Justice committee  Could I just answer it?

Justice committee  I would argue in fact that the court hasn't completely adjudicated on the extent to which the government has an obligation to provide civil legal aid funding. In the G. (J.) case before the Supreme Court, the court dealt with an element of that in child protection proceedings. In Christie, what the court said was that under the rule of law there is no generalized right to legal services, but to the extent to which in other circumstances there's a constitutional right....

Justice committee  What we're trying to do with the benchmarks is broaden the discussion from “the system needs more money”, which it obviously does, and the need for belt tightening. We're trying to open up that discussion. For example, there needs to be a coordination between the justice systems and other areas—health, social services, that kind of thing.

Justice committee  The CBA policy that was passed by our council says that lawyers should aim for 50 hours a year, or 3% of billings. Our Equal Justice report is a visioning document—what does equal justice look like in 2030? In terms of what the official CBA policy is, that's in our resolution that talks about that being an aim of lawyers.

Justice committee  What our policy says is that it's an aspirational aim. It's not mandatory in our CBA policy.

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. The Canadian Bar Association appreciates the opportunity to comment on access to the justice system and legal aid, which is closely related to our mission. The Canadian Bar Association is a national association representing 36,000 jurists across Canada.