We know that the BC Liberals have cut $millions of dollars from the BC Justice System...
Today we learn something even worse, ...There is a Tax on legal services in British Columbia, that tax on legal services is a tax that is dedicated to funding legal aid..
In 2014 that tax on legal services raised $171.9 million dollars...That means the BC Government had $171.9 million for legal Aid..
Guess what...The BC Liberals under Christy Clark STOLE THE MONEY TO BALANCE THEIR BUDGET....
They Stole $100 million dollars out of the fund..
Leaving for mothers, fathers and those who are too poor to afford lawyers stranded with nothing, no legal council..
MY GAWD CHRISTY CLARK....HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT..
So not only do the habitual lying BC Liberals sell off provincial assets to claim a faked out balanced budget now we know they are outright thieves..
They stole the money, a dedicated tax for legal aid robbed and looted by Mike De Jong and Christy Clark..
Read the shocking evidence here..
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LEGAL AID FUNDS DIVERTED BY THE BC LIBERAL GOVERNMENT
"Victoria lawyer Michael Mulligan on CFAX 1070 with Pamela McCall discussing new freedom of information data the reveals the amount of money being diverted from the legal aid system by the provincial government. The FOI information reveals that $171.7 million was collected in 2014 by a special tax on legal services while only $74.9 million was used for the intended purpose.
The special tax on legal services was introduced by the NDP in 1992 for the express purpose of funding legal aid. After several years the tax was collecting more money than the government was providing to legal aid. When in opposition, the BC Liberals were critical of the NDP for the diversion of $15 million from this special tax.
When in opposition the then Liberal critic asked the following in the legislature, “I’m sure we can quibble about the numbers but the larger public policy question remains. Isn’t there something wrong with the government taking all this money from legal accounts as a result of a tax which was imposed, the justification of which was for legal aid, yet it doesn’t actually really direct all of that revenue into the legal aid system.”
As a result of substantial cuts to legal aid funding including for the provision of poverty law and family law services, the amount of tax revenue being diverted is now in excess of $100 million per year as the federal government provides the provincial government with more then $13.5 million per year to assist with the cost of criminal legal aid."
http://mtplaw.com/legal-aid-funds-diverted-by-bc-government/
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Need more...This from 2002..
https://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/page.cfm?cid=1724&t=BC-lawyers-vote-non-confidence-in-Attorney-General
In the above linked article, the Law Society goes after Geoff Plant for diverting legal aid funds.....Geoff Plant in election year 2000/2001 got on his high horse about the BC NDP taking $15 million from the designated tax and placing it in general revenue......Then...in 2001 the BC Liberals took half the legal services tax funds and dumped them in general revenue..
British Columbia is the only province in Canada with a tax on legal services..
What is even more outrageous....Listen to this...Glen Clark brought the legal services tax in...in the year 2002..
The BC NDP claimed the money was for legal aid...The NDP year after year earmarked roughly 80% of the collected tax money to legal aid...The BC Liberals as opposition screamed bloody murder about that...In 2001 when Gordo the Knot Campbell won Government(with lies)....He slashed taxes, then Gordon Campbell claimed monies were tight and immediately slashed legal aid money by 40%......That`s right, by 40%...These Effing corrupt BC Liberals have been assaulting the people`s legal/justice system ever since..
That is what make this so outrageous..
Read more on the history of this scam here..
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Mulgrew+Lawyers+still+rankled+over+legal+services/9982589/story.html
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Every year the monies allocated to legal aid are shrinking, and that`s not even counting inflationary pressures...Money doesn`t go that far in the land of Canada`s highest gas prices, food prices, property and house prices, the highest taxed province west of Quebec..The money total should be rising not falling, the need has never been greater..
Family court is so backlogged with broke parents trying to be their own lawyer...These draconian funding decisions are exasperating the problem....The lowest per capita legal aid funding in Canada, that is where B.C. is at... Coupled that with British Columbia being the only province with a legal services tax...
