I read with interest two articles in the Sept. 28, 2009, edition of Law Times. On page 6, Rosalind Conway wrote about the problems criminal defence counsel are experiencing with the legal aid system.

On page 7, Brian Finnigan wrote about the difficulties in accessing legal services in small communities.
As a matter of policy, Canadians have decided that people charged with serious crimes are entitled to legal representation and that if they can’t afford to pay for their own lawyer, the state must provide legal counsel.

 However, legal aid is underfunded, and that simple fact is the source of the problems. Because lawyers can’t survive in small communities on what legal aid pays, they have no choice but to work in larger centres where there is more work available, some of it on a private retainer basis.

I don’t see this changing until the courts start dismissing very serious criminal cases over delays due to underfunding of the justice system. Only then will access to justice actually assume some importance and priority in both the federal and provincial governments’ spending.

The problems addressed in these two articles are serious and they require a serious response based on reasoned consideration. That response was not met by the recent decision of the Ontario government to harmonize the provincial sales tax with the federal goods and services tax.

I find it ironic that the same government that has been telling me for the last 30 years that lawyers have to be part of the solution has now chosen to address the problems by increasing the cost of legal services even more.

I might be less inclined to view the Ontario government’s action in extending the provincial sales tax to the cost of legal services as hypocritical if there was a commitment by the Ontario government that at least some portion of the province’s share of the amount charged on legal fees would be paid to the Ontario legal aid plan.

 But I don’t see that happening either.
We as lawyers must make our clients and the general public aware of the facts if the community perception of the value of the justice system, and the need to adequately fund it, is going to change.