According to the most recent World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, Canada ranks twelfth overall out of 113 countries included in the survey. Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands rank first to fifth, respectively. Canada’s overall index score of 0.81 is tied with the UK and Australia. The US ranks eighteenth overall. Ranking twelfth out of 113 puts Canada near the top of the...
A Topic of Access to Justice for the Mentally Ill What makes a mental illness? While the phrase is bounced around quite often, defining the boundaries and understanding the diversity of psychiatric disorders is a very challenging task. Part of this can be attributed to the dynamic nature of psychiatric discovery. While the volume of scientific literature is constantly growing and what...
Legal Technology is often reported as being intrinsically linked to access to justice. Apps, AI, and digital access suggest an Uber-like ability to receive legal services at the push of a button. A recently published Globe and Mail article by University of Ottawa law professor Jena McGill, for example, bore the headline “Better access to justice in Canada? There’s an app for that.” However, while...
Is “Physical” Access to Justice Attainable? If you’ve ever been to 47 Sheppard Avenue East, you’ll know the point of this article well before I reach it. 47 Sheppard is a Toronto courthouse primarily used for small claims matters, a location I first entered as a wide-eyed caseworker starting the Parkdale intensive. The building is ominous and grey, accessible only from a side entrance, with no...
“We live in rapidly changing times,” writes Osgoode’s Associate Dean Trevor Farrow. Ethical questions are “continuously changing as a result of global trends.” The “complexity of today’s world is an issue for all lawyers.” Needless to say, globalization has been in vogue in the academy for more than a decade, not just in professional circles. So why is there so much talk and so little impact? Why...
In November 2014, the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice launched a new series on the A2J blog titled Access to Justice Advocates. The series is a response to recent reports that have underscored the importance of innovation and imagination in the pursuit of access to justice. At CFCJ, we understand that such efforts come down to people–to the diverse advocates working in different and...
Data Collection is Complete The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice recently completed a national study that surveyed over three thousand Canadians about their everyday legal problems. The survey is part of “The Cost of Justice: Weighing the Cost of Fair and Effective Resolution to Legal Problems”—an interdisciplinary, five-year long study funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research...
What does the public think about the justice system? What does justice mean to everyday Canadians? We interviewed 99 Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area and have captured their responses in our colourful new infographic “What is Access to Justice?”You can see the infographic at: www.cfcj-fcjc.org/infographics/what-is-a2j The infographic is based on the “What is Access to Justice” project...
There has been substantial discussion about access to justice issues in the past several years. The inability of the most vulnerable in our society to utilize the legal system has been addressed through reforms to the legal system, the availability of pro bono services and clinics, and Legal Aid initiatives or programs. However, most of these discussions and reforms have been on the topics of...
Open any textbook on applied ethics, and you will find the same issues arising again and again: global economic justice, climate change, criminal punishment, world hunger, corporate responsibility, animal welfare, biotechnology. Philosophers don’t agree on much, but almost all of them will tell you that these issues are the biggest ethical challenges of our time. In fact, ask any theologian, and...
In the foreword of the Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters Report: A Roadmap for Change, Chief Justice McLachlin said, “the problem of access to justice is not a new one. As long as justice has existed, there have been those who struggled to access it… we [are] increasingly failing in our responsibility to provide a justice system that [is] accessible, responsive and citizen-focused...
It is an inescapable fact that our lives as lawyers will be guided in part by ethical considerations. For some of us, studying law is an opportunity to pursue social justice. For the rest of us, professional obligations require us to practice ethically and act in the public interest. And one issue that will affect all spheres of practice – from the lowly legal aid clinic to the high society Bay...
What are the costs of providing civil justice to Canadians? What are the costs of not providing access to civil justice for Canadians? These two questions are at the heart of one of the exciting projects underway at the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice (CFCJ). “The Cost of Justice: Weighing the Cost of Fair and Effective Resolution to Legal Problems” is a 5-year, SSHRC funded, interdisciplinary...