the news release said. “On the terms of the government’s last-minute ultimatum, this fundamental principle would be destroyed.”
Obviously, this suggests strongly that for all its tough-on-crime talk, the UCP takes crime less seriously than it does picking fights, magnifying petty grievances, and especially on imposing authoritarian control on all aspects of life in Alberta.
The collapse of Legal Aid Alberta with no system ready to replace it would result in gridlock in courts across the province. This is partly because court procedures with self-represented defendants take nearly twice as long as court proceedings with lawyers handling the defence. After next Tuesday, obviously, there are likely to be a lot more defendants without legal aid trying to represent themselves.
Another probable impact of this decision by the Justice Ministry would be unreasonable delays for bail hearings, resulting in accused persons being released because the justice system simply can’t function effectively without legal aid lawyers. We can safely assume that some of these people would be dangerous.
In addition, in R. v. Jordan, the Supreme Court of Canada of Canada ruled in 2016 that delays of longer than 18 months for cases tried in provincial courts without a preliminary inquiry and 30 months for cases tried in superior courts were no longer acceptable, resulting in many charges being dropped.
So without Legal Aid, the system is also likely to miss more of those Supreme Court imposed deadlines.
Not that the UCP is likely to give a hoot, but this also means that those arrested on questionable charges are bound to be treated even more unfairly by the system.
Of course, Conservative parties everywhere in North America love to distract from their policy failings by complaining that bail terms and criminal courts are too lenient, so it’s not impossible the UCP has considered this and decided the risk to the public is worth it to justify a politically effective tough-on-crime pose.
A statement to the CBC from the minister’s office late yesterday said vaguely that the government “remains committed to working with Legal Aid Alberta to ensure Legal Aid is well-funded to continue to provide high-quality legal aid services to Albertans.”
However, it added, “it is also imperative that we are responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, and that funding is being spent with the best interests of Albertans in mind.” This smacks of justification for precisely the kind of control over the cases Legal Aid Alberta takes that the trial lawyers’ statement warned about.
Although not required to do so, Legal Aid Alberta staved off an immediate disaster by saying it would continue to provide services for the next week even if it isn’t receiving funds for its costs.
Well the UCP remains full of surprises. Their long time preoccupation seemed to be a war on doctors and health care, then more recently on municipalities. Now there seems to be a new front in who they want to push around – lawyers for the poor and the legal system itself.
I’m not sure if this due to malice or incompetence either, although perhaps it could be both. I also wonder if they have a serious grudge against anyone with too much book learning.
I’m not sure what they hope to accomplish other than alienate and anger even more Albertans. I don’t see any pressing financial reason for this as oil prices appear to be holding up well enough to keep the province out of deficit. I don’t see any urgent need for a distraction, unless they are about to do something else unpopular. Maybe they are unhappy with how the law society has dealt with two of their former MLAs, but this would seem to be an excessive response with too much collateral damage.
Hopefully it will turn out to be just incompetence and the bull in the china shop will spon realize it is best to settle down and stop breaking so many things.
The UCP funny give a sh#t about citizens. They are a gang of land grabbing, Indigenous hating, law breaking haters.
Stupid Alberta, voting in Danielle Smith
Maybe they enjoy doing things that show they only cater to a certain group of people.
The UCP can’t be gone soon enough. They are the worst provincial government Alberta ever had.
The underlying goal of the entire value system is the maintenance and protection of established elite power and privilege by creating, managing, and manipulating a legal system consisting of esoteric rules, language, and procedures, such that the system itself is no longer concerned about truth or fairness because:
“The use of law to regulate social behavior can radically alter the power structures embedded within society. We should carefully consider the possibility that, as the legal system covers a greater breadth of human conduct, the laws serve as adjacent-possible niches for the benefit of the powerful and to the detriment of the powerless.”
Where, “Many scholars and legal commentators have noted what you’ve likely suspected yourself: that it’s easier for people with wealth to secure favourable legal outcomes. This is true not just in criminal court, but in custody disputes, civil litigation, and child protection matters.”
Because, the system’s “ostensible contradictions… are actually the intentions of the system itself… because that type of policy is meant to serve a very particular set of interests. . . . there is an elite group of people who definitely win when you implement policies like that…because when you disappear the casualties of fiscal austerity from society, you then justify fiscal austerity in a way that advances certain elite interests.”
Finally, the realization and reinforcement of the preferred outcome (protecting the interests of the powerful) means that, “Once the practice of law meant giving good counsel about justice and fairness, but now it is a big business in which billable hours, take-no-prisoners victories and the bottom line are the principal ends.” naturally serves both the political and ideological interests of the socially and economically privileged and powerful and those ideologically aligned political figureheads that continue to enthusiastically serve the interests of their powerful patrons.
