Ontario has a new attorney general, Doug Downey, who is no doubt facing a massive to-do list.

But before he starts on any new projects, Downey should revisit a decision made in April by his predecessor, Caroline Mulroney, to slash the province’s legal aid budget by 30 per cent.

At the time, Mulroney claimed the move would ensure “lower-income Ontarians continue to have access to the justice that they need.”

That didn’t make sense then, and it doesn’t make sense now.

The fact is, cutting funding for legal aid will further erode any hope the poor and vulnerable have of receiving justice in a system that’s already stacked against them.

In fact, Mulroney’s argument was so outrageous that even the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Richard Wagner, set aside his customary reluctance to comment on government matters and weighed in with this: “I think legal aid is essential … to make sure that the justice system is strong and fair. It’s also a smart investment.”

Wagner is right on both counts. And now Downey has a chance to take a look at the facts and reverse course.

If he doesn’t, the fallout will be painful for the poor and immensely costly for taxpayers.

Consider, for example, that Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) says it will no longer provide funding for private criminal lawyers to conduct bail hearings. Instead, the hearings will be conducted by duty counsel, who assist people who don’t have their own lawyer.

Defence lawyers say that means innocent people could end up rotting in jail for up to year while they await trial dates since duty counsel are already pressed for time to properly prepare for bail hearings. Nor are there plans to hire more to help out.

Legal Aid Ontario also targeted legal aid clinics in Toronto with harsher cuts than those in other cities.

Its reasoning? Some low-income people are moving out of Toronto into the 905 region.

That may be true, but as Mayor John Tory rightly pointed out, Toronto still has more refugees, immigrants and low-income residents than any other municipality in the province. They need help.

Then there was the targeted attack by LAO on clinics that have the temerity not just to represent the poor and vulnerable in court, but to advocate around the issues that affect them. They will lose the funding they currently put toward community development and legal reform.

That’s a penny-wise, pound-foolish move that ignores the fact that when legal aid clinics push for systemic changes on issues such as tenant rights it keeps cases out of the system in the first place, cutting court and legal aid costs.

In reality, cuts to legal aid will end up costing taxpayers more money in the end, as Canada’s chief justice suggested.

By not providing enough funding for legal aid, more people will be representing themselves in everything from partner abuse and child custody cases to deportation hearings.

That means cases will take longer to wend their way through the system. Further, the number of cases being appealed will spike since people won’t have been well-represented the first time around.

Who pays for those higher court costs? The same taxpayers who will pay for the costly incarceration of innocent people who are not going to get fair legal representation in bail hearings, criminal cases or immigration and refugee detention hearings.

Mulroney clearly ignored the evidence or was outright ignorant of it when she made the decision to cut legal aid.

Downey should now do the right thing. He should reverse the cuts, and even consider increasing the legal aid budget.

That would both save taxpayers money and show this government actually does care about the so-called little guy.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2019/06/23/ontarios-new-attorney-general-should-reverse-cuts-to-legal-aid.html