BC lawyers vote non-confidence in Attorney General
BC lawyers attending a Law Society Special General Meeting on May 22 passed a motion expressing a loss of confidence in Geoff Plant, QC as the Attorney General of British Columbia. The motion passed by a 70% majority vote (754:325). Lawyers at the meeting also called on the Attorney General to immediately cease the diversion of funds from the provision of legal aid and to allocate all the revenues received through the special tax on legal services and from the federal government to the provision of legal aid. That motion passed 717:83.The Special General Meeting - requisitioned by over 150 members under Law Society Rule 1-9 and held by the Benchers as required under that Rule - drew over 1,140 lawyers at the main meeting site in Vancouver and 20 audioconference locations across BC.
In speaking to his motion of non-confidence, Victoria lawyer Michael Mulligan said that the Attorney General is not a mere member of Cabinet, but a minister of justice with an obligation to see justice done, and legal aid funding cuts had to be viewed in that light. "Mr. Plant's failure to meet his moral and ministerial duty will leave thousands of persons without legal representation in family law, poverty law and human rights matters," he said. "Let there be no misunderstanding: the rights and freedoms of those persons will go unprotected."
Mr. Mulligan noted that BC is the only province to collect a tax on lawyers' accounts, which generated $91.6 million in the past year, in addition to the $9 million received from the federal government for criminal legal aid. He said that Mr. Plant has proposed a plan to reduce legal aid funding to $54 million, while at the same time the government is increasing the tax rate from 7 to 7.5%.
"I expect today you will hear words to the effect that there should not be a personal attack on the Attorney General. Please recall that my resolutions are not with respect to Mr. Plant in his personal capacity, but rather in his performance as minister of justice," Mr. Mulligan said. "However, to the extent that he is made to feel uncomfortable, that pales in comparison to the effect of his plan on the powerless who will be denied access to justice."
Phil Rankin, of Vancouver, seconded the motion. He cited the Attorney General's closure of courthouses without consultation and dismissal of the Legal Services Society board as examples of failing to work with those parts of the legal community. Mr. Plant had also criticized the former government for not directing the legal services tax to legal aid, Mr. Rankin observed. "Why shouldn't he be criticized by us, or has the political process been so debased that we just don't expect anyone in office to have to stand by what they have said?" he said.
 |
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| D. Geoffrey Cowper, QC urges lawyers at the May 22 Special General Meeting to reject the motion of non-confidence in Mr. Plant as Attorney General, as put forward by Michael Mulligan (left). But the motion passed by more than a two-thirds majority, and lawyers called on the Attorney General to allocate all revenues collected by government from the legal services tax to legal aid. | |
Mr. Cowper said that, while Mr. Plant had considered it his responsibility to call on the former government to fulfil its promises with respect to the tax, the Attorney also made it clear that he did not wish people to misunderstand the position of a new government, which was that the tax, if it could not be abolished, would go to general revenue.
He urged lawyers that this was not a motion to be passed at a Law Society meeting. "It allies us with the worst of our political culture; it allies us with personal attacks; it allies us with incomplete statements that are political in nature," Mr. Cowper said. "And finally, we don't elect the Attorney General; he doesn't have the office at our confidence. We elect a government, the Premier selects his Attorney and the Attorney fulfils his functions. It is only when his past as a lawyer is in question that we have any purchase over him, and we ought to defeat this resolution."
Derek Corrigan, who said he was addressing the resolution as a Burnaby councillor, said the Attorney General had moved the goal posts when Burnaby council attempted to save the Burnaby courthouse from closure. He said council offered to meet the government's stated concerns by defraying the costs of building rent, maintenance, utilities and taxes. The government had then asked Burnaby to pay $1 million toward courthouse staffing.
 |
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| Cards go up as lawyers at the Vancouver SGM site vote on one of several procedural motions. A majority of those at the meeting called for the substantive motions to be debated and voted on separately, not simultaneously. The substantive motions proceeded by secret ballot. | |
New Westminster lawyer Margaret Hollis noted that, while Mr. Plant may not have broken any promises, as he hadn't made any, it didn't follow that what was wrong for the previous government isn't wrong for this government. "If it was wrong before, it's wrong now," she said.
