McMurtry, R. Roy

English

York University, Osgoode Hall Law School

Osgoode Hall Law JournalVolume 35, Number 3/4 (Fall/Winter 1997)Special Issue on Parkdale Community Legal Services(PCLS)Article 3Celebrating a Quarter Century of CommunityLegal Clinics in OntarioR. Roy McMurtryFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohljPart of the Law CommonsArticleThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Osgoode Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Osgoode HallLaw Journal by an authorized editor of Osgoode Digital Commons.Citation InformationMcMurtry, R. Roy. "Celebrating a Quarter Century of Community Legal Clinics in Ontario." Osgoode Hall Law Journal 35.3/4(1997) : 425-430. http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol35/iss3/3CELEBRATING A QUARTERCENTURY OF COMMUNITY LEGALCLINICS IN ONTARIO©BY THE HONOURABLE R. RoY MCMURTRY*I am delighted to be here to help celebrate an outstandingachievement on the part of so many remarkable people. The lasttwenty-five years have shown how the power of an idea-when matchedwith energy, determination, and community support-can make a crucialand enduring difference.Tonight, and over the next two days, friends of Parkdale and ofthe community clinics as a whole, are gathered to remember what hasbeen accomplished, to recognize those who made it happen, and toreflect on how to best strengthen and support the clinics in theincreasingly challenging years ahead. I hope that, as well, everyone willrecommit to being an important part of that future.Looking out over the room compels me to pay a personal tributeto all who have helped build this movement. There are people heretonight who were at Parkdale on its very first day, and others whose firstday took place this fall. We have people who have spent large parts oftheir working or volunteer life in the clinic movement, and others whohave carried its lessons into everything else that they have done.Sadly, some of the key figures from Parkdale's early days are nolonger with us. It is fitting that we think of them as we celebrate thisachievement, in which they have played such an important part.I am delighted that the Honourable Gerald Le Dain, a formerdistinguished member of the Supreme Court of Canada, is with ustonight. As the dean of Osgoode Hall Law School in the late 1960s andearly 1970s, Gerald Le Dain exhorted all of his students to be "socialengineers." He put his words into practice when he took a personalstand to support Parkdale's opening when the Law Society of the daywas expressing strong opposition.© 1997, Hon. R.R. McMurtry.* Chief Justice of Ontario. This is a slightly revised version of a speech given on 14 November1996 at the twenty-fifth anniversary conference for Parkdale Community Legal Services.OSGOODE HALL LAW JOURNALDean Le Dain's personal commitment typifies the contributionsof thousands of individuals to the Parkdale project. Although theircontributions have varied, all have grown personally from theirinvolvement in building an institution which breathes life into the mostcherished values of our legal system. The Parkdale community law clinicis surely one of Osgoode Hall Law School's proudest achievements and Iam very pleased to be sharing its evening with Dean Marilyn Pilkington,whose commitment to the broader community is well known to us all.I am also very pleased to see Ron Ellis here tonight. Ron, as weall remember, was the director of the Parkdale clinic during those criticalmonths twenty years ago when Parkdale was on the brink of the abyss.His leadership was essential to the survival of the clinic movement.Tonight, we recognize and thank those who have worked on thefront lines, whether as community legal workers, support staff, boardmembers, lawyers or volunteers. You have our admiration and respectfor what your hard work and dedication has achieved. Over the years,my colleagues associated with Parkdale have always emphasized the roleof the community.When Osgoode students first entered Parkdale, they foundcommunity organizations and organizers already at work. Communityresidents and leaders were vital to the transformation of Osgoode'simportant initiative into a true community institution. Because it hadthe foresight and determination to assert the community's role, theParkdale clinic has earned the community trust and support so essentialto its growth and survival.The crucial role of community support became clear to me inlate 1975, when the few existing clinics found their funding from varioussources running out. They turned for funding to the provincialgovernment, of which I had recently become the attorney general.The clinics were able to point to the innovative ideas onneighbourhood law offices contained in Mr. Justice John Osler's 1974report on legal aid,1 but these ideas were far from being accepted by theLaw Society of the day. Without the strong foundations that the originalclinics had built in their communities, it might have been impossible forme to persuade the Law Society and the government to make what wasthen a radical shift in the orientation of the Ontario Legal Aid Plan.In what would now be considered an amazingly brief six-sectionregulatory framework, we provided only two broad conditions for1 See Ontario, Task Force on Legal Aid, Report of the Task Force on Legal Aid: Part 1(Toronto: Ministry of the Attorney General, 1974) (Chairman: Hon. J.H. Osler) c. 5 at 53-56.