It’s Access to Justice week! So, what does this mean, why is it important, and what is Health Justice doing?
What is Access to Justice Week (#A2JWeek2022)?
Access to Justice Week was created to provide “information and learning opportunities about the access to justice crisis in BC.”
While it primarily acts to inform and engage law students and legal professionals, it is also a helpful way to inform the public about the ongoing access to justice crisis in BC and provide opportunities to discuss solutions.
It is important to note that topics brought up when discussing access to justice may contain triggering content. Please see our content warning to know what may appear on Health Justice’s social media during the Strengthening Access to Justice campaign and know that it is okay to step away for a bit if this all seems overwhelming.
So why is it important?
Currently in BC there are no publicly funded services to provide legal advice when someone is detained under the Mental Health Act. This means the right to access legal advice when you're detained, a constitutional human right, is not being met for people detained under the Act.
As a result, a mental health access to justice crisis has emerged. Mental health detainees often don’t know their rights, they have had almost no access to court, and they may experience pressure not to exercise their rights. As well, marginalized people are disproportionally impacted by involuntary care under BC’s Mental Health Act, showing inequities and the inaccessibility of the current system.
This is where independent legal advice services (ILAS) can be an important part of the solution and make a difference.
What is Health Justice doing for #A2JWeek2022?
We believe that strengthening access to justice is an important step in addressing the inequities and inaccessibility that impact people experiencing detention and involuntary treatment under the Mental Health Act. As a result, we will be doing a 3-week informative Access to Justice campaign for #A2JWeek2022, rounding out the month with a webinar, “Representing Clients Impacted by Coercive Mental Health and Substance Use Health Laws” on February 22, presented by Laura Johnston of Health Justice and Courthouse Libraries BC.
Our plan looked like this…
Week 1: General Overview, February 7 - 11
Starting this week, across our social media platforms and on our website, we provided general information (and links) about what access to justice is, why it is important to our work, and potential solutions. This includes this blog post!
To see these go to our socials linked at the bottom of this page or click here to go to our Linktree.
Week 2: Independent Legal Advice Services, February 14 - 18
This week was dedicated to a breakdown of what Independent Legal Advice Services are and how they can help address the access to justice crisis.
We have launched our Strengthening Access to Justice web page which includes more in-depth information about ILAS and a graphic containing a community vision for ILAS for people detained and experiencing involuntary treatment under the Mental Health Act. The community vision was developed with the Lived Experience Experts Group, the Indigenous Leadership Group, family member and clinical advisors, and many community partners.
We have also updated Our Work page where you can access the Strengthening Access to Justice page through from now on.
Week 3: The Legal Research and Resource Guide Release and Webinar, February 21 – 25
While many law and policy reforms may help reduce the harms of coercive mental health and substance use health care, having fair and accessible legal services can reduce the harm people are facing in our system right now. We have launched a Legal Research and Resource Guide to better equip lawyers and legal advocates representing people impacted by coercive mental health and substance use health laws in BC. To see this new guide, click here! It has been added under our Resources tab on this website, so feel free to bookmark that new page to return to it easily.
As well, on February 22, a one hour webinar for lawyers and legal advocates took place on the topic of Representing Clients Impacted by Coercive Mental Health and Substance Use Health Laws where the Legal Research and Resource Guide was launched. Click here for more information about the webinar. The webinar has now passed and can no longer be registered for.
So how can you keep up with all of this?
Keep an eye on our social media pages to learn more about these topics as they come up and for reminders about upcoming events. This blog post has been updated with more links as things were released throughout the weeks and will no longer be updated further.
Thank you for joining us on this Strengthening Access to Justice journey.