{"id":125231,"date":"2017-10-20T02:13:40","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T06:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=125231"},"modified":"2017-10-20T02:13:40","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T06:13:40","slug":"lack-of-legal-aid-leaves-too-many-defendants-to-represent-themselves-top-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/20\/lack-of-legal-aid-leaves-too-many-defendants-to-represent-themselves-top-judge\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of legal aid leaves too many defendants to represent themselves: top judge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Beverley<\/a>
FILE: Beverley McLachlin, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, speaks to the Federal supreme Court of Brazil (Photo By Gerv\u00e1sio Baptista\/ABr – Ag\u00eancia Brasil [1]Crop by User:Gilbertus of File:Beverley McLachlin.jpg, CC BY 3.0 br<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>JOHN’S, N.L. — The old adage goes something like this: a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Canada’s top judge blames a lack of legal aid funding for what she says is the major challenge facing the criminal system — access to justice, especially for the poor and marginalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a justice system to be proud of but it does not always do the job it was created for,\u201d Beverley McLachlin, chief justice of the Supreme Court of\u00a0Canada, told a public lecture Thursday at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s.<\/p>\n

She especially emphasized the number of people who struggle to represent themselves after being denied legal aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cut-off can be quite low,\u201d she said of funding restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cLost in a system they don’t understand, and that seems incompatible with their reality, the accused lose faith in the system and in justice itself, and they give up. Is that access to justice? I don’t think so,\u201d she told the standing room only audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have heard criticisms of the justice system for occasionally producing a wrongful conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Self-represented defendants are more likely to plead guilty, to be denied bail and to be convicted, McLachlin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had a wish that some genie would fulfil, I’d say it would be to somehow impress attorney generals — people involved in the justice system and governance — with the vital importance of spending a little more on justice and making sure people are represented.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was one of her last public lectures as chief justice before she gets set to retire in mid-December after 28 years on the country’s highest court. She has been in the top job for almost 18 years.<\/p>\n

McLachlin said while health and education spending have increased, spending on the justice system has been stagnant or declined across\u00a0Canada\u00a0in recent decades.<\/p>\n

Yet she says various studies show that rehabilitating offenders pays off economically.<\/p>\n

She believes the five most pressing access challenges for the criminal justice system are: access to professional legal advice, prompt trials, fair sentencing, access to a system that meets victims’ reasonable expectations, and access to culturally appropriate processes.<\/p>\n

The latter is especially vital for aboriginal people who are disproportionately incarcerated, McLachlin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not in the habit of telling governments what to do,\u201d she stressed. But she would like to hear debate on the judicial weight that should be placed on rehabilitation and how best to accomplish it. Offenders who go on to lead productive lives cost less, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope we have this conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Criminal defence lawyers have repeatedly called for changes to minimum mandatory sentences imposed by the last federal Conservative government.<\/p>\n

They say minimum sentencing actually increases repeat offences, and have urged the governing Liberals to introduce changes expected sometime this fall.<\/p>\n

There have also been widespread calls for action on disproportionate incarceration rates for Indigenous citizens and visible minorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAboriginal persons are grossly over-represented in the system,\u201d said Ian Carter, vice-chairman of the Canadian Bar Association’s criminal justice section. \u201cIt’s an enormous problem. In fact, I’d say that’s a bigger problem than the legal aid issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to find ways to reduce that level of incarceration,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n

About one-quarter of all prison inmates are aboriginal even though they make up just four per cent of the general population, the office of the federal correctional investigator reported in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat number’s just unacceptable,\u201d Carter said. \u201cHow can
\npeople have faith in a system with that kind of
\nover-representation?\u201d<\/p>\n

McLachlin took no questions from media on Thursday but had a bit of fun answering some from the audience. She was asked if she had advice for anyone considering law school.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo for it,\u201d she said to laughs from the audience. \u201cIt certainly was good for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOHN’S, N.L. — The old adage goes something like this: a man who is his own lawyer has a fool …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":125232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[28611,28612,10172],"class_list":["post-125231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-beverley-mclachlin","tag-memorial-university-of-newfoundland","tag-supreme-court-of-canada","mauthors-sue-bailey","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}