Annual Report 2010–2011

Unknown Rights are Not Rights at All

25Community Legal

Education Association

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WORKSHOPS and PUBLIC LAWCLASSESSpeakers’ BureauCLEA operates a Speakers’ Bureau of volun-teers who donate their time each year to pro-vide legal information sessions to the commu-nity on request. There is currently a panel of114 speakers, primarily lawyers, who are pre-pared to deliver presentations. CLEA arranged36 speaking events for the 2010–2011 fiscalyear. This includes workshops, CommunityLegal Intermediary Training course presenta-tions, and school presentations. In total, over780 people attended these sessions. Speakersvolunteered some 123 hours, giving their legalknowledge and expertise. CLEA partneredwith eight schools, groups and agencies indelivering Speakers’ Bureau presentations.Presentations were on 16 different topics. Themost popular topics were: Wills & Estates,Family Law, and Criminal Law.

Co-Sponsored WorkshopsCo-sponsored workshops are education ses-sions where CLEA works with a partner fromthe community to develop and plan a pro-gram tailored to the partner’s needs, whetherit is for its clients, volunteers, staff, or the gen-eral public. CLEA works with a broad varietyof community organizations to reach a broadbase of Manitobans. Examples of our work-shop partnerships include:Winnipeg Public LibraryCLEA partnered with the Winnipeg Library forthe Lawyers in the Library series. Two work-shops on Wills and Estates were delivered inMarch.Winnipeg Regional Housing AuthorityA total of five presentations were made aboutWills and Estates; two in June, one in Octoberand two in November. Manitoba HydroGeorge Derwin, CLEA’s President, deliveredseven presentations, three on Wills andEstates, one on Probate and EstateAdministration and three on Caring for ElderlyPersons at various Hydro locations.

Law DayWe arranged speakers on Family Law andCriminal Law for the information panels avail-able at the Court House on Law Day, April 18,2010. The Family Law panel was held at 12:30

and the Criminal Law panel was held at 2:30.The Law Society’s Equity Ombudsperson alsopresented information about her program.Thank you to the presenters: BrenleeCarrington Trepel, Gloria Mendelson, NormYusim, Kathy Bueti and Scott Cooper.

PUBLICATIONS

Publications Distribution

CLEA distributes many pamphlets, bookletsand other plain language materials about thelaw. We distribute our own publications andalso materials produced by other agencies andgovernment departments such as TheDepartment of Justice Canada, ManitobaJustice, Family Services and Consumer Affairs,the Library of Parliament, the Canadian PublicHealth Agency and the Consumer ProtectionOffice. We have an inventory of over 120 titles,including 53 CLEA titles, 28 French and 29 bi-lingual titles. The most recent additionsinclude information on fraud and informationabout charities and tax law. In 2010–2011,CLEA distributed 7,274 items to hundreds ofindividuals and agencies across Manitoba.Distributions also occurred through confer-ences, exhibits, and member mailings.

Displays

Each year, CLEA organizes displays of materialsat a variety of events. This year, CLEA hostedexhibits at the following events: 2010 Law DayOpen House (materials were displayed in bothWinnipeg and Brandon), CLEA AnnualGeneral Meeting, Law Phone-In 35thAnniversary, CLEA’s 25th Anniversary Dinner,CLEA’s Law Conference, PLEAC Conference inMontreal, Manitoba Social Sciences Teachers’Association Special Area Group Conference,APIN’s Annual Adolescent Parent’s Day, and atthe Legislature as part of Women’s HistoryMonth and International Women’s Day cele-brations.

Publishing

The Manitoba Legal Services Directory The 2011 Manitoba Legal Services Directorywas published with 158 lawyers placing 466ads in the directory. This year we continuedthe expansion of the law-related agencies sec-tion of the directory. Sales of the 2011Directory will continue in 2011–2012.

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CLEA’s Annual Report

Copies of the 2009–2010 Annual Report weredistributed to Manitoba Members ofParliament and Members of the Legislatureand throughout the community on an asrequested basis. The report continues to be auseful outreach and fundraising tool, as itpresents CLEA’s work in a readable formatwith a professional image.