At the outset of the meeting, President Richard Gibbs, QC had proposed that voting on the substantive motions be by secret ballot and the three motions expected to be introduced at the meeting be voted on together. He asked the meeting to decide this issue. Motions submitted in advance of the meeting were those of Mr. Mulligan and an amended motion of Richard Margetts, QC of Victoria, which Mr. Cowper said he intended to support.
The Margetts motion would have encouraged the Attorney General to vigorously ensure an accessible justice system and would have called on the provincial government to increase legal aid funding, to allocate the revenues from the tax on legal services (if that tax were retained) to legal aid, to consult and to work with other participants in the justice system and the legal profession.
A majority of lawyers at the meeting rejected a proposal to vote on the Mulligan and Margetts motions simultaneously. After the Mulligan motions passed, Mr. Margetts told the meeting he had decided against putting forward his own motion.
President Richard Gibbs, QC thanked all who attended the meeting for their participation in what he believed to be the largest meeting of the profession in BC.
Resolution passed by the members at the May 22 Special General Meeting
1. WHEREAS Geoff Plant, the Attorney General, publicly condemned the former government for profiting by $15 million from the legal aid system by diverting funds collected pursuant to the special tax that was imposed on lawyers' accounts;
WHEREAS Mr. Plant stood up in the legislature on May 11, 2000 and said the following "I'm sure we can quibble about the numbers, but the larger public policy question still remains. Isn't there something wrong with the government taking all this money from legal accounts as a result of a tax which was imposed, the justification of which was for legal aid, yet it doesn't actually really direct all of that revenue into the legal aid system";
WHEREAS Mr. Plant now plans to divert more than $48.5 million a year in funds collected from the special tax on lawyers' accounts away from the provision of legal aid;
WHEREAS Mr. Plant's plan to divert these funds will leave thousands of British Columbians who are poor, disadvantaged, and disproportionately female without legal representation;
WHEREAS Mr. Plant has failed to uphold and protect the public interest in the administration of justice;
THEREFORE the Law Society of British Columbia has lost confidence in Mr. Plant as the Attorney General of British Columbia.
2. THAT the Law Society of British Columbia demands that the Attorney General uphold and protect the public interest in the administration of justice, immediately cease the diversion of funds from the provision of legal aid, and allocate 100% of the revenue received through the special tax on legal services and from the federal government to the provision of legal aid
- See more at: https://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/page.cfm?cid=1724&t=BC-lawyers-vote-non-confidence-in-Attorney-General#sthash.MDHjDV61.dpuf
BC lawyers vote non-confidence in Attorney General
BC lawyers attending a Law Society Special General Meeting on May 22 passed a motion expressing a loss of confidence in Geoff Plant, QC as the Attorney General of British Columbia. The motion passed by a 70% majority vote (754:325). Lawyers at the meeting also called on the Attorney General to immediately cease the diversion of funds from the provision of legal aid and to allocate all the revenues received through the special tax on legal services and from the federal government to the provision of legal aid. That motion passed 717:83.The Special General Meeting - requisitioned by over 150 members under Law Society Rule 1-9 and held by the Benchers as required under that Rule - drew over 1,140 lawyers at the main meeting site in Vancouver and 20 audioconference locations across BC.
In speaking to his motion of non-confidence, Victoria lawyer Michael Mulligan said that the Attorney General is not a mere member of Cabinet, but a minister of justice with an obligation to see justice done, and legal aid funding cuts had to be viewed in that light. "Mr. Plant's failure to meet his moral and ministerial duty will leave thousands of persons without legal representation in family law, poverty law and human rights matters," he said. "Let there be no misunderstanding: the rights and freedoms of those persons will go unprotected."
Mr. Mulligan noted that BC is the only province to collect a tax on lawyers' accounts, which generated $91.6 million in the past year, in addition to the $9 million received from the federal government for criminal legal aid. He said that Mr. Plant has proposed a plan to reduce legal aid funding to $54 million, while at the same time the government is increasing the tax rate from 7 to 7.5%.