[VOL. 35 No. 3Remarks of the Chief Justicefunding-one was independence and the other was a community base.2Interestingly, we also specifically provided for the delivery of services byparalegals and for "preventive law programmes."3 At the time, both ofthese innovative concepts were considered highly controversial.The first clinic funding committee consisted of tworepresentatives from the Law Society and one from my ministry. Allthree are now my judicial colleagues-Justices Lee Ferrier, JimChadwick, and Archie Campbell. All were tremendous supporters ofthe clinics who devoted countless hours to building the system and tomaintaining the delicate balance between community control and publicaccountability.However, the role of the clinic remained somewhatcontroversial, and in 1978 I appointed the Honourable Sam Grange toinquire into the role of the clinics in Ontario's Legal Aid Plan. In hisreport, Sam Grange established a more elaborate and enduringframework for the clinic system than we had been able to devise in thosefew hectic weeks early in 1976.4 In this, he was ably assisted as counselby my current colleague on the Court of Appeal, the Honourable JohnLaskin. The framework they developed has lasted almost unchanged tothis day.5Included in that framework were a continued requirement thatclinics be independent community organizations, a continued role forcommunity legal workers, and a continued recognition of the need forclinics to go beyond individual casework to "promote the legal welfare"of each clinic's community.6On these foundations has been built something truly remarkable.From eight clinics in 1976, the number grew to thirty-one in 1978, and toforty-eight when I left office in 1985. This growth continued during thetenure of Ian Scott as attorney general. Even though the sixty-sevenclinics in place when he left office in 1990 have only been modestlyincreased, Ontario rightly stands as a leader today in this field.It is worth recalling that this expansion was not easily achieved,given the opposition of many in the legal profession. But the movementprevailed. Wise and strong treasurers, and many benchers, took strong2 See 0. Reg. 160176, s. 147.3 Ibid. s. 148.4 See Ontario, Commission on Clinical Funding, Report of the Commission on Clinical Funding(Toronto: The Commission, 1978) (Commissioner: Hon. S.G.M Grange) at 61-66.5 See LegalAid Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. L.9; and R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 710, as am.6 See R.R.O. 1970, Reg. 557, as am. by 0. Reg. 391/79, s. 146.1997] 427OSGOODE HALL LAW JOURNALpositions of leadership in the face of often less-than-thoughtfulopposition. I was able to rally sufficient support from my ministerialcolleagues despite the pressures from some of the more conservativemembers within political party ranks, who often viewed clinics as agentsof the opposition. The support that I received across the aisle frommembers of the legislature such as Jim Renwick and Pat Lawlor mayhave fuelled that perception, although I personally welcomed it.Some will also recall that this was during the period of majorfamily law reform,7 so the ministry was viewed by some of my colleaguesas a hotbed of radicalism. However, as I said a moment ago, weprevailed and much of that credit should go to Doug Ewart, who wasthen one of my senior policy advisers. Legal aid in general and the clinicmovement in particular did not have then or now a more effective andtotally committed ally.Rights and freedoms are empty and meaningless without themeans to enforce them in the courts. I am as proud to have beenassociated with the struggle. to save and expand the community legal aidclinics in Ontario as I am to have been associated with the birth of theCanadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.8Why did Ontario succeed when no other jurisdiction on thiscontinent has been able to build a structure dedicated exclusively to theparticular legal needs of the most disadvantaged? I have already notedthe importance of the community to the early funding and growth of theclinics, and the vital partnership between the government and the LawSociety. Fundamental, of course, to the leadership of Parkdale has beenthe critical role of the Osgoode Hall Law School partnership with theParkdale community. In the final analysis however, clinics have takenhold in Ontario because of the demonstrated power of the idea behindthem.Stephen Wexler, whose writings inspired many of the leaders ofthe clinic movement in Canada, exposed the philosophy behind theclinics very simply when he said: "Poor people are not just like richpeople without money ... ; poor people are always bumping into sharplegal things."9And, as we appreciate better now than we did perhaps then, thewounds from these "sharp legal things" are disproportionately felt.7 See, for example, The Succession Law Reform Act, 1977, S.O. 1977, c. 40; The Children's LawReform Act, 1977, S.O. 1977, c. 41; and The Family Law Reform Act, 1978, S.O. 1978, c. 2.8 Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, being Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (U.K.), 1982, c.11.9 S. Wexler, "Practicing Law for Poor People" (1970) 79 Yale L.J. 1049 at 1049-50.