WEBSITECLEA received a grant from the Manitoba LawFoundation to update our website. The mainchanges included an increase in the numberof ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ from 62 to300. We also expanded the number of topicsfrom six to twelve. The website has bothEnglish and French sections. Visitors are ableto download a publications form in order torequest publications as well as download pub-lications in PDF format. We have created arepertoire of 18 law quizzes. Work remains tobe done on the Youth section. The update ofthe website is an on-going endeavour. In2010–2011 we had over 30,000 visitors to ourwebsite. The website address is: www.communitylegal.mb.ca.

LAW PHONE-IN & LAWYERREFERRAL PROGRAMServing Manitobans as well as callers fromaround the world since 1975, CLEA’s LawPhone-In & Lawyer Referral Program is anessential service, providing free legal informa-tion over the telephone to anyone who needshelp. Many clients rely on the service as theiremergency first-response team during a legalcrisis. As a unified information and referralservice, our program staff assesses callers’needs, provides information and makes refer-rals to lawyers and law-related agencies whereappropriate.

In 2010, the Program handled 6,885 calls. 59%of the callers were female, 74% originatedfrom Winnipeg. Calls from outside Winnipegcame from 212 communities all aroundManitoba. 244 came from other provinces andterritories, 30 from 14 states in the UnitedStates and 43 came from around the world,many of them via email: Africa, Bermuda,China, El Salvador, Ghana, India, Italy, Jamaica,Kuwait, Mexico, Morocco, The Netherlands,

Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, SaudiArabia, Sweden, Turkey, The United Kingdom,and United Arab Emirates. The legal issues inthese international calls tended to be in theareas of Family Law, Wills and Estates andImmigration matters. Some of these callerswere looking for a lawyer in Manitoba for amatter taking place in Manitoba.

In addition to telephone calls, the Programreceived 738 e-mails, 49 faxes, and 80 walk-inclients (even though we do not have the facili-ties to handle walk-in requests). Of completedcalls, 38.9% of the calls were concerningFamily Law, including divorce, separation, cus-tody, access, grandparent access, adoption,guardianship, child support, spousal support,and various property issues. Also in this areaof law, we received questions about domesticviolence and protection orders. 12.1% of thecalls were regarding Civil Law issues (includingSmall Claims Court). 10.6% of the calls dealtwith Criminal Law (including Youth Law), 8.6%with Wills and Estates, and 5.3% were aboutEmployment Law. The list at right shows thebreak-down of calls by topic.

1,095 calls resulted in referrals to one of the129 lawyers listed with the Lawyer ReferralService. Lawyers enrolled in the service haveagreed to provide a free initial half-hour con-sultation to clients referred to them.

In 2010, our records indicate that we receivedreferrals from 156 different sources: variousindividual contacts, lawyers and law firms,MLA’s and MP’s, community agencies, govern-ment departments, organizations, businesses,and as a result of being listed in various publi-cations.

Our staff consists of two lawyers. The programoperates Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4 pm. Thisyear we were assisted by law students throughthe Pro Bono Students Canada program: LynnDonnelly, Daniel Hildebrand, Abhijit Ranade,Inderjit Singh and Pavlo Tverdokhlib. Wewould also like to thank their supervisor, JanetKwong.

The Law Phone-In & Lawyer Referral Programcan be reached at (204) 943-2305 or toll freein Manitoba, outside of Winnipeg, at 1-800-262-8800.