"I expect today you will hear words to the effect that there should not be a personal attack on the Attorney General. Please recall that my resolutions are not with respect to Mr. Plant in his personal capacity, but rather in his performance as minister of justice," Mr. Mulligan said. "However, to the extent that he is made to feel uncomfortable, that pales in comparison to the effect of his plan on the powerless who will be denied access to justice."
Phil Rankin, of Vancouver, seconded the motion. He cited the Attorney General's closure of courthouses without consultation and dismissal of the Legal Services Society board as examples of failing to work with those parts of the legal community. Mr. Plant had also criticized the former government for not directing the legal services tax to legal aid, Mr. Rankin observed. "Why shouldn't he be criticized by us, or has the political process been so debased that we just don't expect anyone in office to have to stand by what they have said?" he said.
|
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| D. Geoffrey Cowper, QC urges lawyers at the May 22 Special General Meeting to reject the motion of non-confidence in Mr. Plant as Attorney General, as put forward by Michael Mulligan (left). But the motion passed by more than a two-thirds majority, and lawyers called on the Attorney General to allocate all revenues collected by government from the legal services tax to legal aid. | |
Mr. Cowper said that, while Mr. Plant had considered it his responsibility to call on the former government to fulfil its promises with respect to the tax, the Attorney also made it clear that he did not wish people to misunderstand the position of a new government, which was that the tax, if it could not be abolished, would go to general revenue.
He urged lawyers that this was not a motion to be passed at a Law Society meeting. "It allies us with the worst of our political culture; it allies us with personal attacks; it allies us with incomplete statements that are political in nature," Mr. Cowper said. "And finally, we don't elect the Attorney General; he doesn't have the office at our confidence. We elect a government, the Premier selects his Attorney and the Attorney fulfils his functions. It is only when his past as a lawyer is in question that we have any purchase over him, and we ought to defeat this resolution."
Derek Corrigan, who said he was addressing the resolution as a Burnaby councillor, said the Attorney General had moved the goal posts when Burnaby council attempted to save the Burnaby courthouse from closure. He said council offered to meet the government's stated concerns by defraying the costs of building rent, maintenance, utilities and taxes. The government had then asked Burnaby to pay $1 million toward courthouse staffing.
|
|
| Cards go up as lawyers at the Vancouver SGM site vote on one of several procedural motions. A majority of those at the meeting called for the substantive motions to be debated and voted on separately, not simultaneously. The substantive motions proceeded by secret ballot. | |
New Westminster lawyer Margaret Hollis noted that, while Mr. Plant may not have broken any promises, as he hadn't made any, it didn't follow that what was wrong for the previous government isn't wrong for this government. "If it was wrong before, it's wrong now," she said.
At the outset of the meeting, President Richard Gibbs, QC had proposed that voting on the substantive motions be by secret ballot and the three motions expected to be introduced at the meeting be voted on together. He asked the meeting to decide this issue. Motions submitted in advance of the meeting were those of Mr. Mulligan and an amended motion of Richard Margetts, QC of Victoria, which Mr. Cowper said he intended to support.
The Margetts motion would have encouraged the Attorney General to vigorously ensure an accessible justice system and would have called on the provincial government to increase legal aid funding, to allocate the revenues from the tax on legal services (if that tax were retained) to legal aid, to consult and to work with other participants in the justice system and the legal profession.
A majority of lawyers at the meeting rejected a proposal to vote on the Mulligan and Margetts motions simultaneously. After the Mulligan motions passed, Mr. Margetts told the meeting he had decided against putting forward his own motion.
President Richard Gibbs, QC thanked all who attended the meeting for their participation in what he believed to be the largest meeting of the profession in BC.
Resolution passed by the members at the May 22 Special General Meeting
1. WHEREAS Geoff Plant, the Attorney General, publicly condemned the former government for profiting by $15 million from the legal aid system by diverting funds collected pursuant to the special tax that was imposed on lawyers' accounts;
WHEREAS Mr. Plant stood up in the legislature on May 11, 2000 and said the following "I'm sure we can quibble about the numbers, but the larger public policy question still remains. Isn't there something wrong with the government taking all this money from legal accounts as a result of a tax which was imposed, the justification of which was for legal aid, yet it doesn't actually really direct all of that revenue into the legal aid system";
WHEREAS Mr. Plant now plans to divert more than $48.5 million a year in funds collected from the special tax on lawyers' accounts away from the provision of legal aid;
WHEREAS Mr. Plant's plan to divert these funds will leave thousands of British Columbians who are poor, disadvantaged, and disproportionately female without legal representation;
WHEREAS Mr. Plant has failed to uphold and protect the public interest in the administration of justice;
THEREFORE the Law Society of British Columbia has lost confidence in Mr. Plant as the Attorney General of British Columbia.
