Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 08/05) - Governments across the country have ignored a brewing crisis within the legal aid system, which has denied many poorer Canadians their basic rights, according to the head of Canadian Bar Association.

"Access to justice does not seem to get the attention it deserves from government," Susan McGrath said during a recent visit to Yellowknife.

McGrath was in the capital to address the Northwest Territories branch of the Canadian Bar Association.

The national association has filed a lawsuit in British Columbia Supreme Court seeking wholesale changes to the way federal, provincial and territorial governments provide lawyers for the poor.

"We believe that the time has come to establish a constitutional right to civil legal aid in this country," McGrath said. "Without legal aid, access to justice is meaningless."

Government spending on civil legal aid - which covers family, poverty and immigration law - has declined dramatically during the last decade, McGrath said.

She pointed to British Columbia where the legal aid budget was chopped nearly 40 per cent between 2001 and 2002.

Canadians who cannot afford a private lawyer are often denied access to the courts, McGrath said. "Many people cannot take advantage of their legal rights."

All 13 provincial and territorial branches of the Canadian Bar Association contributed towards the nearly $500,000 set aside for the legal battle.

McGrath believes the legal aid situation in the Northwest Territories has not reached crisis levels, but she stressed there is still room for improvement.

The territory faces a backlog of family law cases, and there is worry among several lawyers the system is struggling to deal with a mounting case load.

Since 2001, the number of legal aid cases has jumped 24 per cent while government funding has increased 10 per cent.

Overall, the government has about 28 legal aid employees including eight staff lawyers and nine court workers, according to the Justice department. Those figures are up from 24 in 2003-2004. Their annual budget is nearly $3.9 million.