Completed ProgramCalls by Topic:

Family 2359Other 653Civil 573Criminal 643Wills 523Employment 320Commercial 196Debt 108Small Claims 194Real Estate 114Landlord & Tenant 157Immigration 72Autopac 97Legal Aid 39Welfare 30Highway 36E.I. 3

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EDUCATION AND TRAININGTo keep abreast of changes in the law, the LawPhone-In lawyers and the Executive Directorattended the following Law Society andManitoba Bar Association continuing legaleducation seminars: Accommodation in theWorkplace, Review of Lesser Known butValuable sections of the Queen's Bench Actand Rules, Mines and Minerals, LawyersActing as Executors and Trustees, Privacy LawUpdate, Pitblado Lectures – Remedies – fromDollars to Sense, Family Law – Recent Changesto Legislation, Judicially Assisted DisputeResolution, Children’s Trusts and the Role ofthe Public Trustee, Estate Planning forCommon-Law Couples & Blended Families,Standards of Review on Criminal Appeals,Caveat Emptor, 25 Years of Section 15, FamilyLaw Orders & Agreements – A Deal is a deal,Manitoba Bar Association Midwinter Meeting– Aboriginal Law Primer, Impaired DrivingPrimer, Annual Joint Family Law Program –Refining our Focus: Putting Children First, andCode of Professional Conduct.

The Executive Director attended the annualPLEAC and Educaloi Conferences, in MontrealOctober 20–22. Educaloi is a public legal edu-cation organization in Montreal that focuseson web-based legal information. The themefor the PLEAC conference was Create,Collaborate, Connect. The theme for theEducaloi conference was: Explaining the Lawto Others: Message Received… andUnderstood. Aside from the pros and cons ofusing plain language in the legal context, theconference explored the use of social media,and as usual, was a great place to network,compare ideas and best practices and comeback with ideas that can potentially be imple-mented in Manitoba. The Executive Directoralso attended Just a Click Away, a nationalconference in Vancouver on the 23rd and 24thof February 2011. This conference exploredthe use of Web 2 tools in delivering publiclegal education and information.

LAW CONFERENCEThe joint CLEA/AJEFM bilingual ConsumerLaw Conference was held on Friday, the 18thof February 2011, at the Union Centre. TheHonourable Gord Mackintosh, Minister ofFamily Services and Consumer Affairs broughtgreetings. Despite blizzard conditions outside

Winnipeg (which prevented a contingent ofparticipants from Stonewall from attending)there were 40 attendees. The conference wasvery successful and the evaluations were verypositive. The MC was Julien Bédard, a lawyerwith Justice Canada, and former CLEA andAJEFM board member.

The French presentations were:

Le vol d’identité – Andrée Huberdeau, Policede la ville de Winnipeg

L’escroquerie – Cpl. Léo Girouard etGendarme Raymond Girouard, Gendarmerieroyale du Canada (GRC)

La Cour des petites créances – ClaudettePerreault, de la Cour des petites créances

Les conseils pour les consommateurs – DanVankrinken, de services du consommateur,Office de la protection du consommateur

The English presentations were:

Scams – Cpl. Léo Girouard, and OfficerRaymond Girouard, Royal Canadian MountedPolice

Small Claims – Lynn Ranville, The Court ofQueen’s Bench Registry

Consumer Tips & Contracts – DanVankrinken, Consumer Services Officer,Manitoba Consumer Protection Office

Identity Theft – Cst. Robert Jensen, City ofWinnipeg Police

AJEFM CONFERENCE – IMPACTOF A CRIMINAL RECORDAJEFM asked us to partner with them on thisconference. Our role was to publicize theevent. CLEA’s Program Coordinator attendedthe conference on the afternoon of October21st, as CLEA’s representative.

INTERMEDIARY PROGRAMS andTRAININGCommunity Legal Intermediary (CLI)Training ProgramThe CLI is a series of 11 weekly, two and one-half hour workshops that train serviceproviders about legal issues and resources inthe community. Session #29 was completedthis year, with a total of nine participantscompleting the program and graduating.Each week involves learning about different

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areas of law with the volunteer help of lawyersand presenters from Small Claims Court, theConsumer Protection Office, and MediationServices. Sessions included: An Overview ofthe Legal System, Aboriginal Law, Mediation,Family Law, Criminal Law, Employment Law,Domestic Violence, Welfare Law, YouthCriminal Justice, Consumer Law, and SmallClaims Court.

