Hi Everyone,
So I came across a paper about Legal Aid. The title is, A Profile of Legal Aid Services in Family Law Matters in Canada. It was published in June 2002 and the information within the paper spans 5 years, beginning in 1995/1996 to 2000/2001. If you are reading it out of curiosity, I suppose it would sound good. But if you have firsthand experience with Legal Aid, like I do for now 21 years, I found the information to be downright SCARY and thereby DISGUSTING! And so should every taxpaying Canadian because at the time of the paper, Legal Aid was federally and provincially funded. And don’t think that this paper has no merit because it does! The only thing about Legal Aid that has changed is that it has gotten A LOT WORSE! This is what I mean.
In the Methodology section of the Executive Summary, the paper states, “The information for this study was gathered from Legal Aid plans over the summer of 2001.” The reason I am telling you this is because there is (still) very little information about Legal Aid and the authors of this paper admit to this themselves. The authors also state that not every jurisdiction fully completed the memorandum for their request of information, that they made several attempts to have the jurisdictions provide the information to them, but not all of the jurisdictions responded to their first or other requests. That means that not all of the available information is in the paper. I found that interesting. If you have the information, give it.
Now the thing that everyone needs to know is this. Legal Aid in Ontario, at the time of this paper, had a judicare delivery mode, or service method, that was done with 97.6% of private lawyers that were paid by the taxpayers. The remaining 2.4% of service that the Ontario public received in the years of 1995/1996 to 2000/2001 from Legal Aid were from staff lawyers who were also paid by the taxpayers. Those percentages may vary now but in my estimation, not by much. The reason I can say that is this. When a Legal Aid lawyer at a Legal Aid clinic tried to “push” me out of her “office for the day,” I just kept talking about Legal Aid and the judicare delivery mode in Ontario and that got me another 20 minutes of help, so it’s fair to say that Ontario still uses the judicare system. Not every province or territory uses a judicare system, although the other provinces and territories at the time of the paper were moving towards private lawyers, otherwise known as judicare.
“A Gender Issue,” also found in the Executive Summary says, “The report emphasizes that the availability of family Legal Aid is an important issue for women. Women make up at least 70% of clients in family Legal Aid cases in all jurisdictions.” Okay so that may be an old fact. Maybe now more than 70% of women use Legal Aid maybe now less than 70% of women use Legal Aid. From ALL the times I’ve sat in Legal Aid offices over the last few months, I am leaning towards now more than 70% of women use Legal Aid.
What I found interesting is when I read in 3.1.2 Demographic Profile of Family Legal Aid Clients of that paper is this. It says, “According to the Law Society of Upper Canada (1999), 74% of legally aided clients in family law matters in Ontario are female.” Then the paper goes on to say that, “Gender is seen as a crucial factor in the delivery of family Legal Aid services because of the significant power and financial imbalances that often exist between the parties in family law disputes….women with few financial resources of their own may be confronted with husbands, (or in my case a father of child) who have the means to hire private lawyers to vigorously defend their interests.”
Historically, men have made more money than women. And men would have more money, especially if they are actively and knowingly participating in blameworthy conduct, (hiding money etc.) like my daughter’s father was as a way to pay less child support! He withheld child support for over 18 months and used the child support money he was supposed to pay to put towards a down payment of a house that the later sold for a profit of over $130,000 only to buy a bigger house with over $100,000 worth of upgrades that he sold for another profit of over $192,000! So is gender a crucial factor? ABSOLUTELY!!! But get this, even if you “qualify” for Legal Aid, you only get so much help and then you are left to your own devices! That’s not just my experience, that’s also what the paper states.
“Financial Eligibility” also found in the Executive Summary makes me SICK to my stomach on so many socio-economic levels that it could make me CRAZY! You’ll know what I mean in a minute. Here’s what it says, “Generally speaking, individuals receiving social assistance are AUTOMATICALLY eligible for Legal (Aid) coverage.” In the next paragraph is states, “As a result, individuals who are the “working poor” or have very limited means may be ineligible for Legal Aid, and may be forced to represent themselves, or simply be unable to seek the relief in the justice system.”
