The Attorney General of Ontario, Honourable Michael Bryant, announced on July 19th, along with John McCamus, President of Legal Aid Ontario (LAO), that the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO) would be receiving stable funding through LAO.  The Attorney General’s announcement was made at SALCO’S premises on 1992 Yonge Street. 

“We are making sure that people who need legal aid services receive them, increasing access to justice for low-income Ontarians,” said Attorney General Michael Bryant in press release by the Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG).  “Our government values the work of agencies like the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario in providing high-quality legal services to low-income Ontarians.”

The press conference was attended by Bob Ward (CEO of LAO), staff of MAG and LAO, as well as staff, board members and friends of SALCO.  The clinic will become LAO’s 80th community legal clinic. The new funding will allow the non-profit corporation to hire additional staff and increase its services. 
 

About SALCO

South Asians represent the largest and fastest growing visible minority group in Toronto, as demonstrated in Statistics Canada data released in January 2003. Between 1991 and 2001, the South Asian population more than doubled from 235,500 to 473,800.  South Asians account for 28% of all Toronto's visible minorities.  More than one half (52%) of all South Asians in Canada reside in the Toronto area.

At the same time, studies show that a large percentage of the South Asian community live in impoverished circumstances, falling into the low-income category that would require assistance from LAO in Canada.  34.6% of South Asian families in Toronto live below the Statistics Canada Low Income Cut Off.  Among this group, more than 50% of all Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and Tamil families are living in poverty.

There are significant linguistic, educational and cultural barriers facing members of the South Asian community seeking access to legal resources underscoring the need for specialized legal assistance.  There is a particular need for legal assistance in the area of immigration law, given the vast number of recent arrivals to Canada among Toronto's South Asian community. 

The 2005 LAO Evaluation of the clinic indicated, that, given the growing number of South Asians in Canada, “SALCO could be deemed a needed and valuable legal aid service in Ontario.”  South Asians were the largest minority group in Ontario in 2001, accounting for 26% of all visible minorities.  Within Toronto, the South Asian population represents half a million people.  Outside of Toronto, Peel region has the largest South Asian suburban population. India is the largest source country for recent immigrants to Mississauga, and in Brampton South Asians comprise one out of five residents. 

SALCO specializes in poverty law, with an emphasis on immigration, refugee law, human rights and income security related matters.  Of the 21 ethno-racial groups with 30% or more of their population living below the low-income cut-off (LICO), almost a quarter are South Asian groups, namely Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Tamil and Sri-Lankans.  Further, three South Asian countries, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, were in the top ten countries of finalized Immigration and Refugee Board decisions. 

SALCO recently ran a successful print and online petition for a legal clinic that was signed by thousands of petitioners and sent to the Ontario Legislature.  Most important, LAO’s commitment to SALCO will allow the clinic to focus its energy on serving the legal needs of vulnerable people in the South Asian community. 

In addition, SALCO will be looking to building an infrastructure so that it is well positioned to be able to offer legal aid services to the low income South Asian community to the foreseeable future.  These plans include the continued development and enhancement of SALCO's website (www.salc.net) in different South Asian languages.

Our Partners: