93 percent of Black respondents say BC legal system fails Black people: CABL feasibility study
Through an initiative led by the British Columbia chapter of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers (CABL), the province’s first Black-focused legal clinic plans to open officially in August and begin providing affordable in-person and online legal services.
“The community needs a dedicated legal resource that will provide the tailored, culturally sensitive help they need, without judgement,” said Cecilia Barnes, CABL BC chapter president and a technology lawyer at Lawson Lundell LLP, in a news release.
“We know our community and what the issues are,” added Raphael Tachie, former CABL president and partner at Dentons in Vancouver. “Why not rely on us to deliver the kinds of services that are most responsive to our community.”
CABL thanked the Law Foundation of BC for the funding of $1.8 million over three years to establish the new legal clinic. CABL also acknowledged its relationships with equity-focused organizations across the province.
Legal clinic’s goals
According to CABL, the new Black-led legal clinic will seek to:
- Promote access to justice throughout the province
- Advocate for systemic change
- Serve as a voice for Black communities within BC’s legal system
Barnes recognized “a need to advocate against systemic anti-Black racism in a way that transforms the system, going beyond individual casework.”
Feasibility study, community consultations
For a 2025 feasibility study, CABL lawyers engaged with more than 650 members of BC’s Black communities, including legal professionals, frontline workers, students, families, youth, and LGBTQIA+ folks.
“The more we talked to the community, it became clear people are navigating situations that are dynamic and interconnected – from immigration to employment to crime to anti-Black racism to poverty,” Barnes said in CABL’s news release.
Following community consultations, CABL found a substantial gap in affordable, culturally relevant, and trustworthy legal support, with 93 percent of participants agreeing that the provincial legal system fails Black clients.
“The issues aren’t superficial,” Tachie said. “They require sustained, culturally sensitive help – the kind of legal help Black communities here have needed for a long time, but haven’t been able to access.”
Further data
CABL also cited the following data to support the need for a Black-focused and Black-led legal clinic:
- Data from the BC Office of the Human Rights Commissioner revealed an overrepresentation of Black individuals in arrests or chargeable incidents
- Despite being only one percent of the BC population, Black adults comprise three percent of provincial custody admissions
- After Indigenous peoples, Black people in Canada face disproportionately higher homelessness rates compared with the country’s other racialized communities
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