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pays off Ontario's criminal defence lawyers refused to take on major legal aid cases because it was not worth it anymore. After eight months, their tough stance forced the attorney general to pledge new funds. BY T IM SHUFELT I t's hard to argue against Ontario's criminal bar when it says the legal aid boycott was effective. Participation was virtually unanimous, major trials ground to a halt, provincial officials were forced to make hundreds of calls before finding any lawyer willing to accept a legal aid certificate, and ultimately, the province pledged new funding aſter it repeatedly said none was available. "It's been effective in making all of the players acutely aware of how serious the crisis really is," says Paul Burstein, president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association. "Just look around." Burstein notes the support of the Ontario Crown Attorneys' Association. In a letter, association president Thomas Hewitt said: "[T]he present funding of the legal aid tariff undermines the ability of the defence bar to perform their vital role." But Burstein makes it clear who paid the true price of the boycott, which dragged on for eight months. "The unrepresented accused who are sitting in custody are bearing the brunt of this. But it's at the hands of the province," he says, adding that responsibil- ity for protecting the rights of accused fall to the state and the courts. Many defence lawyers expressed regret at the plight of those who languished in custody on the most serious of criminal charges. But the majority says the boy- cott was necessary to repairing a system that has become systematically unfair. According to the CLA, at $97 per hour, the top legal aid rates were barely enough to cover the expenses of acting on a lengthy, complicated trial. So the association sent a plan to Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley to raise tariffs in a way it said would be revenue-neutral; savings from shorter trials and fewer appeals would offset increased costs. When the province failed to respond, the CLA further expressed its displea- sure over funding to the AG. Again, no response, and the boycott was launched on June 1, 2009 with the support of around 200 Toronto lawyers. It spread across the province to include more than 700 law- yers, affecting more than 100 cases, mostly homicides. When the province opened up a 60-day period of talks in December, the CLA was on the verge of expanding the boycott to include other charges like sexual assault. As negotiations wound on, a push to turn up the heat on the province culminated in an 11th-hour settlement on Jan. 24. The deal provides for an approxi- mate increase of $80 million to Legal Aid Ontario's annual $200 million budget. Criminal lawyers accepting certificates www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com FEBRU AR Y 2010 37 Boycott KATHRYN JANKOWSKI