With this job of Yahoo’s it’s best to assume incompetence and malfeasance, as a starting point.
Thanks for writing another interesting column, David, and for providing the link to the CBC story.
I found a distressing detail in the CBC story, that is in keeping with our very authoritative provincial government. It appears the UCP tried to impose a new agreement at the last minute, one that would give the government some control in how Legal Aid uses its funds. This in the wake of the provincial government controlling municipal councils and university research grants, it would appear these guys want to control all sorts of things.
Could Alberta’s TBA government be under the direction of some IDU director whose exemplar might be Orban and his Fidez party in Hungary?
This Con party has been turned far right (notably) since 2015 when Harper gov was found attacking our Democracy to the tune of 71 Content of Court charges , and all was and went crickets by the Rightwing Media as they continually ranted publicly that our system was broken as the reason we were witnessing their damage results like genocide upon our very Foundation on all fronts !
Once you look closely to what they did in and since 2016 to 2020 – that 4 yrs was Cons USA and CDN CONS full exposure when the gloves came off as did the guardrails of our system like a wagon with no wheels – had for a long game – compromised themselves as a partisan party of Traitors, se retire to a fault and doing all the damage within our Legislative bodies from in and out of office like a cancer upon all things Democracy !
The details now BAD NEWS uncovered day after day exposing THE ONE ENEMY PARTY FROM WITHIN – reaches far into the rabbit hole they dug IN THE DARK ERA OF HARPER – who is STILL running the same party minions we had to OUST FULLY in 2015 Nationwide to save us front what they had no plan to stop the attack upon our system THEY BROKE and continue to destroy OUR BASIC FREEDOM FROM “THEM” as we see now as REPLACING DEMOCRACY ALTOGETHER ONCE THEY DISMANTLE IT – BY ATTACKING RIGHTS AND PROTECTIONS – WAGING TYRANNY INSIDE AND OUT ON VITAL PROGRAMS AND SAFE ENVIRONMENTS AND AN STALEMATE OF A FUTURE ECONOMIC POWER GRAB CONS KNOW TO USE FASCISM WHICH IS ONLY SO MANY STEPS TO NEONAZI MUSSOLINI’S PATH TO HELL- THEIR ONLY AGENDA FOR DECADES .
Only diff if they hid it well and not so well over a Century –
QUESTION IS? WHERE IS THE LAW THAT ABOLISHES THE OBVIOUS BLATANT ATTACK UPON WE. THE. PPL. BY SUCH A PARTY THAT TELLS YOU WHO THEY ARE – SHOWS YOU WHAT THEY PLAN NOW AND EITHER THREATEN OR BLAME OTHERS FOR WHAT RHEY DO — AND ABUSE THE SYSTEM TO HELP THEM DESTROY IT WHILE WE ALL SIT AND WONDER “WHAT THEY ARE UP TO?”
LOOK SOUTH OF THE BORDER! CONS USA ARE IN BED WITH CONS CANADA – SAME PARTY SAME TRAITORS OF DEMOCRACY AND HARPER “TOLD US!” HE SAID HIS IDU ORG NOW CHAIRED BY O’TOOLE VS HARPER HIMSELF — MISSION IS (just to, innocently Pfhh) TEACH RIGHTWING PARTIES GLOBALLY (I assume Democratic countries (Cons love to wrap themselves in the WORD Democracy BUT IN REALITY HE CLAIMS THE IDU (international Democratic Union lmfao IS JUST TO HELP RIGHTWING PARTIES (Gone FASCIST REGIME) HOW TO WIN ELECTIONS !
In other words follow the RETHUG PARTY USA CITIZENS CALL CONS USA MAGA ANGRY BIRDS DRUMPF AND THE TRAITOR REPUGNANT PARTY WHO KNEW HE WAS A RUSSIAN OWNED PUPPET – AND – DID- NOT- CARE!!
SPEAKER OF THAT CON CULT MITCH McCONNELL AND THE OTHER CORRUPT RIGHTWING PARTY JUST WELCOMED A KNOWN CROOK DIN THE CON AND BEGAN THE RUSSIAN ATTACK ON NORTH AMERICA AND THE LIKES OF HARPER SOLD CANADA OUT TOTALLY FOR 8 yrs AND. DID. NOT. LEAVE!
HITLER WANNABE CROOKED – COMPROMISED, CORRUPTED TO THE CORE , CULT OF OF FASCIST REGIME PARTY STILL !
JUST IN YOUR FACE ! WHILE ALL OF US SCRATCH OUR HEAD AND SAY WHO IS DOINT THIS !! A FIFTH GRADER WOULD SEE CLEARLY “WHO” IS ATTACKJNG OUR DEMOCRACY TO DEATH!
AND USA CON TIES BOUGHT UP FAR RIGHT NOW AFTER CRYING LIB BIAS?
