On behalf of Aboriginal Legal Services, I would like to wish the ALS Board, team, and community, a festive holiday season. It has been a wonderful year, and I am very thankful for this opportunity. In addition, I would like to thank the Board, ALS team, stakeholders, and volunteers for their dedication in helping the […]
Read more »Aboriginal Legal Services will be at the Supreme Court of Canada on December 3. Senior Staff Lawyer Caitlyn Kasper will be representing ALS in a case called J.W. v Ontario. The case is about how a judge should decide a fit sentence for an Indigenous offender (referred to as J.W.) who has significant cognitive delays, […]
Read more »ALS lawyers Caitlyn Kasper and Emily Hill represented the family of Ruthann Quequish at the inquest into her death held in Thunder Bay July 29 to August 16, 2024. Ruthann was a mother of three who lived in Kingfisher Lake First Nation when she passed away in April 2017 at the age of 31 from […]
Read more »In addition to providing poverty law services and representation at administrative tribunals, ALS does appeal litigation, law reform and inquest work. Below are some of the larger cases and advocacy we did this past year. R v Cope ALS intervened at the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in February 2024. ALS was represented by Jonathan […]
Read more »This past year the Child Protection Staff Lawyer (‘CPSL’) has provided a wide variety of legal services. Although the scope of this role is predominantly targeted at clients located in the GTA, the CPSL has also assisted eligible clients across the province with summary advice, general information, process mapping, resources and referrals. For clients located […]
Read more »In the past year, the ALS Criminal Staff Lawyers (Matthew Malott and Maxwell Hill) have served over 100 clients, ranging from summary legal advice to full trial representation. In nearly all of our direct representation cases, we have secured outcomes for our clients that exceeded either their expectations, or defeated the position of the Crown.In […]
Read more »The Community Council, the first urban Indigenous alternative justice program in Canada, began diverting cases from the criminal courts in 1992 and its work continued this year. Earlier this year we held our annual Honouring Ceremony, an event that was on hold during the pandemic. The Ceremony honours clients who have completed their diversion agreements […]
Read more »As always, our Gladue program remains very busy. In the first six months of this fiscal year, we have written 200 Gladue Reports and Letters. We are clearly back to working again at pre-pandemic levels. This means that literally every day an Indigenous person is sentenced with the benefit of one of our Gladue Reports […]
Read more »There have been a number of developments with the Giiwedin Anang program in 2024. One of the significant changes is that the program has moved back to our head office at 211 Yonge St. and is once again the location for much of our work. In addition, new funding will allow us to offer our […]
Read more »Courtworker program2024 was another year of change at One of more the significant changes is that bail hearings for Indigenous accused persons were moved from the TRBC, located in northwest Toronto, to the Gladue Courts at the NTC – Courtrooms 907 and 908.As a result of this change Courtroom 907 now operates five days a […]
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