2. THAT the Law Society of British Columbia demands that the Attorney General uphold and protect the public interest in the administration of justice, immediately cease the diversion of funds from the provision of legal aid, and allocate 100% of the revenue received through the special tax on legal services and from the federal government to the provision of legal aid.
BC
lawyers attending a Law Society Special General Meeting on May 22
passed a motion expressing a loss of confidence in Geoff Plant, QC as
the Attorney General of British Columbia. The motion passed by a 70%
majority vote (754:325). Lawyers at the meeting also called on the
Attorney General to immediately cease the diversion of funds from the
provision of legal aid and to allocate all the revenues received through
the special tax on legal services and from the federal government to
the provision of legal aid. That motion passed 717:83.
The Special General Meeting - requisitioned by over 150 members under Law Society Rule 1-9 and held by the Benchers as required under that Rule - drew over 1,140 lawyers at the main meeting site in Vancouver and 20 audioconference locations across BC.
In speaking to his motion of non-confidence, Victoria lawyer Michael Mulligan said that the Attorney General is not a mere member of Cabinet, but a minister of justice with an obligation to see justice done, and legal aid funding cuts had to be viewed in that light. "Mr. Plant's failure to meet his moral and ministerial duty will leave thousands of persons without legal representation in family law, poverty law and human rights matters," he said. "Let there be no misunderstanding: the rights and freedoms of those persons will go unprotected."
Mr. Mulligan noted that BC is the only province to collect a tax on lawyers' accounts, which generated $91.6 million in the past year, in addition to the $9 million received from the federal government for criminal legal aid. He said that Mr. Plant has proposed a plan to reduce legal aid funding to $54 million, while at the same time the government is increasing the tax rate from 7 to 7.5%.
"I expect today you will hear words to the effect that there should not be a personal attack on the Attorney General. Please recall that my resolutions are not with respect to Mr. Plant in his personal capacity, but rather in his performance as minister of justice," Mr. Mulligan said. "However, to the extent that he is made to feel uncomfortable, that pales in comparison to the effect of his plan on the powerless who will be denied access to justice."
Phil Rankin, of Vancouver, seconded the motion. He cited the Attorney General's closure of courthouses without consultation and dismissal of the Legal Services Society board as examples of failing to work with those parts of the legal community. Mr. Plant had also criticized the former government for not directing the legal services tax to legal aid, Mr. Rankin observed. "Why shouldn't he be criticized by us, or has the political process been so debased that we just don't expect anyone in office to have to stand by what they have said?" he said.
- See more at: https://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/page.cfm?cid=1724&t=BC-lawyers-vote-non-confidence-in-Attorney-General#sthash.MDHjDV61.dpuf
The Special General Meeting - requisitioned by over 150 members under Law Society Rule 1-9 and held by the Benchers as required under that Rule - drew over 1,140 lawyers at the main meeting site in Vancouver and 20 audioconference locations across BC.
In speaking to his motion of non-confidence, Victoria lawyer Michael Mulligan said that the Attorney General is not a mere member of Cabinet, but a minister of justice with an obligation to see justice done, and legal aid funding cuts had to be viewed in that light. "Mr. Plant's failure to meet his moral and ministerial duty will leave thousands of persons without legal representation in family law, poverty law and human rights matters," he said. "Let there be no misunderstanding: the rights and freedoms of those persons will go unprotected."
Mr. Mulligan noted that BC is the only province to collect a tax on lawyers' accounts, which generated $91.6 million in the past year, in addition to the $9 million received from the federal government for criminal legal aid. He said that Mr. Plant has proposed a plan to reduce legal aid funding to $54 million, while at the same time the government is increasing the tax rate from 7 to 7.5%.