Now I don’t know about anyone reading that, but to me, I was like REALLY!!! So the people, who are already on social assistance, get more assistance from the government via AUTOMATIC Legal Aid, but the “working poor” may have to fend for themselves or give up their right to justice entirely that they are RIGHTFULY owed just because they are working? How does that work? It seems like REVERSE LOGIC at its finest! There has to be something in the Charter of Rights and Freedom, 1982 also known as the Constitution Act, 1982 about that!
So the “working poor” WHO DO PAY TAXES and may in fact come out with less money at the end of the year than someone on social assistance get little to NO HELP but the able bodied people on social assistance get help! Shouldn’t taxpaying Canadians get help too? One would think so, but apparently we don’t! So I guess the province of Ontario wants the “working poor” to remain “working poor” and to raise their children in an economic environment that lessens their chances of becoming more productive members of society. So the NEXT TIME you hear or watch a commercial about child hunger and/or child poverty in Ontario or Canada, thank our government because as the paper states, the “working poor” who have pride, and a work ethic and don’t want to be part of the “system” may not get help to help themselves and their families! And I guess that the government wants the able bodied people on social assistance to remain on social assistance with no caring concern for generational conditioning! I prepared tax returns for years, so believe me when I tell you I’ve seen generational conditioning! Grandmothers, mothers, and the children of the mothers and grandchildren of the grandmother on social assistance all filing their income tax returns with me more than once!
And the other part of that equation is this, if you are poor or working poor, but have ASSETS like an RESP for your child’s education or other investments as I reported on my financial statement you get PENALIZED for having a financial acumen! How’s that for a financial kick in the teeth! I scrimped and saved for my daughter’s education etc., while some of my single mother friends who were on social assistance went out DRINKING at bars and bought DRUGS and they got all the legal and financial help in the world from every level of government! Would someone in at least one level of the government please give their heads a shake? Because there is something VERY wrong with this picture! If you thought it gets better you’d be right it does!
On Wednesday July 3, 2013, the Toronto Star had an article titled, Legal Aid Ontario Overwhelmed! In it is states that the head of Legal Aid Ontario, John McCamus recognizes that, “…taxpayers in Ontario, who provide $350 million a year to his agency, are angry to learn they aren’t eligible for help.” If they knew what you are about to read, those angry taxpaying Ontarians who can’t get Legal Aid assistance would be going postal! As the paper states, in 2001, Ontario, spent $41,258,677 dollars on Legal Aid with the average cost per case being $1,536 and in 2000/2001 Legal Aid Ontario handled 31,985 judicare cases from the 32,787 cases in total. Now Ontarians are providing $350 million! That’s a HUGE increase of $308,741,323 and people STILL CAN’T GET HELP from LEGAL AID!!! I just did some more math and that is an increase of 853.65% from 2000/2001 to 2013!
I thought it was bad when I was denied Legal Aid in 2000, because apparently I wasn’t poor enough because I saved money for my daughter’s education and had other investments but with an increase in funding of 853.65% in Legal Aid people still can’t get help? In my opinion, that’s DISGUSTING!!! When Legal Aid denied me I appealed it and it STILL GOT ME NO WHERE!!! It’s no mystery to me why I don’t qualify for a Legal Aid lawyer now. I’m not on assistance! If I want legal advice, I have to sit in the Legal Aid office ALL DAY waiting to see if there’s time for a Legal Aid lawyer to see me. I do that as often as I can and I can tell you RIGHT NOW it’s NOT FUN!!! This is what I mean.
In the Background Section 1.1 of this paper it says, “The purpose of legal aid in Canada is to ensure that low-income individuals have access to competent legal representation and fair access to the justice system.” Wait a second! If Legal Aid in Canada is to ensure that low-income individuals have access to competent legal representation and fair access to the justice system, than doesn’t that include the poor and working poor because they actually have an income? Just so everyone knows, technically, or according to Revenue Canada, people who are social assistance don’t have a taxable income because they don’t earn the money they receive from the taxpayers. To me, that means, that people on social assistance are not classified as low-income individuals because they don’t earn an income to begin with! And just for the record, I’ve known some people on social assistance who have not earned an income for years, and also have no intention in doing so. I think it’s time for Malthus because he had it right! But just so everyone knows, ANYONE can go to Legal Aid for advice! Businessmen have sat beside me on more than one occasion. Legal Aid clinics are not just for the people on social assistance, the poor or the working poor, Legal Aid is for everyone!
