By Neil
Armstrong
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| From left: Zanana Akande, Angela Robertson, and Debbie Douglas at a community meeting to discuss legal services to Ontario's Black communities at Toronto Reference Library on September 27, 2017. |
A community
meeting organized by Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) about legal services for Ontario’s
Black communities drew many who are on either side of the organization’s
decision to defund the African Canadian Legal Clinic (ACLC), effective
September 30.
Three days
before the cut-off of funds, LAO held a meeting at the Toronto Reference
Library to gain community input about setting up a new, independent,
Black-focused and Black-led clinic.
It was also
held to talk about the services that the provincial body is currently providing
to increase access to justice for members of Ontario’s Black communities,
through partnerships with the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, members of the
private bar, and the Test Case Program.
Among those in
attendance from LAO who made opening remarks were David Field, president and
CEO; Derry Millar, a board member; and Moya Teklu, a staff lawyer.
Julian Falconer,
LAO’s spokesperson; Asha James, managing associate at Falconers LLP; and Teklu
sat on a panel responding to questions and comments from those in the audience.
The
facilitators were Angela Robertson, executive director of Queen West Central
Toronto Community Health Centre, and Debbie Douglas, executive director of
Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI).
Field said
every dollar that LAO currently provides would be reinvested back into services
for the Black community.
“I am
confident that we’ll be able to have a new Black-led, Black-focused,
independent legal clinic up and running as soon as possible,” he said,
acknowledging that the prospect of defunding the ACLC causes anxiety.
He noted that
LAO is committed to fighting anti-Black racism in the justice system and that
the best way to do that is to support such a clinic.
Field said for
the long term, LAO is committed to investing additional funding to improve
access to justice for members of the Black community.
“It is our
hope that this new clinic will build on the work done by the ACLC and continue
to provide a range of services from test cases and law reform work to direct
services to the community.”
Field said LAO
is not just a funder but its central purpose is to expand access to justice,
noting that the people who work there do it because they want to be advocates
for social justice.
He said there
are areas where LAO needs to improve, noting that the organization has faced
financial challenges and has had an independent review that confirmed that the
viability of its financial plan is already bearing results.
“It is clear
from our experience that the ACLC funding decision took too long, that our
dispute resolution process needs to be revised, our board composition needs to
be more reflective of the community that we serve. Our challenge in board
composition is that we do not appoint the board of Legal Aid Ontario, that is
done by the province in conjunction with the law society, however, we’re having
conversations with the attorney general and the ministry of the attorney
general to address this issue.”
Millar said
the concern that led to the defunding of ACLC was not and does not relate to
the work of the staff.
“The concerns
relate to the board and the management of the clinic and the refusal to be
accountable for public funds. The decision is the result of a seven-year
process during which LAO has provided every possible support to address serious
and ongoing concerns regarding financial mismanagement of public funds and lack
of board governance,” he said.
Millar said
the process has taken as long as it has partly because LAO did not want to
defund the clinic.
He said LAO
wanted the clinic’s board and management to succeed in fixing the problems and
gave them every opportunity and many years to do so.
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| Left-right: Angela Robertson and Debbie Douglas, facilitators, standing, with Julian Falconer, Asha James and Moya Teklu, panelists, seated. |
In a video
shown journalist, Desmond Cole, interviewed Julian Falconer, counsel retained
by LAO, about the decision to defund ACLC.
“The problem here is that there seems to be a
challenge in convincing ACLC, particularly their ED of the necessity of
accountability, and so LAO was left in the circumstances. It isn’t in charge of
the clinic; it doesn’t manage the clinic. The clinic is independent; ACLC is
independent. As a funder, LAO is responsible to make sure that its funding
powers are accounted for and the only power it has to enforce that is to
withdraw the funding if nothing else works. And that’s where we’re left today,
they’ve withdrawn the funding,” said Falconer.
Teklu, who has
been tasked with setting up and ensuring that there was no disruption or
interruption in the services provided, said she began to reach out to members
of the community.
“In the long term, Legal Aid Ontario’s
commitment to our community is that there will be no reduction in the level of
funding that was available through the ACLC. That was approximately $825, 000
per year. The other commitment is that the organization will be Black-focused
and Black-led. Outside of that whether the clinic delivers direct services,
whether the clinic is involved in test case litigation and law reform is
essentially up to all of you,” she said.
Teklu said
members of the advisory committee who are independent of LAO will be reaching
out to community members.
She said with
the exception of Aba Stevens, with whom she went to law school, she did not know
the other members.
Teklu said she
wanted to be transparent but also to engage people that have a reputation of
fighting anti-Black racism, of speaking truth to power, respected credibility
in the community.
“The folks
that are on this advisory committee are lawyers, Roger Rowe and Aba Stevens;
professors Rinaldo Walcott and Idil Abdillahi; Sandy Hudson, one of the
co-founders of Black Lives Matter Toronto; and Zanana Akande, the first Black
female member of the provincial parliament."
She emphasized
that they are independent of LAO and are volunteers.
She noted that
clinics are independent corporations and are accountable to their boards and
their membership and so LAO can’t just set something up, in response to a
question about timelines.
There are
seventy-six legal clinics in Ontario.
[This story has been published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, Oct. 5-11, 2017 issue.]
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