In February, the provincial government moved to cut funding of legal aid provided by the Legal Services Society by nearly 40 percent over three years, from $88 million to $54 million by 2004-05.

Those cuts mean the closure of 60 legal aid offices across BC, laying off 74 percent of the staff, elimination of public legal education grants and ending grants to local libraries to provide accessible legal information.

Attorney-General Geoff Plant fired the Legal Services Society board of directors after they refused to make these deep and disturbing cuts that will result in a denial of justice to over 40,000 of our poorest residents each year. The Law Society of B.C. has subsequently passed an unprecedented motion of non-confidence in the Attorney-General.

Please join with Vancouver-Kensington residents who oppose the hastiness of this government, their lack of consultation and the hardships caused by extreme reductions in funding to poverty law.

Contact person for Vancouver-Kensington section - Andrea Engel

We also encourage concerned individuals to e-mail Patrick Wong MLA and the Premier
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If pop-up text does not function on your computer, you may wish to copy, post and send the following text to Patrick Wong and Gordon Campbell ([email protected] and [email protected]).

Dear Patrick Wong and Premier Campbell - Access to legal aid is a cornerstone of justice. Cuts of nearly 40 percent to British Columbia�s legal aid system will deny justice to more than 40,000 low income citizens. Please reconsider your actions and restore funding for these critical services.

Sincerely, (your name and location)

URL: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/grsvk/legaid.html