If you want competent legal representation I suggest you do it yourself. If you want advice from a Legal Aid lawyer, you’ll have to sit there waiting for one or in my case two words, (blameworthy conduct), study cases similar to yours and build your case from there! That’s what I did. I had to!
I’ve had one Legal Aid lawyer at the Legal Aid clinic, which I waited HOURS to see, tell me, “You don’t have a case. You’re wasting the taxpayers money!” and kick me out of her “office of the day”. I didn’t even have time to warm the chair! Another time, another Legal Aid lawyer, who was training someone, heard three words I had to say, read something and then proceeded to check her BlackBerry every 5 SECONDS and told me, in so many words, that I was wasting the taxpayers money! I was in her “office of the day” for less than 10 minutes. What they have FAILED to recognize is that I have been TRUSTING and USING varying forms of legal aid for over 21 years and the ONLY reason I’ve been going to that office this year to begin with is because from ALL of the duty counsel and three legal aid lawyers I did have over the course of 21 years, ONLY ONE did her job and that was in 1995. She was a legal aid lawyer!
You want to talk about wasting taxpayers’ money, how about we start at the beginning, you know, where in 1992, my daughter’s father filed an income statement, that said he was working and had after tax expenses of $443.34 per week, which is FAR LESS than the after tax expenses he had solemnly reported on his financial statement in February of 1996 when he supposedly wasn’t working! How about we fast forward to 1995, when my daughter’s father took me to court for more access to his only child that he willingly gave up in 2001 because he moved into his BRAND NEW HOUSE and didn’t in my opinion, want it to seem like he had money, thereby pay more child support LIKE HE WAS LEGALLY BOUND TO BY THE COURTS! And then again on Friday May 17, 1996 to when the child support was SLASHED to less than half because in my opinion, the judge didn’t review his financial information before her like she was LEGALLY BOUND because it was part of her job! How about we start with my little chat with duty counsel before I went into court on Friday May, 17, 1996, and how I told them that my daughter’s father’s financials didn’t add up and how I thought he was still employed!
Let’s now go to October 1996 when he didn’t show up in court because he didn’t feel like it. Then let’s head to February 1998, then November 1999, August 2000, when my daughter’s father didn’t show up to court again and then finally October 2000! All the while he VIOLATED, BREACHED, BROKE THE LAW of the court orders that he himself initiated and that the courts didn’t seem to have a problem with! Of course all of the above was at the financial expense of my daughter and myself and the TAXPAYERS, because going to court is never cheap! There are A LOT of people involved! Not only was my daughter’s father in contempt of court twice, (no show) he BREACHED EVERY COURT ORDER!!!
Really Legal Aid Ontario, how about we start at the beginning and you tell me EXACTLY how I’m wasting the taxpayers’ money! Because the way I see it, is like this. Had someone done their JOB PROPERLY to begin with I wouldn’t have been to court with him NINE TIMES!!! Two hearings he didn’t bother showing up for! Really Legal Aid, how about you just FINALLY GIVE ME some help! How about someone holds YOU, LEGAL AID ONTARIO, ACCOUNTABLE for WASTING TAXPAYERS MONEY!!! Because ALL I’ve ever tried to do was have my daughter’s father pay child support as per the Child Support Guidelines and for whatever reason, LEGAL AID ONTARIO and the ONTARIO JUSTICE SYSTEM meaning the COURTS have allowed him to slip through the ever widening gaps of our supposedly fair legal system! You know the EXACT same system that is to protect the vulnerable and the unprotected! The EXACT same legal system that is ALWAYS to put the rights and the well-being of the child or children first! Thank you province of Ontario! Thank you so much for allowing my daughter’s father to build his wealth on the back of my daughter! Just how many other children and mothers are SUFFERING at your INCOMPETENT hands? Seriously! This inquiring mind wants to know!
