Law Times

Law Times • January 14, 2013 New legal helpline links teens, lawyers BY HEATHER GARDINER Law Times O Page 3 NEWS ntario teens with legal questions have a new resource to turn to. This week, Teen Legal Helpline, a free, confidential service that connects teenagers to lawyers, is launching. Once it's up and running, teens will be able to go to the Teen Legal Helpline's web site, submit their question, and a lawyer will provide an answer. Teens can also ask lawyers followup questions and they can guide them through the justice system. The helpline's main purpose is to assist teens who don't know where to turn for legal help. "Teens have legal questions that don't always call for full representation," says Matt Boulos, executive director and one of the founders of the Teen Legal Helpline. "Sometimes you just need an answer to your question so you can understand your problem and so that you can make the right decision. And that decision might be to get more help but at the very least if you don't get that first answer, you'll never know." At first, the helpline will be limited to questions in the areas of criminal, family, and immigration law, with labour and employment and housing matters to be added at a later date. Boulos says they decided to focus on those areas of law based on research they conducted with teens in Ontario, specifically in Toronto's St. James Town and Regent Park neighbourhoods. Boulos created the helpline after being involved in a legal situation with a teen in his youth group. "I grew up in Scarborough. I mentored kids in the same youth group that I grew up in. One of my boys had been accused of a sexual assault and he had come up to me asking me for my advice. I knew a criminal lawyer and had the two chat. What struck me was it was an incredibly brief conversation but then [the boy] knew what he needed to do in terms of how to carry himself and understanding the process with the police and the investigation," says Boulos. "I just couldn't really abide by the idea that there were going to be teens out there who were going to be in a similar position but not have the good fortune to show up at a youth group that just happened to have lawyers and people connected to the law hanging around," he adds. The lawyers who have signed up to volunteer for the helpline are mainly sole practitioners and lawyers from small firms, says Boulos. However, bigger law firms, including Torys LLP and Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP, have provided other legal services pro bono to help Teen Legal Helpline get started. The helpline has also been funded through a grant from the Law Foundation of Ontario and private donations and the organization is in the midst of a major fundraising drive. LT JPs to appeal salary ruling BY YAMRI TADDESE Law Times T he Association of Justices of the Peace of Ontario will challenge the decision of a Superior Court judge who said disputes related to judicial salaries have to be dealt with through a judicial review, according to the association's counsel. The association asked the Ministry of Government Services to increase the salaries of Ontario's justices of the peace by 3.84 per cent in accordance with an updated Statistics Canada wage calculating tool that a factum prepared by its counsel, James Morton, refers to as "a fully revised survey of employment data more accurately reflecting actual wage trends." But the government believes justices of the peace are entitled to a 2.7-per-cent salary adjustment for the salary year 2008-09 given Statistics Canada data available in 2008 prior to the updated number. When a three-person remuneration commission was asked to mediate, the majority voted for a compromise adjustment of 3.3 per cent. But the government elected to adopt the recommendation of the dissenting member of the commission who suggested a 2.7-per-cent adjustment was appropriate. "Determining 'fair and reasonable remuneration' requires an objective analysis of what level of remuneration is appropriate to maintain public confidence in the independence of the judiciary," wrote Government Services Minister Harinder Takhar in a Nov. 20 response to the commission. "The majority of the commission failed to conduct such an assessment. Rather, it simply split the difference between the two [industrial aggregate index] rates published by Statistics Canada at different times in an attempt to reach a compromise solution." Since the 2.7-per-cent recommendation was the lowest, the government simply chose that one, Morton argues. But on Jan. 2, Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba dismissed the association's application for a declaration in its favour as he found he wasn't in a position to rule either way. The association must seek judicial review shouldn't be one, adds Morton. "In order to protect our position, we've commenced a judicial review and the judicial review says the government's refusal to accept the commission's recommendation is not reasonable." In a factum prepared for the Superior Court, Morton quotes the Court of Appeal on statutory authority. "As a rule, the public acts of a legislature are not meant to operate as historical documents," reads the quote from the appeal court. "They are written with an eye to the indefinite future, on the assumption they will be applied not only to the facts in existence at the time they come into force, but also 'In order to protect our position, we've commenced a to conditions and circumstances as judicial review and the judicial review says the governthey evolve from time to time." ment's refusal to accept the commission's recommenFor Morton, it's a no-brainer dation is not reasonable,' says James Morton. that the legislation should be sufif it finds the government's reasons ficient to make a judgment in the unacceptable, Belobaba said. case. "It's public law that's binding on "These reasons are subject to a everybody. It's the same as the statute 'limited form of judicial review by and what's called for is interpretation the superior courts' that should do and what it means rather than, you no more than assess the government's know, negotiating on the meaning of decision on the basis of 'simple ratio- legislation. nality,'" Belobaba wrote in his ruling. "The judge should have made a "The appropriate remedy would be decision determining the meaning judicial review." of the regulation . . . and failing to do But the association claims the that was a legal error." judge should have made a decision In his ruling, Belobaba said he had by simply interpreting the salaries let counsel know in May 2012 that the and benefits of justices of the peace case would be dismissed if the governregulation, which was updated ment replied to the commission's recshortly after Statistics Canada's im- ommendation by December. At the proved industrial aggregate index for time, he purposefully refrained from Ontario came out. intervening in the case, he wrote. "I was "We say this regulation is passed mindful of the case law that discourand a regulation is public law bind- aged judicial involvement when the ing on everybody and the govern- work of a compensation commission ment and justices of the peace," was still underway. I was also mindMorton says. ful that a year had gone by with no "And the regulation having been response from the government to the passed, we are no longer in the com- recommendation of 3.3 per cent. mission process. It's simply a matter "By adjourning the application to of what you want this regulation to early December, and thus allowing mean and the people to determine the government a full 18 months to that are judges. respond, and by providing coun"If it was before the regulation is sel with a roadmap of what I would passed, then I think we would agree. likely decide when we reconvened, it It's a matter of the commission process. was my hope that the matter would But the commission process ends, it be resolved or moved forward in a was completed when the regulation is prudent and reasonable fashion." enforced. So we say it's too late for the Belobaba also noted that the commission process." government isn't obliged to adopt But the association is also going to the commission's majority suggeslaunch a judicial review to cover all of tion as long as it provides reasons its bases even though it believes there for not doing so. LT Ontario Bar Association's INSTITUTE 2013 FEBRUARY 7-9 Continuing Professional Development 24 CPD Programs 7 Special Events Register now! oba.org/Institute2013 Untitled-3 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 13-01-08 1:14 PM

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