Legal Aid Windsor is concerned about changes to the Criminal Code coming this fall.
Officials say access to law will be restricted and the justice system will experience delays, all because law students working in free legal clinics will not be able to deal with smaller offences like shoplifting if the amendments go through. They say changes to Bill-75 will also cause longer sentences and over-crowded jails and want Ottawa to hold off until public consultation is done.
Lawyer Daniel Topp says if criminal code changes are implemented, more people charged with minor offences will be representing themselves and that will throw the justice system into crisis.
"What we are asking is to change section 802.1 to allow students to attend on certain offences that would fall in that category that they would never be asking for that much time," says Topp.
Legal Aid Windsor says the proposed changes will increase sentences for summary convictions from six months to two years.
Topp says this change means students will miss out on a critical learning opportunity where they represent clients under the strict supervision of practicing lawyers.
"These people are going to go to a lawyer with no money and no funding and the lawyer is going to say 'do it on your own' and then they are going to be by themselves in the system and that's the tragedy of all this," he says.
Topp says people with minor offences and legal students will be most affected.
"They are never going to be asking for two years less a day as a penalty but the students because of the amendment to the maximum penalty will be precluded from participating," Topp says.
