Today the Canadian Bar Association has published a report of its Access to Justice Committee, Reaching Equal Justice: An Invitation to Envision and Act (PDF). This follows on the heels of a flurry of recent reports on the subject, most notably the final reports of the working groups of the national Action Committee on Access to Justice.
According to the CBA's press release, the report contains the committees recommendations for achieving meaningful access to justice by 2030. According to the release, to reach this goal,
"...the committee wants to change the conversation – shift it away from the finger-pointing and divisiveness that have hampered any progress on the topic until now, to a more co-operative model of stakeholders working together to achieve measurable results. The job needs to be a comprehensive one ... putting out fires where they erupt will not suffice.
"To that end, Reaching Equal Justice offers a set of 31 targets that, if met, will help bring Canada closer to 100 per cent access to justice for all. The targets include establishing metrics to measure accessibility, and progress on the issue; educational initiatives to improve public legal capability; working to improve legal aid services; and working toward the appointment of access to justice commissioners in all territories and provinces, as well as at the federal level.The CBA's smartly-designed webpage on the equal justice project is well worth a visit.
"The report is not a final answer, committee Chair Dr. Melina Buckley said, but a platform, a set of proposals for going forward."
