The Society of United Professionals, which represents more than 350 Legal Aid Ontario lawyers and articling students, has released two new videos to build public awareness about the catastrophic 30% cut to Legal Aid Ontario that will increase to 40% next year. The videos are supported by a five-figure social media advertising blitz that is driving opponents of Premier Doug Ford's Legal Aid cuts to https://www.stoplegalaidcuts.ca.

The first video looks at Premier Ford and Attorney General Caroline Mulroney's false claim that Legal Aid Ontario is serving 10% fewer clients now than in 2013-14. According to her April 12, 2019 letter to Legal Aid Ontario informing them of the funding cuts, this alleged service decrease was a key motivator for the cuts. Except there hasn't been a service decrease at all. Rather, by many metrics Legal Aid service has actually increased.

In the second video, we highlight Premier Ford's empty promise to get Legal Aid service for anyone who calls his office, a promise Attorney General Mulroney refused to restate in the legislature just days later when asked to by Leader of the Official Opposition Andrea Horwath. With Legal Aid Ontario receiving well over 1,000 phone calls for help on each business day, it's no wonder Premier Ford and his government have no plans to make good on his guarantee.

In a scathing column published this week by The Lawyer's Daily, Canada's former Deputy Attorney General George Thomson criticized the Ford government's decision to slash Legal Aid Ontario funding. 

Thomson took direct aim at Ford's Attorney General, Caroline Mulroney:

A Legal Aid Ontario Duty Counsel lawyer sent us this dispatch from her vantage point on the front line of the opioid crisis that kills an average three Ontarians every single day. The criminalization of drugs has a wide range of consequences that lawyers who work in courthouses as Duty Counsel see firsthand.

A Legal Aid Ontario lawyer submitted this story about helping a poor pensioner named Dennis (name changed to protect privacy) get access to his hard-earned Canada Pension Plan (CPP) cheque that would help him live in dignity:

A Legal Aid Ontario lawyer wrote in to tell us this story about helping a young mother get her child out of danger. The names are changed to protect privacy.

Legal Aid Ontario Lawyers, represented by their union the Society of United Professionals, put the lie to Premier Doug Ford’s excuse for making cruel Legal Aid cuts at a Queen’s Park news conference on April 25, 2019.