"I expect today you will hear words to the effect that there should not be a personal attack on the Attorney General. Please recall that my resolutions are not with respect to Mr. Plant in his personal capacity, but rather in his performance as minister of justice," Mr. Mulligan said. "However, to the extent that he is made to feel uncomfortable, that pales in comparison to the effect of his plan on the powerless who will be denied access to justice."
Phil Rankin, of Vancouver, seconded the motion. He cited the Attorney General's closure of courthouses without consultation and dismissal of the Legal Services Society board as examples of failing to work with those parts of the legal community. Mr. Plant had also criticized the former government for not directing the legal services tax to legal aid, Mr. Rankin observed. "Why shouldn't he be criticized by us, or has the political process been so debased that we just don't expect anyone in office to have to stand by what they have said?" he said.
- See more at: https://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/page.cfm?cid=1724&t=BC-lawyers-vote-non-confidence-in-Attorney-General#sthash.MDHjDV61.dpuf
BC lawyers vote non-confidence in Attorney General
BC lawyers attending a Law Society Special General Meeting on May 22 passed a motion expressing a loss of confidence in Geoff Plant, QC as the Attorney General of British Columbia. The motion passed by a 70% majority vote (754:325). Lawyers at the meeting also called on the Attorney General to immediately cease the diversion of funds from the provision of legal aid and to allocate all the revenues received through the special tax on legal services and from the federal government to the provision of legal aid. That motion passed 717:83.The Special General Meeting - requisitioned by over 150 members under Law Society Rule 1-9 and held by the Benchers as required under that Rule - drew over 1,140 lawyers at the main meeting site in Vancouver and 20 audioconference locations across BC.
In speaking to his motion of non-confidence, Victoria lawyer Michael Mulligan said that the Attorney General is not a mere member of Cabinet, but a minister of justice with an obligation to see justice done, and legal aid funding cuts had to be viewed in that light. "Mr. Plant's failure to meet his moral and ministerial duty will leave thousands of persons without legal representation in family law, poverty law and human rights matters," he said. "Let there be no misunderstanding: the rights and freedoms of those persons will go unprotected."
Mr. Mulligan noted that BC is the only province to collect a tax on lawyers' accounts, which generated $91.6 million in the past year, in addition to the $9 million received from the federal government for criminal legal aid. He said that Mr. Plant has proposed a plan to reduce legal aid funding to $54 million, while at the same time the government is increasing the tax rate from 7 to 7.5%.
"I expect today you will hear words to the effect that there should not be a personal attack on the Attorney General. Please recall that my resolutions are not with respect to Mr. Plant in his personal capacity, but rather in his performance as minister of justice," Mr. Mulligan said. "However, to the extent that he is made to feel uncomfortable, that pales in comparison to the effect of his plan on the powerless who will be denied access to justice."
Phil Rankin, of Vancouver, seconded the motion. He cited the Attorney General's closure of courthouses without consultation and dismissal of the Legal Services Society board as examples of failing to work with those parts of the legal community. Mr. Plant had also criticized the former government for not directing the legal services tax to legal aid, Mr. Rankin observed. "Why shouldn't he be criticized by us, or has the political process been so debased that we just don't expect anyone in office to have to stand by what they have said?" he said.
|
|
| D. Geoffrey Cowper, QC urges lawyers at the May 22 Special General Meeting to reject the motion of non-confidence in Mr. Plant as Attorney General, as put forward by Michael Mulligan (left). But the motion passed by more than a two-thirds majority, and lawyers called on the Attorney General to allocate all revenues collected by government from the legal services tax to legal aid. | |
Mr. Cowper said that, while Mr. Plant had considered it his responsibility to call on the former government to fulfil its promises with respect to the tax, the Attorney also made it clear that he did not wish people to misunderstand the position of a new government, which was that the tax, if it could not be abolished, would go to general revenue.
