B.C.'s legal aid system faces drastic cuts at the end of March. Regional centres in Kelowna, Kamloops, Prince George, Victoria and Surrey will close. Services at the Justice Access Centre in Nanaimo will be reduced. LawLINE, a phone line that provides free legal advice to low income British Columbians, will shut down. So will the Community Advocacy Support Line, a service that offers free legal services and support to advocacy groups. Many of these services are supported by BCGEU members.
These cuts come on top of serious reductions to the legal aid system that took effect in 2009.
I'm worried. The closures and service reductions will hurt British Columbians who need legal aid. Demand has been increasing. Thousands of people use the service each year. Without it, they could be left out in the cold. Some minimal services will remain. But they won't offer the same level of help that's being delivered right now.
There's a growing number of voices joining a campaign to oppose the cuts and pressure the government to restore funding to appropriate levels. A resolution is going before Nanaimo, Kamloops and other city councils this month. Vancouver City Council passed it on February 2nd. The Canadian Bar Association is organizing public hearings. I'm sending a letter to the attorney general and the premier.
We're organizing to press the B.C. government to reverse these devastating cuts.