ACCESS TO JUSTICE
Would you call it a fair legal system?
- if you were imprisoned for over 20 years for a murder you did not commit
- if a parole officer circulated false reports making serious and unfounded allegations against you, resulting in longer and harsher prison time
- if you had to wait until parole, about a quarter-century later, to be in a safe enough position to take legal action against this parole officer
- if your lawyer then represented your case inadequately, could not take it to trial because he failed to pay his dues, instead disappeared with your file, and yet was not held accountable by the Law Society
- if you were too poor to afford another lawyer, and could not find a lawyer to take your case for free or on a percentage basis
- if the only legally trained advocate available to help you was not allowed by the Law Society to do so because he was not a lawyer, and yet was not allowed by the Law Society to become a lawyer because of his legal activism
- if one of the people making this decision about your advocate was in a clear conflict of interests, as the lawyer representing the parole officer
against you
- if the Law Society, Legal Aid, the Justice Minister, and the Court, despite these circumstances, all refused to ensure proper legal representation for you
For additional information:
Vaughn Barnett, the Advocacy Collective
Phone/Fax (506) 457-4559
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