Sure. Pro bono is really important. I don't want to undermine that. It's really important in terms of the spirit of the bar in meeting the needs of justice. In B.C., pro bono work is administered primarily through an organization called Access Pro Bono, which really struggles to connect family law clients with pro bono practitioners.
There are a couple of reasons for that. One is that we have a small family bar. I don't think this is unique to B.C. Not very many people go into it, for a whole number of reasons. A number of years ago, West Coast LEAF wrote a report called “Not with a ten-foot pole”. As you can tell from the title, it was about why people don't go into family law legal aid. They talked to law students about that. People are really hesitant to go into this area. That's one issue.
The other issue is that most people don't do legal aid. They meet the needs of high-income clients and they aren't meeting the needs of marginalized and community-based clients. That's a big reason why pro bono doesn't meet the gap. Also, this isn't an issue that should be dealt with through charity. There is that philosophical point. Those are important practical points, but there is a philosophical point about people getting access to justice. We all deserve access to justice, not because someone feels that out of the goodness of their heart they will provide these services.