Canadian Lawyer

12 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m \ AT L A N T I C \ C E N T R A L \ W E S T REGIONAL WRAP-UP LAW STUDENT FIGHTING TERRORISM CHARGES IN FEDERAL COURT 24 months. We don't want it to be funded by grants or taxpayers." Robert Harvie has been practising family law in Lethbridge for more than 30 years. He knows only too well that costs have become "a huge problem" for people entangled in family breakups. He points out that because of changes in the law and various court judgments, trials that once took a day can now take two or three weeks. "There is greater compassion," he says of the more balanced approach that the courts have developed, "but it comes at a cost." Those costs can be staggering even for relatively well-paid middle-class people. "Trials that once cost $10,000 are now costing $30,000, $40,000 or $50,000," Harvie says. As a practitioner, he supports the incubator initiative. He hopes that it leads to more people getting lawyers and fewer being forced into the self-rep option, something he describes as "a little bit like performing surgery on yourself." Mitch Kowalski is a Toronto-based lawyer and an advocate of modernizing the practice of law. He has written a book about his ideas, Avoiding Extinction: Rei- magining Legal Services in the 21st Cen- tury. He met Young two years ago during a visit to the University of Calgary. "We chatted about the idea of an incubator. Last year, when I came back [to U of C], he was putting it in motion." Kowalski is a strong advocate of a more modern approach by the legal profession. "Current training of family law lawyers reinforces old methods and habits." In his view, "the incubator seeks to create a new kind of family lawyer; one who uses the best technology . . . and who steers clients into more modern dispute resolution forums." These developments, he says, will especially help "middle-class Canadians who can no longer afford the traditional way of practising family law." "It will take a lot of creative and innov- ative thinking to get it to the goal line," says Young, and as with any new initiative, "there will be mistakes," but "I think it's time for something like this to happen." — GEOFF ELLWAND U niversity of Victoria law student Jose Figueroa — the 50-year-old El Salva- doran who sought sanctuary in a B.C. Lutheran church for two years to avoid deportation after being labelled a terrorist — says he is still engaged in a lengthy legal battle to clear his name despite being granted a rare ministerial exemption to stay in Canada. "What has happened to me has happened to many immigrants," says Figueroa, who has been embroiled in an eight-year legal wrangle over immigra- tion status. "But they may not have had the knowledge or means to fight this injustice." The battles prompted Figue- roa to enrol in Victoria's law school last September, hoping to practise in the areas of immigration, human rights and international law. He's already amassed reams of legal documents — and some victories — in his fight. In 2014, the Federal Court granted him a judicial review under the Immigrations and Refugee Protection Act of a ministerial review that refused him permanent residency status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds alleging he had links to a terrorist group. In December 2015, the Canadian government granted a rare exemption based upon humanitarian and compassionate grounds that allowed Figueroa, who was in sanctuary, to stay and apply for his permanent residency status. In 2016, he successfully gained his permanent residency card. But there are still contentious security reports that linger and Figueroa wants his name cleared and he has taken the battle deeper into Federal Court with sev- eral proceedings still before the courts awaiting a decision or hearing. On Nov. 30 2016, he asked it to quash a Canadian Border Security Agency report that was based upon a Canadian Securities Intelligence Service report. Both reports labelled the Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional a terrorist group and Figueroa a security risk. Figueroa said the hearing dealt with procedural fairness by the CBSA agent when he was called for the interview. But, a federal court judicial review decision handed down in late December dismissed his case. He's now looking at other ways to launch a constitutional challenge regarding the report. He also has proceedings before the Federal Court of Appeal for certificates from the Minister of Public Safety and the Minister of Foreign Affairs after he was unsuccessful in asking the Canadian government to issue documentation stating he was not a terrorist and that the FMLN was not a terrorist organization. "There are decisions at other levels that still have to be made," he says. "The judiciary can clear my name legally, but I think for my name to be really cleared it has to be at the political level as well." Canadian security reports had branded the civil resistance group fighting El Salvador's government as terrorists when Figueroa applied for permanent residency. Figueroa says that, at the 2010 Canadian immigrations admissibility hearing, there was not a proper distinction between terrorist and guerilla organiz- ations. "If I was to face the same hearing again, I would have argued and made the distinction between a terrorist and a freedom fighter," he says. Figueroa openly admits he was a university student in El Salvador who joined political group Partido Comunista Salvadoreña, one of five resistance movements Jose Figueroa leaving sanctuary at a B.C. Lutheran church on Dec. 23, 2015. Calgary law school launches family law incubator Continued from page 11

• Cover