Canada's new tier-system targets justice

Equality for all under the law.

That is the premise of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

That is NOT what is happening when it comes to Canadians and judicial access.

While arguments can be made to criticize the type of person that crowds our jails (typically low-income, under-educated, addiction-prone, minority types) today's criticism focuses more on an individual's ability to access the judicial system.

An initial thought regarding legal aid often focuses on the criminal justice system. In this system, criminal defendants are afforded an over-worked public defender who may skim the case and opt for the best possible option -- an option that does not always place the defendent first.

However, the criminal system is but one aspect of the judicial system. Access to the judicial system must also include a citizen's ability to utilize family law and civil law.

This is where are judicial system fails. Our continually under-funded and under-represented civil legal aid system -- which attempts to provide legal counsel for low to moderate-income earners across the country -- is not nationally regulated, nor is it uniformly funded.

This inconsistency, along with the lack of support, simply means that the economically disadvantaged do NOT have equitable access to justice. And this is a significant problem.

If everyone is theoretically equal in the eyes of the law, yet 30% (and more) of the population is too economically poor to utilize the system, then we are creating and supporting a two-tier judicial system.

While poverty is not an overt classification for discrimination, it is a social classification and an economic reality that serves to exclude segments of the population. If this exclusion infiltrates the one area of our society that is built upon equality, then we are failing in our duties to protect the most vulnerable. And the fact is poverty and insufficient legal aid funding IS contributing to the exclusion from the judicial system those poor and moderate-income earners that comprise the bottom third of our society.

For an excellent analysis and synopsis of this dilemma please see CBC Online columnist, Michelle Mann's article at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_mann/20060808.html