— FOR DECADES CONS PLAYED PETE AND REPEAT / TO COVER THEIR DIRTY LOUSY BS LIES NO BETTER THAN TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS THEY SOLD REAGAN A WASHED-UP HOLLYWOOD HAS BEEN?
WE ARE TALKING A CIVIL WAR IN USA AND THEY HAVE CANADA COPYING THAT GARBAGE CON PARTY OF TRAITOR FASCIST PIGS TURNED NEOCON ENEMY ONE PARTY OF THE WORLD NOW!
WYFU PPL YOU ARE BEING ATTACKED RIGHT IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD- NO OTHER PARTY IS TO BLAME BUT THE ONE POINTING TO ALL THE OTHER PARTIES – WHILE THEY DESTROY EACH PROVINCE THEY RULE!
NO PLAN BUT THE INE WE WATCH THEM LUE ABOUT – AND EXECUTE IN THE DARK — ERA—- OF—- HARPER!!
Think he is sitting in his mansion in Calgary twiddling HIS THUMBS!?? WHY IS HE NOT IN JAIL FOR TREASONOUS ACTS THEN AND NOW ONGOING STILL??? No POLITICAL POWER TO RUN A PARTY BUT HE STILL IS HIDING LIKE A SNAKE IN GRASS AND SO MUCH MORE I “ANYONE” WHO GAVE A DAMN COULD FIND OUT- FAR EASIER THAN I DID JUST WATCHING THIS SHIT SHOW CONS CANADA CLAIM TO BE – ALL ABOUT DEMOCRACY???
LAUGHABLE IF NOT PITIFUL IF WE ALL DO NOT SEE THROUGH THEIR VERY THIN VEIL IF DECEIT!
DO NOT ASK WHY YOU WILL ONLY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING – THAT WILL SOON REVEAL WHY AND HOW AND WHEN ETC ETC – REASON IS POWER FOR GREED AND GREED FOR POWER OVER THE WORLD DUHHHHH !!
DANGER LURKING IN THE DARK – WE SEE IT. WE KNOW IT AND STILL THEY (AND WE) DARE CALL THEM BUMAN! Pfhh
To “safely assume” that Alberta’s TUBCAP government’s policies “would be dangerous” is definitely “on brand” and dissonantly distractive.
Inquiring minds would like to know if there might be any federal relief for the Wild Rose province’s lack of legal aid funding.
Now, that would be interestingly undistractive.
The UCP has shown over and over its contempt for middle and lower income Albertans, its disdain for the rule of law and its manic grasping for power in areas for which it is grossly negligent. Legal Aid and the lawyers who work in it, carry on in spite of low pay and a clogged court system. You can thank the UCP for that as well
…just when you would think the Smith/Parker UCP/TBA has hit the lowest of the low. What’s next? It’s another reminder of how even the so-called christian supporters of this authoritarian regime do not care…the ones who should be reminded of how Jesus was really big on how the poor were/are treated.
While these fake conservatives deliberately try to screw the wellbeing of every Albertan and continue to help the rich steal our oil and tax wealth we sit back and whine about what they are doing to us and do nothing about it. Under Klein our lawyer friends urged us to throw some money in the pot and start suing these idiots , it can be done we were told, and the lawsuits against Klein and his health care cuts costing lives proved it. Maybe that’s what we should be doing . Start a go-fund me account and raise the money needed and make Danielle Smith look like the fool she is, we know her supporters aren’t smart enough to do it, don’t we?
didn’t the cbc piece also assert the laa had a cash balance in excess of $80m? if this is accurate – to suggest operations are under immediate threat due to a fiscal shortfall is an exaggeration.
Not necessarily, assuming they have bills to be paid. DJC
This is concerning. It’s been happening in front of our eyes since the UCP took power, and now the chips are falling into place.
https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/news/opinion/the-alberta-government-is-ripping-apart-legal-aid/368785#:~:text=Legal%20Aid%20Alberta%20has%20been,can%20defend%20themselves%20in%20court.
“Legal Aid Alberta has been so underfunded and choked of resources that the province risks sliding into a model of frontier justice, where the innocent are convicted, and only the rich and powerful can defend themselves in court.”
But there’s a bigger picture. Edmonton police rousted the unhoused from the only shelter they had in the dead of winter. The riot police went to the U. of A. to rough up protestors on campus. Then the EPS indicated by their actions that they do not answer to city council. So who is guiding them?
Similarly in Calgary, police removed the unhoused from their tents, but in less inclement weather, to less fanfare. Then riot police clubbed protestors legally exercising their rights on the U. of C. campus. Charges were laid, but at least some were not processed, after some of those injured by police, allegedly, registered official complaints. Police claimed there were no injuries, but it seems they don’t want those charges and complaints to proceed.