[VOL. 35 No. 3Remarks of the Chief JusticeBecause of the systemic discrimination found in most of our institutions,the wounds are particularly inflicted on racial and other minorities,women, Aboriginal people, and those with literacy, learning, or otherdisabilities.What distinguishes the clinics from other access-to-justiceinitiatives is their ability to respond in a community-specific manner tothese needs. In my first address to the clinic movement, almost exactlytwenty years ago today, on 13 November 1976, I referred to some ofthose distinguishing features as follows:They are ideally suited ... [t]o engage in the kind of outreach programmes which areessential if legal services are to be brought to the people who need them the most. Theyalso have the ability to mount effective preventive law campaigns ... [And they] alsopossess the unique ability to allow clients to assist in the solution'of their problems.10Until Parkdale Community Legal Services, these ideas had notbeen implemented in this province. Much hard work, and hard thought,was required to make it happen. Because of the critical role of thecommunity in shaping the model, we know that only community clinicscan address in a comprehensive fashion the legal needs of poor people.I would like to conclude my reflections with a few words aboutsome of the challenges which the clinics may have to continue to addresswhen their future role is debated.There are some who, for example, will continue to argue thatanything beyond the case-by-case representation of individuals isinappropriate. To them, I would suggest that they look at the servicesprovided by law firms to institutional clients. There you will see a majoremphasis on influencing the shape and interpretation of the law, ondeveloping preventive strategies, and on finding allies and alliances forthe client's goals. Do the poor require or deserve anything less?There are some who assert that the clinics must be curbed intheir challenges to laws enacted by the legislature.It has been my experience that no minister of the Crown orsenior administrator, however experienced or well advised, can predicthow the bare bones of a law will be applied, particularly to the mostdisadvantaged.It is only when laws are tested, whether in the courts of justice orthe court of public opinion, in the light of real experiences, that thosemaking the laws can see the true impact on the neediest who areaffected in unique ways by our legal system. And it is only through the10 R.R. McMurtry, Speech to the Community Law Conference, Sponsored by Action on LegalAid, in cooperation with the Ontario Institute on Studies in Education (13 November 1976)[unpublished].1997]OSGOODE HALL LAW JOURNALdevelopment of facts and arguments in open and independent courtsthat the public can be satisfied that our fundamental constitutionaltenets are being respected.Testing laws and procedures for their impact on the mostdisadvantaged is not a challenge to the civil authority, but a bulwark ofthe rule of law.Finally, there are those who say that the bar at large can berelied upon to develop these cases. The fact is, however, that courtsneed the expertise that can be found only in clinic lawyers, and that iswhy their advocacy is requested as friends of the court when difficultpoints are in issue.The clinics also have a unique ability to assess the priorities oftheir communities in developing strategies for the long haul.And if I may be permitted to refer once again to my remarks tothe Action on Legal Aid conference twenty years ago:Legal aid, and, in particular, community law, is perhaps the single most importantmechanism we have to make the equal rights dream a reality. Seaton Pollock, who hashad a long and intense involvement in legal aid in England, has stated that:It is the corporate responsibility of a community to see that none of its members isexcluded from the rule of law.11I continued:For too long, those persons involved in community law have been shouldering thiscorporate responsibility with little encouragement and insufficient assistance from thegovernment and the legal profession. As a citizen, I am well aware of the pressing socialproblems which remain unsolved. As a lawyer, I am excited and challenged by theopportunities which exist within the law to provide innovative and effective solutions tomany of those problems. As attorney general, I am determined not to leave this officewithout establishing a firm basis for community law in Ontario.12While much has been accomplished as a society, we still have along way to go. Again, I would like to congratulate all of you heretonight who have helped to bring us this far and to wish you everysuccess and fulfilment in the difficult challenges that lie ahead.11Ibid121Jbid430 [VOL 35 No. 3

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Celebrating a Quarter Century of Community Legal Clinics in Ontario

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