A Toronto legal clinic that has advocated for the Black community for over two decades is in jeopardy of having its funding cut amid allegations of financial mismanagement.The African Canadian Legal Clinic has failed to address a number of issues, including misuse of public funds, since they first surfaced in 2009, according to a June 2016 decision from a committee of Legal Aid Ontario’s board of directors. The decision, obtained this summer by Metro, found the clinic was in “fundamental breach of its obligations” under its funding agreement with Legal Aid Ontario.The decision specifically cites an audit by independent auditors PwC, which names Margaret Parsons, the clinic’s executive director, and found she charged $754 for a diamond ring to a company credit card in 2007. Auditors found no evidence the money had been paid back.The decision also alleges the clinic used money from undisclosed staff vacancies to pay out $170,000 in bonuses, including $121,000 that went to Parsons.In an interview with Metro, Parsons denied any wrongdoing and said no public funds were ever misused. She did not deny that she bought the ring with the card but says she “paid it back twice” and provided auditors with a receipt. She also said the clinic was transparent about staff vacancies and she never gave or received the bonuses.“We`ve always been treated as a pariah of the clinic system,” she said, adding the African Canadian Legal Clinic has been held to a “higher standard” than other community legal clinics.“They have never given us a fair shake,” she said about Legal Aid.Parsons said the non-profit clinic has 26 employees, with a budget of about $1.7 million a year that`s “for the most part public funding.”The clinic committee of Legal Aid’s board of directors is expected to decide in the next few weeks if it will suspend the funding it provides. The money makes up 35 per cent of the clinic& ...
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