Open Letter to Legal Aid Ontario (LAO)

Open Letter to Legal Aid Ontario (LAO)
From: Yoyisa.com | Date: May 28, 2025

To the Leadership of Legal Aid Ontario,

We are writing on behalf of members of the public who are financially eligible for legal clinic services (funded by LAO), yet are being denied access — without any reason, transparency, or internal review process.

This is not only unacceptable. It is unlawful.

Legal Aid Ontario is governed by the Legal Aid Services Act, 2020, which mandates transparency, equity, and public accountability in the delivery of legal services. Your organization receives millions in public funding to ensure access to justice for low-income individuals. And yet, the system currently allows legal clinics to refuse service without explanation — even to those who meet your own eligibility requirements.

One of our members recently submitted a "personal" FIPPA request asking for disclosure of service agreements between LAO and the Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC). LAO denied the service agreements for Halton Community Legal Services.

We now ask the following:

Is Halton Community Legal Services the “third party” objecting to disclosure?
Are additional third parties — private, corporate, or government — involved?
What are the grounds for these objections, and what statutory exemptions are being claimed?
Under section 23 of FIPPA, what public interest assessment has LAO undertaken in deciding to withhold this record?

Let us be clear: If a legal aid clinic is allowed to deny service with no transparency or oversight, then the entire framework of access to justice is compromised.

We are calling on LAO to:

Disclose the service agreements in question;
Clarify the decision-making framework clinics use to deny services;
Affirm your commitment to transparency, fairness, and equity from the legal aid clinics you fund.

Justice cannot be secretive. LAO must be accountable not only to those it serves — but to every taxpayer who funds its work.

Sincerely,
Yoyisa.com