Pop-up legal clinic set up in Kitchener to protest provincial cuts

A pop-up legal advice clinic was set up in Kitchener on Tuesday to protest cuts to legal aid in Ontario.

Waterloo Region Community Legal Services set up the clinic, offering legal advice to whoever needed it, as part of a provincial day of action against funding cuts announced in the April 2019 Ontario budget.

The non-profit agency held the pop-up legal clinic at Carl Zehr Square in Kitchener where they distributed information about a number of legal services they offer including landlord tenant disputes, immigration issues and social assistance.

Rachel Lake, a lawyer with the group, said if legal aid services are reduced, low-income Ontarians will have nowhere to go if they need legal help.

"I would say there are no lawyers or paralegals in the city who would take on some of these cases because there's no money in it," said Lake. "There's no money to get people the benefit that they're entitled to."

Lake helps with legal claims around the Ontario Disability Support Program and the Canada Pension Plan claims as well as employment insurance and immigration issues.

She's helped people who have been denied ODSP claims put through paperwork to determine if there are grounds for an appeal.

"We take a look at their case the application form their doctor has filled out. We'll gather more medical information for us to make a fully informed decision whether we'll represent them at the tribunal," said Lake.

Waterloo Region Community Legal Services saw its operating budget cut by 4 per cent. That's minor compared with other jurisdictions across the province, according to executive director Shannon Down.

"Part of that was a recognition that our area is already under-serviced in terms of the legal aid dollars that come to us," said Down.

"So while our cut was small it is partly because we are not fully funded for the people that live in our region."