The Impact of the Vision Report on Experiential Education at Osgoode and Community-Based Legal Clinics in Toronto
Osgoode students weren’t just worried about exams and papers at the end of the Fall 2014 term. Almost one hundred students completed a Student Caucus survey about the impact of the Vision Report on Parkdale Community Legal Services (PCLS), clinical education at Osgoode, and the community-based legal clinic system in Toronto. The Vision Report, released in August 2014, proposes an entirely new model for community legal aid clinics, which were introduced in the 1970s. The hotly debated future of poverty law services remains a pressing news issue in the Law Times, Huffington Post, Toronto Star, Now Toronto, Toronto Media Co-op, and Inside Toronto.
The survey was drafted by a sub-committee struck by Student Caucus to ensure we captured student opinions about the Vision Report’s proposed closure of Toronto’s fourteen independent community legal clinics in favour of three mega-centres. Student Caucus representatives Abigail Cheung, Allison Williams, and I analyzed the survey findings and delivered a report to Student Caucus in January 2015.
While the residents of the Parkdale neighbourhood clearly have the most to lose from any pending closures, the historic relationship between Osgoode and PCLS means that we, as Osgoode students, have much to lose as well. The intensive in Poverty Law at PCLS is the largest employer of Osgoode summer students, providing twenty jobs each summer. But PCLS offers more than jobs. PCLS is the biggest and oldest experiential education program at Osgoode. Students have, for four decades, been given the opportunity to practice a model of community lawyering instructed by inspiring staff lawyers and clients.
What do students need to know to inform how they engage with this issue? Here are five things every Ozzie should know about the potential closure of PCLS.
#5: What Happens to PCLS Reflects the Future of Community-Based Legal Aid in Ontario
While many agree that community clinics have their share of problems that can be addressed through modernization, the 1978 Grange Report of the Commission on Clinical Funding found that effective legal services had to be in and of a community to “overcome the traditional distrust felt by the poor towards lawyers.” The Student Caucus survey found that 78% of Osgoode students oppose closing Toronto’s fourteen community-based legal clinics and replacing them with mega-clinics, and only 4% were for it. A chief concern raised by students who had provided direct-client service in a clinical setting was an apprehension that the redefined geographic areas of mega-clinic service are simply too large to accommodate clients with financial and mobility barriers.
As noted in an analysis of the Vision Report by Ron Ellis, Doug Ewart, Thea Herman, Mary Jane Mossman, and Frederick Zemans, the claims about a more efficient and effective model of service via three mega-centres doesn’t ring true when the asserted gain in front-line staff is the equivalent of less than one person per clinic.This is the equivalent of adding less than one person to each of the existing fourteen clinics after all clinic staff are moved out of each community. Before the community-based legal clinic system in Canada’s most populated province is replaced with an economy legal services model of one-size fits all, more research and empirical evidence is needed.
#4: Even If Poverty Law Is Not Their Future Career, Students Can Benefit From More Information and Consultation About the Vision Report
Students identified the absence of a formal report or “on the record” statement from Osgoode as contributing to a lack of transparency. Approximately 60% of students surveyed claimed they were either unaware or only somewhat aware of the clinic transformation proposed. This percentage includes students who were at PCLS at the time of the survey or had completed a semester at PCLS. 46% of survey respondents had opinions about the Vision Report that they would like to share but had not yet shared.
Osgoode students arguably have a special interest in how this debate is resolved. First, Osgoode has a unique relationship with PCLS as a provider of clinical legal education. If PCLS is closed it is unclear how the clinical program in Poverty Law would be accommodated, if at all. Secondly, many students chose Osgoode because of its advertised commitment to access to justice. Approximately 75% of survey respondents described clinical education as a prominent factor for deciding to attend Osgoode, regardless of whether they had participated in PCLS or any other clinical education program to date. As stakeholders in PCLS and future legal practitioners, students have a vested interest in access to justice and in supporting a workable Legal Aid system in Ontario.
