Ontario will be providing free legal advice to survivors of sexual violence through a new two-year pilot program to be unrolled this spring.
Based in Ottawa, Toronto, and Thunder Bay, people 16 years of age and older will be able to apply for up to four hours of independent and confidential legal counsel any time after an incident has occurred.
Advice will be available for victims of sexual violence either in person or over the phone, but lawyers’ services will not include legal representation.
Lawyers practicing in Ontario interested in participating can submit applications to the Ministry of the Attorney General until April 15. To be eligible, attorneys must have experience dealing with sexual assault complainants.
At a cost of $2.8 million, the program is the first of its kind in Canada. The project was first announced in March 2015 as part of the province’s $41-million Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan.
Slated to continue until March 2018, the program will be expanded to include other communities if it is considered a success.
Carleton University law professor Dawn Moore said that although she acknowledges the program to be a step in the right direction, she sees the legal advice avenue as a “Band-Aid on a gaping wound.”
“That gaping wound comes from a culture of policing that routinely doesn’t believe survivors,” Moore explained. “Between 40 and 60 per cent of women who make a report to Ottawa Police are told right off the bat that they’re not believed and that the police won’t be investigating, let alone laying charges.”
Jenna Spagnoli, one of the programming and administrative co-ordinators at the Carleton Womyn’s Centre, said she agrees that the police can act as a barrier to victims of sexual violence who want to take legal action.
“The police are known for not believing survivors,” Spagnoli said. “You can go to a lawyer all you want, but if the police don’t press charges, then there’s no court case.”
Ontario’s action plan was announced shortly after allegations of sexual assault and harassment involving Jian Ghomeshi came to the public’s attention in October 2014.
Ghomeshi was acquitted of four charges of sexual assault and one count of choking following a high-profile sexual assault trial that concluded March 24. His trial reignited debate over whether the legal system is fair to sexual assault complainants.
Although the Attorney General’s office has not yet identified how the success of the legal aid program will be measured, Moore suggested that it should focus on the experiences of survivors.
“You would need to talk to the survivors, and ask them how they felt about the support they received, and whether they felt it was adequate or not,” she said. “I think the only way we can know if it’s useful is to ask survivors if it’s useful to them.”
