There’s no question that few people are truly concerned for the welfare of legal aid defence lawyers like me and the $304 bail hearing fee I now stand to lose. This recent legal aid cut to the criminal defence bar will cost more than it could ever save, in terms of money and in terms of the values we tell ourselves we hold dear. I believe that some of the cuts to legal aid make some sense, even though they will hurt my income significantly. Criminal legal aid lawyers (a type of funding that most criminal lawyers must accept as part of their practice), see first-hand a system collapsing under its own weight. Ari Goldkind is a Toronto-based criminal defence Lawyer and national political commentator.

Source: thestar June 13, 2019 17:03 UTC