Advanced Community LegalIntermediary Training ProgramThe course consisted of six, two and one-halfhour sessions on the following topics: FamilyLaw, Criminal Law, Immigration Law, Landlord& Tenants’ Rights, Wills and Estates andDebtor and Creditor Rights. Advanced CLI ses-sion #5 was completed this year with a total often participants completing the program andgraduating.

SCHOOL PROGRAMSSpeakers in the Classroom CLEA continues to provide volunteer lawyersas speakers in schools. In 2010–2011, twospeaking engagements were coordinated, oneon the topic of Criminal Law and one on Lawas a Career.

PROJECTS IN 2010–2011Charity Central Road toAccountability WorkshopWe again partnered with the Legal ResourceCentre of Alberta. The Legal Resource Centrehad received funding from Canada RevenueAgency to deliver workshops on accountabili-ty. Our role was to recruit participants andorganize the event. On March 15, 2011, SanSan Sy, of Charity Central, delivered a work-shop: Does accountability scare you? Findyour way on the road to accountability. Thiswas an interactive workshop that explored theaccountability practices of registered charitiesand non-profit organizations. Using a self-diagnostic tool, participants assessed theirorganization’s current accountability practicesand started to develop an action plan. Theworkshop was geared towards board mem-bers, Executive Directors, and senior managersof non-profit or charitable organizations.Participants also received excellent publica-tions, including: Road to Accountability

Handbook and Road to Accountability Self-Diagnostics Pack. We have these publicationsavailable for distribution.

Law Phone-In DatabaseWe received funding from The WinnipegFoundation to create a data base for LawPhone- In. The database of information onlaw-related agencies and quick reference infor-mation is designed to help the staff and stu-dents better handle the large volume of callsreceived and catalogue resources available on-site. Once the database is completed, we willhave a comprehensive electronic catalogue ofresources, tailor-made for the Law Phone-InProgram. The staff and students will be able tosearch by topic and by subtopic. The databasewill contain information about law-relatedagencies. As well, there will be summaries ofinformation to assist in handling calls. Therewill also be listings of plain language publica-tions, both hard copy and on-line publica-tions, that exist on particular legal topics, witha short summary of the contents of the publi-cations. Christine Mazur, who has both a legalbackground and a journalism background, washired to create the database. We expect thedatabase to be completed in the fall of 2011.

CELEBRATIONSLaw Phone-In 35th AnniversaryOn August 18th we held a cake and coffeereception at Manitoba Hydro to celebrate LawPhone-In’s 35th Anniversary. There wereapproximately 50 people in attendance,including Allan Fineblit, Q.C., CEO of the LawSociety, Irene Hamilton, the Ombudsman,Mario Santos, Chair of Legal Aid’sManagement Council and Bruce Gammonfrom Legal Aid, staff from the Canadian andManitoba Human Rights Commissions, formerLaw Phone-In staff: Denyse Côté and JackieSedor, current staff, former Law Phone-InCommittee members: Allan Stewart and ReehTaylor, Q.C., Lawyer Referral panel member,Sheldon Rosenstock, CLEA member, PeterBaumstark, Dean Lorna Turnbull, Loren Braulfrom Pro Bono Students Canada, CLEA boardmembers: Dave Rondeau, Rhonda San Filippo,Grace Yu and Geof Langen as well as staff andlawyers from Manitoba Hydro. JusticeMinister, Andrew Swan, brought greetings.CLEA’s President, George Derwin, and CLEA’s

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Executive Director, Mary Troszko, made briefremarks. We would like to thank ManitobaHydro for the use of their amazing atrium andMinister Swan for his excellent speech.

CLEA’s 25th AnniversaryCLEA celebrated its 25th Anniversary with adinner at the Marlborough on the 24th ofSeptember 2010. Julian Falconer of FalconerCharney was the Keynote Speaker. Mr.Falconer represented Maher Arar and is cur-rently representing the family of Ashley Smithand the “Free Press Four,” journalists beatenand arrested by police during the G20 summitin Toronto. Mr. Falconer’s presentationfocused on the importance of speaking truthto power. M.C. for the evening was TonyKavanagh. Barbara Palace Churchill broughtgreetings on behalf of the Manitoba LawFoundation and Dean Scaletta brought greet-ings on behalf of the Law Society of Manitoba.George Derwin and J.R. Norman Boudreaubrought greetings on behalf of CLEA’s board.Julien Bédard represented Justice Canada.

