The Parkdale Community Legal Services’ clinic is considering cutting up to 10 positions — half its workforce — due to legal aid budget cuts, which the clinic’s director said will jeopardize services to some of the most vulnerable Ontarians.The clinic was hit hardest by recent cuts to clinic budgets made by Legal Aid Ontario, the provincial agency which funds Ontario’s 73 community legal clinics. LAO imposed a 45 per cent cut over two years, or about $1 million of Parkdale’s $2.3 million budget, arguing that demographics in the community have changed dramatically since the clinic first opened in the 1970s as one of the province’s first legal clinics.LAO’s cost-cutting came after the Ford government cut the agency’s budget in April — a 30 per cent reduction of the previously anticipated $456 million provincial allocation. The Parkdale clinic is now asking LAO’s clinic committee — made up of members of its board of directors — to reconsider the cut, not just to their clinic, but to every clinic in Ontario. “We’re asking that it be reversed and that there be a recommitment to the full breadth of clinic law services that make access to justice in Ontario palatable for those living in poverty,” said clinic executive director Johanna Macdonald. A spokesman for Legal Aid Ontario confirmed the clinic committee received Parkdale’s reconsideration request this week. Read more: Toronto’s most vulnerable residents will bear the cost of legal clinic cuts, advocates sayProvincial cuts to legal aid throw future of Parkdale clinic in doubtSweeping cuts to legal clinics called a ‘directed attack’ on Toronto and organizations challenging Ford government“The clinic committee can confirm, reverse or vary the original funding decision. The reconsideration process can take several months, to allow the clinics an opportunity to be heard,” said Graeme Burk. ...
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