LAWYERS TEAR INTO FEDERAL JUSTICE MINISTER

Nicholson Finds Hostile Audience Promoting Government Legal Agenda

QUEBEC - Justice Minister Rob Nicholson appeared to be on a collision
course with members of the legal establishment yesterday as he tried
to promote the Conservative government's aggressive law-and-order agenda.

Attending a meeting of the Canadian Bar Association, Mr. Nicholson was
challenged for failing to focus on dwindling legal aid, refusing to
protest death sentences imposed on Canadians abroad and axing legal
programs -- including one that helped fund groups fighting for
equality rights.

"We do not need more minimum mandatory sentences. We need more
resources for the programs we have," said Victoria lawyer Susan
Wishart, referring to a contentious federal bill to impose automatic
prison terms for drug-related crimes.

Montreal lawyer Simon Potter, former president of the 37,000-member
association, chastised Mr. Nicholson for the Conservative government's
policy of not pleading for clemency for Canadians who face the death
penalty when they have been tried in countries deemed to be democratic.

Albertan Ronald Smith, for instance, is on death row in the United
States, and the government says it will not intervene.

"How do we expect Beijing to listen to our requests that Canadians not
be put to death in China when we will not even ask that Canadians not
be put to death in the United States?" asked Mr. Potter.

"When will we have a logically consistent policy on the death penalty
abroad?"

Mr. Nicholson calmly fielded questions for about 45 minutes. He faced
the strongest attacks from lawyers who appealed for federal
intervention to help Canadians who cannot afford legal fees.

While the provinces and the federal government pay for legal aid in
criminal cases, civil legal aid is a rarity in Canada, and the bar
association has pushed the federal government for years for national
standards and increased funding.

Mr. Nicholson asserted that civil legal aid is a provincial
responsibility, with money provided by the federal Canadian Health and
Social Transfer.

"The federal government says 'Talk to the provinces,' and the
provinces say 'Talk to the feds,' " said lawyer Susan McGrath, from
Iroquois Falls, Ont.

"In the meantime, every day that passes, people are losing their
children, people are being evicted, people are being put out on the
street because they are wrongly cut off disability benefits," she said.

"As the minister responsible nationally for justice issues, including
civil justice issues, what are you going to do to ensure civil legal
aid is separately carved out of the social transfer and is separately
funded?"

Other lawyers took Mr. Nicholson to task for the Conservative
government's 2006 cancelling of the Law Commission of Canada, a legal
research body, and the Court Challenges Program, a Trudeau-era program
that helped fund individuals and groups fighting government laws on
Charter of Rights grounds.

It was Mr. Nicholson's first appearance at the annual gathering of the
bar association and praise for his government's justice policies was
virtually non-existent.