Thank you to all who attended one or both ofthese events and helped us celebrate thesemilestones. Thank you also to our donors,sponsors and well-wishers.

ACCESS TO JUSTICE ACTIVITIESCLEA is committed to promoting and sup-porting an equitable and accessible justice sys-tem that is responsive to the needs ofManitobans. We use a variety of ways to reachthis objective:

1. Research and DevelopmentWe participated in an evaluation of the Accessto Justice in Both Official Languages SupportFund.

2. Community OutreachIn an effort to ensure that we refer clientsappropriately and that in turn clients areappropriately referred to us, in June 2010,CLEA held a third information sharing session.We invited representatives from Legal AidManitoba, The Consumer Protection Office,the Claimant Advisor’s Office, the WorkerAdvisor Office and the Court of Queen’s Benchfor an informal information sharing sessionwhere we explained our programs, primarilythe Law Phone-In & Lawyer Referral, and heardabout the services offered by the participants.

3. Co-ordinationCo-ordination activities with other organiza-tions are essential for planning efficient andeffective programs. Each year, CLEA is asked toprovide representatives to many communitycommittees. This year, staff members partici-pated on the following committees:

• Coalition for Human Equality

• Manitoba Bar Association Law DayOrganizing Committee

• Legal Aid Advisory Committee

• Meeting of Women’s Advisory Council

• Just a Click Away Conference AdvisoryCommittee

• Public Legal Education Association ofCanada (PLEAC) – Board of Directors(CLEA’s Executive Director is currently thePast-President of PLEAC).

4. Advice and Consultation on PublicLegal Education and InformationIssuesCLEA is frequently approached by communitygroups for advice about public legal educationissues. We also provide information and pre-sentations (on request) about legal issues forvolunteers and boards of directors of not-for-profit organizations as well as information onlaw as a career for high school students.

FUNDRAISINGFundraising activities included sales andadvertising of the Legal Services Directory andthe sales of publications produced in-house:Directors’ Liabilities, Beginning andIncorporating, the Small Claims Guide andUncontested Divorce Guide and sales of theYouth Criminal Justice Act Teaching Kit as wellas our two mock trials: Jack in the Beanstalkand Young vs. Elder. We also celebrated CLEA’s25th anniversary with a fundraising dinnerheld on Friday, September 24th at the RamadaMarlborough. The keynote speaker was well-known Toronto lawyer, Julian Falconer. Amajor component of Mr. Falconer’s work hasinvolved advocacy in human rights and publicinterest litigation.

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VOLUNTEERSThe volunteer and in-kind support providedto CLEA each year has significant program andfinancial value. Each year, volunteers spendhundreds of hours organizing and taking partin events or programs. In 2010–2011, the dol-lar value of the time spent by CLEA volunteersis over $35,370. This figure does not includethe time spent by volunteers of CLEA’s Boardof Directors and the lawyer panel of ourLawyer Referral Service. We also received$1,811 of in-kind support – meeting space,equipment and advertising.

CLEA volunteers include lawyers and non-law-yers. They give us their help through presenta-tions, serving on our Board of Directors orcommittees, office/clerical assistance, eventplanning and support, writing, editorial review,fundraising and volunteering at Law Phone-In.We had a work-placement student fromHerzing College, Sabrina Koehn, volunteeringat CLEA in December. We also had a law stu-dent Alexander Burdett, through Pro BonoStudents Canada, review and update the con-tents of our Women in Abusive Relationshipsbooklet and Lynn Ranville, from the Court ofQueen’s Bench Registry, reviewed our SmallClaims Guide. Without this generous supportof Manitoba’s legal profession and many othersinvolved in the legal system, we would not beable to provide the kinds of programs we do.

