Oct 15, 1998 - CJC URGES SOLICITOR GENERAL TO FUND LEGAL COSTS OF STUDENTS AT APEC COMMISSION MONTREAL
MONTREAL, OCTOBER 15, 1998 - Canadian Jewish Congress has written to Solicitor General Andy Scott, urging him to authorize the funding for the legal costs which are being incurred by the student complainants at the hearing being conducted by the RCMP Public Complaints Commission. These proceedings are looking into incidents which occurred during protests at last year’s APEC Summit in Vancouver.
“Canadian Jewish Congress has played a significant role in the development of constitutionally protected rights and freedoms in Canada,” stated Mark Weintraub, chair of the CJC National Community Relations Committee. Mr. Weintraub emphasized that it is precisely by reason of CJC’s non-partisan engagement with constitutional matters that it has strong interest in the RCMP hearings. “If even a small portion of the media reports is accurate, then all Canadians have a stake in both the process and the outcome of these hearings,” he noted “The Commission has the benefit of presumably unlimited legal resources, as does the RCMP.
The complainants, most of whom are students, are the only ones without funding and are the least able to afford counsel. It was the students who brought these issues to the public eye, thereby contributing greatly to the democratic process.” The reality, Mr. Weintraub says, is that the students have for the most part not been funding the work of their counsel to date; rather, their counsel has so far chosen to provide legal services without remuneration. “It would be troubling if it turns out that all of the facts have not properly emerged because of the financial exhaustion of counsel,” he says. “If significant violations were committed to our constitutional fabric, then we will certainly all benefit from a process that will lead to structural change to ensure that fundamental mistakes are avoided in the future. The student complainants and their counsel will therefore be owed a debt of gratitude by all Canadians.
Recognizing that the issue of funding has taken on a political life of its own in Parliament Mr. Weintraub feels politics should not distort the objective judgment which ought to bear on whether or not the complainants should receive funding. “It was through the efforts of students and their counsel that important documents were released, and continued representation by counsel would appear to be critical for the proper advancement of the complaints and to assure the public that the process is beyond reproach,” he said. Mr. Weintraub concluded that if equality before the law is to have any significance in this case, there must be some parity of legal resources. “We therefore join with those jurists, commissioners and others and respectfully call upon you to authorize legal funding for the complainants, and if there are compelling reasons not to do so, to fully inform the public as to your deliberations,” he said.
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Contact: Bernie M. Farber
Executive Director
Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region
(416) 635-2883, ext. 186
or
Erwin Nest
National Director Community Relations CJC, Pacific Region
(604) 257-5101
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