Law Times

PAGE 2 NEWS March 8, 2010 • Law TiMes Organization aims to fill pro bono gap BY TIM NAUMETZ For Law Times OTTAWA — Thousands of homeless people are slipping through the cracks in legal aid and charitable legal assistance provided through pro bono pro- grams, a gap people like Joanna Nefs are trying to address. She runs Fair Change, a year- old legal assistance project in downtown Toronto. Other than its services, there appears to be no organized pro bono or similar type of help for many of the legal issues homeless people across the province face. And, with encounters between police officers and the homeless occurring daily, a Fair Change description of the legal circum- stances Toronto street people face suggests they need more help to protect their rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The last count in Toronto, conducted by the Scott Mission in 2006, found 6,487 people were sleeping in homeless shel- ters each night, says Nefs, a second-year student at Osgoode Hall Law School who estab- lished Fair Change last year. Nefs says she and three other Osgoode students, with a lawyer supervising, each put in up to 12 hours every week helping street people cope with a range of pro- vincial and city ticketing offences as well as other legal areas. The provincial tickets stem largely from the Safe Streets Act passed by the former Tory government of Mike Harris in 1999. The act was intended to curb aggressive squeegee kids at stoplights and panhandlers. But police enforcement has long been controversial and has led to allegations of abuse. Nefs tells Law Times officers with the Toronto Police Service's downtown 51 division aggres- sively ticket street people in the business district with alleged bylaw offences. Their tactics, Nefs alleges, include a pattern of issuing misleading tickets un- der a bylaw intended to keep roadways clear. She says officers routinely cite street people on sidewalks under a Toronto bylaw that prohibits anyone from "encumbering" a street but maintains they write "encumbering the sidewalk" on the ticket itself. The people charged invariably ignore the tickets and fail to show up in court where, according to Nefs, the city prosecutor and a judge receive charge information that states simply the bylaw number and the alleged infraction of encumbering the street. "Encumbering the sidewalk is not actually an offence," says Nefs. "Encumbering the street is an offence, but police officers in Toronto, especially in the 51st division, have been giv- ing out tickets for encumbering the sidewalk and then, because there is no legal aid and no one to tell these people that this isn't really an offence, they are being convicted for something that is not even an offence. "The homeless person hasn't shown up — because they have mental health issues, for whatever reason — and no one has shown up on their behalf because there isn't anyone in the city who does that, except for us. The prosecu- tor will just look at encumbering the street [charges], and if you don't show up, you're presumed to be pleading guilty, and they get a conviction." Nefs says she and her col- leagues have now informally turned to prosecutors to express concern. Their first court case challenging the practice, through a not-guilty plea, is set for April. The bylaw tickets may seem like small change to some people but they can be devastating for those living on the streets who eventually decide they want to return to a normal life, according to Nefs. That's because the fines add up and bite back as people at- tempt to turn their lives around. "The first thing that happens is they get kicked in the gut with $6,000 worth of back tickets," says Nefs. Questions placed with three key organizations involved in legal aid and pro bono services reveal how many homeless people find themselves inad- vertently left behind when it comes to Charter protection and legal rights. "The law society believes that all Ontarians deserve access to justice," Roy Thomas, director of communications at the Law Society of Upper Canada, said through an e-mail from one of his assistants, Susan Tonkin. The e-mail referred to Legal Aid On- tario as one source of support for vulnerable citizens as well as the support the LSUC gives to lawyers who provide free legal services through Pro Bono Law Ontario. It includes fee and in- surance waivers as well as cover- age for retired lawyers who offer pro bono help. But PBLO tells Law Times it has no specific coverage for home- less people and also referred to the services provided by LAO. "There is no PBLO project Inside you will find: • an up-to-date alphabetical listing of more than 57,000 barristers, solicitors and Quebec notaries, corporate counsel, law firms and judges in Canada; • contact information for the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Canada, Federal Cabinet Ministers, departments, boards, commissions and Crown corporations; • legal and government contact information related to each province for the Courts of Appeal, Supreme Courts, County and District Courts, Provincial Courts, law societies, law schools, Legal Aid, and other law-related offices of importance. More than a phone book Hardbound • Published February each year • On subscription $141 • P/C 0600140999 One-time purchase $157 • P/C 0600010999 • ISSN 0084-8573 CD-ROM • On subscription $214 • P/C 0600260999 One-time purchase $229 • P/C 0600210000 to provide pro bono services for homeless people," says Yonit Fuhrmann, deputy director of PBLO. "This was a deliberate strategic decision the organiza- tion made at its inception so as never to give the government an excuse to scale back funding for legal aid. As a result, PBLO does not develop programs that pro- vide service in criminal, income support, family, and immigra- tion [law], which as we under- stand are the primary legal issues that affect the homeless." But those aren't the day-to- day legal issues the homeless face, says Nefs. As for LAO, it referred to one of its functions that could directly affect the homeless: courthouse offices that provide services under legal aid. Still, as Nefs points out, street people facing immediate legal problems rarely end up in the courthouse. LAO spokesman Kristian Jus- tesen also cites the 79 community legal clinics it funds but neverthe- less notes they provide poverty services for people with housing and income-related issues that can contribute to homelessness. Nancy Henderson, director For a 30-day, no risk evaluation call 1.800.565.6967 Canada Law Book is a Division of The Cartwright Group Ltd. Prices subject to change without notice, to applicable taxes and shipping and handling. CanLawList_LT_Feb8/15_10.indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 2/3/10 4:35:06 PM of one of those clinics, Parkdale Community Legal Services in Toronto, says it had to abandon the legal help it was providing to homeless people due to, among other things, the difficulty of keeping in touch with clients. Nefs says that's the case for many of the community clin- ics. To counter the problem, her unofficial pro bono unit is affili- ated with a drop-in centre near the city's shelters. "It's somewhere where people do feel safe and it's a community where, even if I don't know where Bob is, someone around is going to know where they saw Bob last, so I can track him down." LT

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