STAFFCLEA is fortunate to have a committed andhard-working staff with over 40 years of col-lective experience in public legal educationand information. Our staff members in2010–2011 were:

Mary Troszko, Executive Director

Kerri Brass, Program Coordinator

Jennifer Dunik, Law Phone-In Lawyer

Seneca Longclaws, Law Phone-In Lawyer(resigned in September 2010)

Shannon Lazell, Law Phone-In Lawyer (startedin February 2011)

BOARD OF DIRECTORSA community-based Board of Directors elect-ed by our general membership governs CLEA.Directors are elected at the annual generalmeeting and hold office for a term of twoyears. The board is responsible for establishingappropriate policies for the overall manage-ment of CLEA. This year the board and staffheld a Strategic Planning session and havebeen finalizing CLEA’s Strategic Plan, that willset CLEA’s direction until 2013–2014. Theboard members in 2010–2011 were:George Derwin (President) – Lawyer,Manitoba HydroHeather Dixon (Past President) – Lawyer,Dixon Law OfficeRamona Tkachuk (Treasurer) – CharteredAccountantRhonda San-Filippo (Secretary) – SocialWorkerNorman Boudreau (Vice-President) – Lawyer,Booth Dennehy (Resigned in February 2011)Kwok Wa Ngan – Manager, Royal BankNalini Reddy – Lawyer, Justice CanadaDavid Rondeau – Teacher, College Pierre-Elliott-TrudeauGrace Yu – CGA, Myers Norris Penny LLPGeof Langen – Senior Policy Analyst, FederalProvincial Unit – Manitoba Health, ActingExecutive Director, Federal Provincial Unit –Manitoba HealthEric Wach – Lawyer, Pinx & Company(Resigned in April 2011)We bid farewell to directors: Denyse Côté andNathan Irving at our 2010 AGM.We would like to thank our core-funders:Justice Canada, The Manitoba LawFoundation and the Law Society ofManitoba, our project funders: FamilyServices and Consumer Affairs and TheWinnipeg Foundation and our project part-ners: the Legal Resource Centre of Albertaand Association des juristes d'expressionfranćaise du Manitoba. We are also gratefulfor the volunteer efforts of members of thelegal profession of Manitoba, and for memberfees, subscriptions and donations.

THANK YOUWithout the support of volunteers in the community, CLEA could not do its work. In the2010–2011 fiscal year, our Board, staff, partners and volunteers have shown how they valuepublic legal education and the work that CLEA does. We thank all of our volunteers, partnersand supporters. You are the heart of our programs and success.

© 2011 Community Legal Education Association (Manitoba) Inc.

Phone: (204) 943-2382 Fax: (204) 943-3600

e-mail: info@communitylegal.mb.ca

www.communitylegal.mb.ca

205–414 Graham Avenue

Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 0L8

ISBN: 978-1-894013-39-5

CLEA is a not-for-profit corporation and a registered charity (118870732RR0001)and has been in existence since 1984.

We believe people must understand the Law.

MISSION STATEMENTCLEA is a not-for-profit organization that provides public legal education and informationprograms to Manitobans. We believe that legal knowledge is a prerequisite to full and equalparticipation in our society.

The purpose of CLEA is to educate the general public with respect to the legal system, with thebetterment of Manitobans as its ultimate goal, and to increase the ability of individuals (primarilythose perceived to have the greatest need) to deal competently with legal issues.

Program StrategyTo meet the diverse information needs of our community, we have adopted the followingobjectives to help us plan our programs:

Individual FocusTo provide information about the law, legal system, sources of legal assistance and law reform inresponse to requests for assistance and when there is a perceived need for specific information.

Intermediaries FocusTo provide service providers and representative groups with information about the law, legalsystem, sources of legal assistance, and law reform in order to increase the quality of services andnumber of people receiving legal information from various organizations.

Access to Justice FocusTo promote and support a more equitable and accessible justice system that is responsive to theneeds of Manitoba’s diverse communities. To identify barriers and possible solutions to access tojustice that meet these communities’ needs.