The Canadian Bar Association - National (English) - July/August 2012

Continued from page 24
The giant awakes
In a separate initiative, Canadian legal
experts are trying to increase the prospects
that economically marginalized Chinese
will have access to counsel. The Canada-
China Legal Aid and Community Legal
Services Project, a joint collaboration of
the CBA, Legal Aid Ontario, China’s
Ministry of Justice and China’s National
Legal Aid Centre, aims to upgrade the
3,000 legal aid centres across China. The
project, also funded by CIDA, has been
underway since July 2004.
Legal aid in China is only ten years old,
but already there are about 11,000 permanent
legal aid lawyers and paralegals, says
Diane Elkas, the CBA’s Project Director.
“They handle 200,000 cases a year, a much
higher caseload than in Canada,” says
Elkas, who is based in Montreal.
Legal aid access is far from universal.
The legal aid centres themselves decide
which lawyers will represent which clients,
and only criminal defendants in capital
cases are automatically entitled to a legal
aid lawyer. In addition to criminal cases,
the legal aid centres also tackle family law
and administrative law cases.
The Legal Aid Project is funding efforts
by the centres to protect the interests of the
most vulnerable citizens — women, youth,
the elderly and migrant workers. The project
also is trying to develop model centres
in four of China’s poorest provinces. When
a dozen directors of China’s legal aid centres
participated in a study tour of legal aid programs
in Ontario and Quebec last year, the
organizers were careful to include representatives
from those four Chinese provinces.
Canadian legal aid experts have also
visited the model centres in the four designated
provinces. The project advisors
tried to improve the environment for
client confidentiality by encouraging the
centres to set up separate rooms on their
premises where lawyers could meet privately
with clients. Money has also been
provided for the purchase of computers
and for skills training.
As China seeks to fulfil its superpower
destiny, its legal system will have to change
to accommodate economic progress and,
perhaps, political evolution. Canadian
lawyers can take pride in helping 21st-century
China develop its legal institutions,
while Canada’s law firms will face the challenge
of how to compete for clients in the
emerging legal marketplace. China’s wakeup
call is going out around the world. N
...................................................................
Sheldon Gordon is a freelance legal and
business writer in Toronto.
JANVIER · FÉVRIER 2006
OFFICIAL NOTICE
Call for Nominations
for Standing
Committees
The CBA is currently seeking
candidates for its National
Standing Committees for 2006-
2007. All CBA members are
eligible to apply for positions on
the following committees:
• Awards
• Communications
• Continuing Legal Education
• Equity
• Ethics and Professional Issues
• International Development
• Judicial Compensation & Benefits
• Legal Aid Liaison
• Legislation and Law Reform
• Pro Bono
• Resolutions, Constitution
and Bylaws
• Supreme Court of Canada
Liaison
For information and an application
form, contact your local Branch.
The deadline for applications is
noon on April 17, 2006.
AVIS OFFICIEL
Appel de candidatures
pour siéger
sur un comité
permanent
ABC est à la recherche de candi-
L’ dats et de candidates pour ses
comités permanents nationaux pour
l’exercice 2006-2007. Tous les membres
sont habilités à poser leur candidature
pour occuper des fonctions au
sein des comités suivants :
• Prix et récompenses
• Communications
• Formation juridique permanente
• Égalité
• Déontologie et questions
professionnelles
• Développement international
• Rémunération des juges
• Aide juridique
• Législation et réforme du droit
• Pro Bono
• Résolutions, constitution et
règlements
• Liaison avec la Cour suprême
du Canada
Pour obtenir de plus amples
renseignements et un formulaire de
candidature, veuillez communiquer
avec votre division. La date limite pour
poser votre candidature est le
17 avril 2006, à midi.
OFFICIAL NOTICE/AVIS OFFICIEL
Conférence des juristes d’expression
française de common law
Élection d’un ou d’une vice-président(e) et
d’un ou d’une secrétaire-trésorier(ière)
Veuillez noter qu’une élection au poste de secrétaire-trésorier et de
vice-président se déroulera lors de l’Assemblée annuelle de l’ABC à
St. John’s, Terre-Neuve, le 14 août 2006.
Les membres intéressés doivent soumettre leur nom au Comité des
candidatures de la Conférence des juristes d’expression française de
common law, à l’attention de Marie-Claude Noël à marieclauden@cba.org,
avant le 19 mai 2006.
www.cba.org
53