What was duty counsel doing during all of times I went to court to get the justice the courts are legally bound to give me because they are (supposedly) there to help me help myself? I don’t know. Some duty counsel is intimidated by the judges and the lawyers for the other side so a lot of them, in my experience, don’t do a whole lot. Why burn a step on the ladder of success when you don’t have to. And according to the paper, “The tariff rate paid to lawyers is $57 per hour for duty counsel and depending on the experience, ranges from $67 per hour to $84 per hour for case work.” So if those were the costs for Legal Aid in Ontario between 1995/1996 to 2000/2001 what are the costs now? Better yet, just how much of today’s Legal Aid money is going to pay for the UTTER INCOMPETENCE of the people who are paid GOOD money to do their jobs and SIMPLY AREN’T!!! The VERY people who keep people like me and countless others in court?
We are not numbers! We are living breathing human beings with families to feed bills to pay and we just like everyone else want our rights as Canadians to be met! Are they, the people within the justice system, consciously not doing their jobs as a means of keeping themselves and others employed as they rape the taxpayers of Ontario of their hard earned money while they cause us undue emotional and financial hardship? Now, duty counsel can ONLY give you 10-12 minutes of their time. I am serious. That’s EXACTLY what they’ll tell you. How anyone is supposed to resolve any legal matter with only 10-12 minutes of legal advice is beyond my comprehension!
So what were my other two legal aid lawyers doing? I don’t know. I have a few theories. My first theory is that Legal Aid lawyers in Ontario, under the judicare system work with other lawyers in the area and they all know each other so maybe some of the lawyers want to keep the peace with the lawyers they were in court with. It could happen. People are people. Lawyers are people. People like to, “go with the flow”. Maybe some of those lawyers thought, “Hmmmmm. If I play nice in this court, maybe I can get what I want for my “paying client” (not the legal aid one) in a case I have coming up next week against this lawyer. That client is paying me FAR MORE than Legal Aid. And Legal Aid has me capped at $1,536.” Or maybe some of them thought, “Gees, his/her practice is doing VERY WELL, if I let this one slide, maybe they’ll consider me as part of their team and we could work together. They did ask me for lunch the other day and it did seem like a bit of an interview.” Or maybe some of them thought, “If I didn’t have to pay for Johnny’s summer camp, I wouldn’t be here, but money’s money. I’ll just do what I have to. Besides, they, (meaning the Legal Aid client) don’t know the law. They don’t know that what they don’t know will hurt them. I’m hungry, have to go pee and need a cigarette! Would someone please call for a recess?”
Don’t believe me if you want, but it would be at your own legal peril! After a few trips to the Legal Aid clinic, and actually getting into speaking with a couple of Legal Aid lawyers, who I’ve told the name of my daughter’s father’s lawyer, they’ve told me, “Oh, I don’t know if I would say that.” That to me translated into meaning, “He’s a high powered lawyer, and even I’m afraid of him.” I am serious. Those lawyers not only sounded scared of my daughter’s father’s lawyer, they LOOKED scared of him too! So did the Duty Counsel on Tuesday July 30, 2013 by the way. And just as a reminder, Duty Counsel can only do so much not only in the 10-12 minutes they “allot” you, but overall!
Am I bitter? You BET I AM!!! And so should EVERY TAXPAYING CANADIAN!!! How DARE, the justice system we pay for, in more ways than one, be allowed to treat us like underlings, like second class citizens when the people within it are PAID GOOD MONEY to protect us! If you aren’t bitter, angry or a combination of the above, then I strongly suggest you pull your head out of your ass! Yes I said ass and I mean it too! All of the above and more injustices within our supposed legal system are our tax dollars, for those of us who actually pay taxes, are being WASTED!!!
If you can’t read between the socio-economic lines of this blog I have two suggestions. One is that you start paying attention to something other than a mere distraction of reality! The other suggestion is that you do something, anything to stop this socio-economic travesty from continuing! If you don’t already know what I mean, please try to educate yourself. I don’t have time to educate you. I’m fighting for justice within our, in my opinion, unjust justice system as I navigate myself between the incompetent and rude members of it and try to stay sane as they try to drive me and those in my position crazy with their never-ending forms, lines, waiting periods, and court hearings! I could go on, but I am trying to stay sane!
Thank you for reading, A. Rebel’s Rant!
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