Justice committee  No. Some provinces actually rely a lot more heavily on the private bar than on legal aid clinics. Ontario, for example, relies very heavily on issuing certificates to members of the private bar, as well as having legal aid lawyers, so it's not just when there is a conflict that i

Justice committee  I think it depends, province by province.

Justice committee  Different provinces have a different mixture of legal aid clinics, where the legal aid lawyers are actually employed by the province. Other provinces rely more on issuing certificates to members of the private bar, to basically undertake legal aid services. Their private sector l

Justice committee  This is the justice system. There are no winners or losers. How can you measure the fact that a lawyer wins a case or loses a case in terms of whether the client had proper legal services? The person may have been rightfully guilty, but the lawyer ensured that they were guilty of

Justice committee  With respect to criminal legal aid, as you've indicated, the statistics indicate that most accused persons are male as opposed to female. The Supreme Court has held that there is a constitutional right of an unrepresented indigent person to a fair trial. Their fair trial rights m

Justice committee  Thank you. It would be very difficult to set a national level for eligibility, for example. The cost of living in Vancouver and the cost of living in Toronto is a lot more expensive than living in other parts of the country. The eligibility rates for provinces have to take into

Justice committee  As I indicated, under our constitutional system, the jurisdiction over criminal law is shared between the federal and provincial governments, where the federal Parliament is responsible for enacting the criminal law and enacting criminal procedure and the provinces are responsibl

Justice committee  That's a good question. Each province and territory has its own eligibility criteria so there is not complete consistency, but I can ask my colleagues to give you more information on that.

Justice committee  There's a formula that's negotiated with the provinces using a number of factors to determine the contribution for each province. The provinces get different amounts. The agreements will last for a number of years and then they will be renegotiated. Again, if you want more inform

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to appear before the committee once again. I am accompanied today by Ms. Elizabeth Hendy, director general, Programs Branch, and by Ms. Hana Hruska, director of the Legal Aid Directorate. As requested, I will focus

Justice committee  The name change is one aspect. The other aspect is not to incorporate a number of elements of subsection 269.1 that really only apply to state torture, and then try to apply it in the private conduct realm.

Justice committee  Also we're here to provide the committee with options to consider, but we have no position to put forward or preference, because we make recommendations to the minister, as I indicated to Mr. Nicholson. When he was minister, I made recommendations to him. Now that he's an MP, I d

Justice committee  Correct.

Justice committee  I'll turn it around. There are significant areas of the proposed amendment that only make sense in the context of 269.1.

Justice committee  Yes.