Update: Legal Aid is FIXED; CIL will start taking LAC in 2024

As reported by CBC News, CIL made the difficult decision in DEC 2023 to stop accepting legal aid certificates. This decision was not made lightly. Alastair Clarke has had many conversations with Peter Kingley (K.C.), Executive Director of Legal Aid Manitoba over the past few years. We cannot disclose all the details of these conversations, of course. The decision in 2022 to increase funding for criminal and family matters, while not increasing funding for immigration was extremely concerning. We believe Manitobans want to support immigration. Manitoba has a strong history of helping people come to this province.

Alastair Clarke first started working with refugees in 2005, as a law student at Queen’s University. He worked at the Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples legal aid clinic and he guided many refugee claimants through the process. For almost 20 years, he has continued the mission to help the most vulnerable people in the world. Feel free to watch his TEDx talk.

Based on all the work done by CBC News, in particular the work done by Arturo Chang and his attention to this important issue. We also want to thank other advocates in Manitoba that pushed Legal Aid Manitoba to make the right decision to (finally) increase funding for immigration. Victory! This is very good news and this funding will help many people

Starting 1 APRIL 2024, CIL will start accepting legal aid certificates. We strongly believe that lawyers need to use their skills and experience to help the most vulnerable.

To be clear, CIL has continued to help refugees even after we stopped accepting legal aid. Our refugee clients have been paying for those services on private retainers. We will also continue to accept clients on private retainers, depending on the circumstances. Our refugee claimants in Quebec, for example, do not qualify for Legal Aid Manitoba so they will continue to sign contracts for services.