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STUDENT RUN LEGAL CLINICS PROVIDE IMPORTANT SERVICES – “Law school clinics not only provide legal services to those who cannot otherwise afford them — a feat in its own rite given that clinic workers help tenants keep their homes, workers keep their jobs and parents keep their children. They are also key hubs for experiential learning, especially in areas where the access to justice crisis in Ontario has become most dire, such as housing and immigration. For law students across the province, an attack on our clinics is an attack on our future.”

U of T law student Teodora Pasca says Legal aid cuts and the Student Choice Initiative threaten the future of the legal profession Source: The Ontario government is destroying university legal clinics

POLITICIANS GONNA POLITIC – Vulnerable immigrants and refugees gonna suffer.

Michael Spratt analyses the aftermath of Ontario’s Legal Aid funding cuts Source: When Legal Aid is a political prop, Access to justice suffers

Janayre Marie Smith Vaughan

THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT – DOES IT STILL APPLY IN SEXUAL ASSAULT CASES?

Trying to set a level playing field in situations as fraught as sexual assault cases is exceedingly complex. But governments have tried. Last year, when Bill C-51 took effect, the rules in sexual assault trials changed so that, if a defendant’s Source: EDITORIAL: Sexual assault law a tricky balance | The Chronicle Herald

IMPORTANT FOR LAW STUDENTS AND PARALEGALS AND THE LAWYERS AND CLIENT WHO USE THEIR SERVICES – The Ontario government has issued an order-in-council to designate authority to the Law Society to determine who has the ability to appear in summary conviction court as a regulated agent.

RIGHT TO COUNSEL – When a person is arrested they have the right to consult (talk to) a lawyer “OF THEIR CHOICE” even if the police try to steer them towards using duty counsel.

Criminal Law – Charter of Rights And Freedoms – Charter remedies [s. 24] Source: Charter protected interest was high as accused was mentally ill and experiencing panic attack

PLAYING POLITICS WITH IMMIGRANTS, REFUGEES, AND LEGAL AID.

The federal government will fill the funding gap made by Ontario’s cuts to legal aid, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday afternoon — a “one-time top-up” of $26.8 million for immigrant and refugee legal services, which were left in lurch after the provincial slash. “We shouldn’t be having to make this announcement,” a ‘frustrated’ …

Continue reading “PLAYING POLITICS WITH IMMIGRANTS, REFUGEES, AND LEGAL AID.”

CANNABIS RECORD SUSPENSIONS – You get a pardon and you get a pardon and everybody gets a pardon! Here is the link to the government webpage.

https://www.canada.ca/en/parole-board/services/cannabis-record-suspensions.html

CANNABIS CONVICTION PARDONS – Well, actually they’re called “record suspensions” and as of today, August 1, 2019, they are free and expedited for those who have been convicted of simple possession of marijuana.

Canadians are now able to apply for no-cost, expedited pardons for simple cannabis possession convictions, the federal justice minister announced on Thursday. Speaking in Montreal, Justice Minister and Attorney General David Lametti said the measures of Bill C-93 will take effect immediately. The new law allows people who were only convicted of a crime of …

Continue reading “CANNABIS CONVICTION PARDONS – Well, actually they’re called “record suspensions” and as of today, August 1, 2019, they are free and expedited for those who have been convicted of simple possession of marijuana.”

CONVICTIONS, PARDONS, AND THE U.S. BORDER

Pardons are supposed to let a former offender move on. So why do they sometimes create more problems than they solve at the U.S. border? Source: Pardons aren’t supposed to be visible at the U.S. border. Here’s why they often are