OTTAWA, March 6, 2013 – The Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) has asked Beverly McLachlin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, to take action on serious concerns about the conduct of the Registrar of the Supreme Court towards self-represented litigants, which deprives unrepresented parties from access to justice.
OCLA says that the Registrar, who is the Court’s chief administrative officer, usurped the jurisdiction of judges of the Court by refusing to accept applications for leave to appeal by some self-represented litigants, for reasons unrelated to the Registrar’s responsibility to ensure completeness of the applications. The Registrar sent back the materials to the unrepresented parties, and never placed them before judges of the Supreme Court.
OCLA’s letter to Chief Justice McLachlin is available at https://ocla.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2013-03-04-OCLA-to-SCC.pdf
About the Ontario Civil Liberties Association
OCLA is an organization formed to defend civil liberties at a time when fundamental freedoms are subjected to a systemic erosion in all spheres of social life. OCLA opposes institutional decisions that remove from the individual his or her personal liberty or exclude the individual from participation in the democratic functions of society.
Contact:
Joseph Hickey
Executive Director
Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) https://www.ocla.ca
613-252-6148 (c)
joseph.hickey@ocla.ca