He urged lawyers that this was not a motion to be passed at a Law Society meeting. "It allies us with the worst of our political culture; it allies us with personal attacks; it allies us with incomplete statements that are political in nature," Mr. Cowper said. "And finally, we don't elect the Attorney General; he doesn't have the office at our confidence. We elect a government, the Premier selects his Attorney and the Attorney fulfils his functions. It is only when his past as a lawyer is in question that we have any purchase over him, and we ought to defeat this resolution."
Derek Corrigan, who said he was addressing the resolution as a Burnaby councillor, said the Attorney General had moved the goal posts when Burnaby council attempted to save the Burnaby courthouse from closure. He said council offered to meet the government's stated concerns by defraying the costs of building rent, maintenance, utilities and taxes. The government had then asked Burnaby to pay $1 million toward courthouse staffing.
|
|
| Cards go up as lawyers at the Vancouver SGM site vote on one of several procedural motions. A majority of those at the meeting called for the substantive motions to be debated and voted on separately, not simultaneously. The substantive motions proceeded by secret ballot. | |
New Westminster lawyer Margaret Hollis noted that, while Mr. Plant may not have broken any promises, as he hadn't made any, it didn't follow that what was wrong for the previous government isn't wrong for this government. "If it was wrong before, it's wrong now," she said.
At the outset of the meeting, President Richard Gibbs, QC had proposed that voting on the substantive motions be by secret ballot and the three motions expected to be introduced at the meeting be voted on together. He asked the meeting to decide this issue. Motions submitted in advance of the meeting were those of Mr. Mulligan and an amended motion of Richard Margetts, QC of Victoria, which Mr. Cowper said he intended to support.
The Margetts motion would have encouraged the Attorney General to vigorously ensure an accessible justice system and would have called on the provincial government to increase legal aid funding, to allocate the revenues from the tax on legal services (if that tax were retained) to legal aid, to consult and to work with other participants in the justice system and the legal profession.
A majority of lawyers at the meeting rejected a proposal to vote on the Mulligan and Margetts motions simultaneously. After the Mulligan motions passed, Mr. Margetts told the meeting he had decided against putting forward his own motion.
President Richard Gibbs, QC thanked all who attended the meeting for their participation in what he believed to be the largest meeting of the profession in BC.
Resolution passed by the members at the May 22 Special General Meeting
1. WHEREAS Geoff Plant, the Attorney General, publicly condemned the former government for profiting by $15 million from the legal aid system by diverting funds collected pursuant to the special tax that was imposed on lawyers' accounts;
WHEREAS Mr. Plant stood up in the legislature on May 11, 2000 and said the following "I'm sure we can quibble about the numbers, but the larger public policy question still remains. Isn't there something wrong with the government taking all this money from legal accounts as a result of a tax which was imposed, the justification of which was for legal aid, yet it doesn't actually really direct all of that revenue into the legal aid system";
WHEREAS Mr. Plant now plans to divert more than $48.5 million a year in funds collected from the special tax on lawyers' accounts away from the provision of legal aid;
WHEREAS Mr. Plant's plan to divert these funds will leave thousands of British Columbians who are poor, disadvantaged, and disproportionately female without legal representation;
WHEREAS Mr. Plant has failed to uphold and protect the public interest in the administration of justice;
THEREFORE the Law Society of British Columbia has lost confidence in Mr. Plant as the Attorney General of British Columbia.
2. THAT the Law Society of British Columbia demands that the Attorney General uphold and protect the public interest in the administration of justice, immediately cease the diversion of funds from the provision of legal aid, and allocate 100% of the revenue received through the special tax on legal services and from the federal government to the provision of legal aid.
Our British Columbia Liberal Government under Christy Clark...
Selling $Billions in assets to claim a balanced budget....Blood on her hands as Christy Clark`s inner circled ruined live`s and played an unsuspecting public and now..
Now we learn that Christy Clark`s gang are fucking two-bit thieves, stealing from those who need it most, stealing from a tax that is designated for Legal aid funding..
Have no doubt, that Translink sales tax increase, if the referendum passes that money too will be stolen by this gang of BC Liberal Grifters.!
The Straight Goods
Cheers Eyes Wide Open
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