Creating Civil Legal Aid

PETITION TO THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA

Please send to: Sarah Crawford

We, the undersigned, draw the attention of the Government of Canada, under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to the following:

WHEREAS legal aid has been restricted to family and criminal proceedings only, and,

WHEREAS legal aid is gender-specific, targeting favoritism to low-income single mothers seeking child support, and,

WHEREAS, despite the provinces call for increased federal funding, this Conservative government has not delivered on empty promises, and,

WHEREAS The McGuinty government has delivered by, for example, increasing provincial funding to Legal Aid significantly whilst in power, paying four times as much as the federal government, and,

WHEREAS, Family and civil legal aid services are being eroded because we have to address rising criminal legal aid demands on a flat-lined federal budget, and,

WHEREAS civil legal aid has been shoved under the rug by this Conservative government, and,

WHEREAS the financial requirements for legal aid discourage Canadians from being employed whilst in school through considering student loans as income, and,

WHEREAS this government has swept under the rug a problem which needs to be addressed in a most urgent fashion, and in incorporating the previous Liberal governments federal plan to increase legal aid funding, and in assessing disproportionately low monies scattered here and there, which should rightfully be dispensed to the provinces in an organized manner dictated by the Canadian people.

THEREFORE, your petitioners request that the Government of Canada take immediate action in implementing a revision of legal aid, particularly civil legal aid, funding, and the dispersions of federal funding to the provinces of Canada, and that this government allocate and present a concrete budget to its regard.