#3: Student Opinions Were Communicated At This Critical Time
On January 7, 2015, Student Caucus reviewed the survey results collected by the sub-committee struck to find out what students thought and discussed ways to move forward respecting the clear student mandate. Shortly after meeting, Student Caucus passed an electronic motion and delivered it at the next Faculty Council meeting on January 12, 2015 requesting that by February 10, 2015, Faculty Council shall have:
- “[R]eviewed the report that will be taken to the PCLS Board regarding the opinion of the Osgoode community on the Vision Report as it relates to clinical education at Osgoode, PCLS, and the future of Legal Aid in the City of Toronto. Faculty Council should have the opportunity to provide comment and/or endorse the report’s contents;
- [I]ncluded the views and opinions of Osgoode students reflected in the Student Caucus survey.”
Student leaders Abigail Cheung and Allison Williams moved the motion at Faculty Council on January 12, 2015, and spoke eloquently and convincingly in favour of greater consultation and inclusion of students’ perspectives on this issue impacting academic life at Osgoode. Ultimately, the motion was a close vote, but did not pass. The Clinical Education Committee of Faculty Council provided an interim report at this meeting concluding that, “the Committee concluded that no decision need be taken at this juncture by Faculty Council in relation to the existing MOU with PCLS, or in relation the Intensive Program in Poverty Law.” Concerns raised by students were rebuffed at the Faculty Council meeting based on three primary assertions: (A) regardless of what happens to other Toronto clinics, PCLS will be saved because it is the crown jewel in the legal aid crown, (B) the Vision Report advocates for mergers not closures, and (C) the MOU between Osgoode and PCLS does not provide Faculty Council the requisite jurisdiction to provide the PCLS Board with an opinion regarding the impact of the Vision Report’s proposals on clinical education at Osgoode. Concerns persist about these claims.
Even if one accepts the hope that PCLS will be protected from closure, shouldn’t we be worried about the Vision Report establishing a precedent of defining the needs of Canada’s low-income communities with minimal community consultation and evidence? Further, the Vision Report explicitly eschews the idea of mergers in favour of outright closures as demonstrated on page twenty of the report and the reliance on “realign” in the Framework Agreement. In response to the lack of jurisdiction claim, students have pointed out that the Vision Report stands to alter a large scope of the joint partnership in the MOU. In addition, any Osgoode specific decision regarding the Vision Report cannot strong-arm the independent PCLS Board into making a decision.
On January 14, 2015, the PCLS Board of Directors released a statement on the GTA Transformation project affirming a “commit[ment] to a broad consultation process over the next several months with its constituencies, including community members, agencies, PCLS staff, students and Osgoode Hall Law School, before taking any decisions about transformation.”
#2: The Osgoode Community Has Dedicated Access to Justice Advocates
I doubt Student Caucus’ engagement on this issue would have been possible without the instructive capacity building of Professor Mary Jane Mossman. Professor Mossman—who helped found the community-based legal clinic model in Ontario and was the first articling student at PCLS in 1971-1972—has been an inspirational advocate at Osgoode and in Ontario more broadly. Letters and resources from Ron Ellis, Shin Imai, Frederick Zemans, Thea Herman, and Doug Ewart have also provided urgently needed clarity about the Vision Report and its recommendations.
Making progress at Osgoode towards the fundamental right of access to justice in Toronto’s community-based legal clinic system would not have been possible without a dedicated student voice. Over the past year, the following law students have provided incredible expertise and leadership to shape the debate over expanding access to justice for all in Ontario: PCLS caseworkers and Osgoode students Craig Mazerolle, Kate Siemiatycki, Andrew Cox, David Nisker, Amina Juma, Nicole Veitch, Justin Amaral, Osgoode and PCLS alumni Mika Imai and Oriel Varga, as well as past PCLS articling students.
By coming together on an issue of shared concern, students, faculty, and Osgoode alumni have demonstrated that community building is a necessary part of advocacy that truly speaks to the needs of marginalized communities.
#1: You Can Help Shape How the Vision Report Impacts Osgoode In the Coming Year
Student Caucus recognizes the importance of keeping the student dialogue on Toronto legal clinic transformation ongoing while consultation, decision-making and any change-implementation occurs. In order to adequately participate in this endeavour, Student Caucus welcomes interested students to join the sub-committee struck to continue to explore how the Vision Report might affect Osgoode’s clinical education program at PCLS. The goals of this sub-committee are in development. They may include some of the following priorities:
- stay apprised of discussion about the Vision Report;
- disseminate information to the Osgoode community about the Vision Report; and
- direct an Osgoode discourse about a future community-based legal clinic model for Toronto.
To be part of the sub-committee please contact studentcaucuschair@gmail.com.