Matt Gurney: University-run legal aid forgets justice applies to men too

Article here. Excerpt:

'More than 40 years ago in Ontario, University of Windsor law students began volunteering their time to assist those in need of legal counsel, if the accused met certain financial criteria. The program continues today, under the banner of Community Legal Aid. Not that those first student defenders would likely recognize their creation in its current, grotesquely prejudiced form.

...But it still gives the students real-life experience handling real-life cases, while providing a service to those in need.

Not all in need, however. Community Legal Aid will no longer take on any domestic abuse cases, it announced in an email, “unless the alleged offender is a woman.” In that case, it will work to find a lawyer who will take the case for free, or failing that, take the case itself. Men are on their own.

This astonishing decision, reported by the Windsor Star, has been swiftly condemned by the local legal defence community. But Community Legal Aid isn’t backing down. Camille Cameron, dean of the law school, told the Windsor Star that the students can’t be expected to take on every case that comes to them, and pointed out that similar programs run at other schools don’t take on domestic abuse cases. “We are talking about a student legal aid clinic at a university. We’re not talking about a private law firm, or even a legal aid office,” she told the paper.'

Relatedly, on YouTube: Windsor Lawyer On Legal Aid
U. of Windsor contact form here.