Then the UCP removed Legal Aid.
In 2024, we’ve seen a pattern of militarized police acting against groups of unarmed citizens, some engaged in legal and peaceful protest, others just trying to survive. This was not the case with a hockey fan skirmish in Edmonton, of course. Many consider the use of force by police excessive and disproportionate. Others aren’t paying attention. Why are some police forces now telling us that they are not accountable to the citizens?
Let us not forget Kaycee Madu and his call to Chief Dale McFee about that traffic ticket.
Let us not forget Premier Danielle Smith and her conversations, or not, with Crown Prosecutors, depending on which Danielle Smith you’re talking/not talking to.
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/smith-walks-back-claims-she-spoke-to-alberta-crown-prosecutors-about-covid-19-cases
C stands for chaos.
Will the next move be for whoever directs our police forces (not city council, in Edmonton at least) to send heavily-armed riot police to all legal and peaceful public protests, next time with armored vehicles, to prove that lawlessness in the eyes of the invisible hand that guides police will not be tolerated? Since there will be nowhere to put everyone in the overcrowded remand centres once the court system bogs down or collapses, will the use of “non-lethal” weapons for peaceful protests be recalibrated?
There is no reason to ascribe to incompetence actions that appear to be intentionally malevolent and fully intended to undermine democracy, is there? Why are the police in this province so intent on quelling political dissent?
We need to stop being afraid to use words like authoritarian, totalitarian, dictatorship and fascism. Not using these words when circumstances demand them, not recognizing what is happening in front of our eyes, will be the undoing of our democracy. When the innocent are guilty, Goliath wins.
This is beyond egregious……having been the user of Legal Aid , in a domestic abuse case, I’m wondering how many other victims will now find themselves in a precarious circumstance because they can’t get legal council. And it makes me wonder how many pending case there are right now, that will be affected by this.
Interestingly, this comes on the heels of—–
“Starting April 1, the qualifying income threshold for legal aid services will increase from $24,456(gross) per year to $30,000(gross) per year. This adjustment means individuals earning up to $30,000 annually could now be eligible for legal representation through Legal Aid Alberta.
Feb 27, 2024
https://www.canadianlawyermag.com>…
Alberta expands legal aid eligibility/Canadian Lawyer
Department of Justice Canada’s (Justice Canada) Legal Aid Program provides funding to all provinces for criminal legal aid through contribution agreements. These agreements also support immigration and refugee (I&R) legal aid in the six provinces (AB< BS< MB<NL<ON women trying to flee abusive relationships
> homeless people
>new immigrants (??? all of those new ‘health care workers’)
Or again trying to ”own the feds” through another misguided use of power.
Still steaming !!!!!!!
A small error:
“That happened on May 10, five days before a new agreement was scheduled to be signed.” The timeline is clearer in this statement:
https://www.legalaid.ab.ca/roster-resources/roster-updates/governance-agreement-expiration/
I take it from the “best interests of Albertans in mind” is that those citizens who use legal aid are not Albertan. I wonder how many legal aid users were UCP voters?
What a wonderful province that can gift $1.5B on an illusory pipeline, assume responsibilities for irresponsible oil companies’ requirements that they actually clean up the mess that they have created as well as allowing royalties to exit Alberta like an exploding Hindenburg airship.
What has Alberta done to deserve this debacle?
This is not at all surprising. After all, Danielle Smith is a Conservative. One of the people she admires is Stephen Harper, also a Conservative. Cons have a distain for anything which does not fit the Conservative agenda. The courts and Judicial system as starters. Old Steve took a run at the then Chief Justice of Canada, a lady. Danielle Smith, like Harper, has a lot of disgusting ideas. The Courts and the Judicial System is just another “whipping boy”.
I was waiting to read about the counter side of the argument. But all that was written was part of a statement from the government.
Lots of opinion and rabbit hole conspiracy stuff on how bad the government is but no counter argument.
Poor writing at best.
They come by the literal thousands for the lousy writing, Clint. DJC
The Justice Minister, Mickey Amery, is making the WRONG DECISION! Those people are Fing mad up there? They really just don’t give a s#!% about the regular, everyday people. How can they cut funding to such an essential service. They’re going to absolutely bankrupt the Justice System. We need Legal Aid! Most of the everyday people cannot afford lawyer’s fees. Come on!! Why do they keep making such poor decisions, it is ABSOLUTELY INCUMBENT on them and they’re people to serve, to keep up the essential services like Legal Aid, Education, Health Care, Infrastructure, Social Services. That is their RESPONSIBILITY and their most important responsibility. The minister has to revert his determination IMMEDIATELY!!!! They are all on the wrong side, it’s capitalism that is killing us!! They are not doing they’re proper jobs at all! Very, very disappointing.