Legal clinic to give free advice to Korean residents
Founders of centre hope six-month pilot project will become a permanent service
A new downtown legal clinic is offering its services to Toronto’s Korean population.
The mandate of the Korean Legal Clinic, which launched in mid October, includes providing free legal advice in the Korean language to Koreans in the GTA who have a gross income of $60,000 or less, as well as improving the legal education of Korean-Canadians and establishing a legal resource centre for the community, according to a release from the clinic.
Clinic executive director Marie Park told the Star the point of the clinic is to be able to offer services to Koreans in their native language. “I think it’s important that that barrier is removed, so there’s an immediate level of comfort
and trust,” she said. “I think the people who have used the services so far have valued that a lot — not just the language, but seeing a familiar face, knowing that our shared culture means we have shared experiences and we kind of understand each other.”
The clinic, which is operating as a pilot project for six months, became a reality through donations from the Korean-Canadian community, as well as from three big firms: Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, Gowling WLG and McCarthy Tétrault.
“The goal of this clinic is to provide legal assistance to the community, but we’re also going to gather information on what kind of areas of law that community members need help with, in order to make a compelling funding application to organizations that fund these kinds of initiatives,” said Rosel Kim, a member of the clinic’s steering committee.
There are already several legal clinics serving specific communities in the GTA, though never one specific to the city’s Korean population. Trying to secure funding from the provincially funded legal aid plan would be an uphill battle, as the province slashed 30 per cent of Legal Aid Ontario’s budget this year.
The steering committee is hoping to raise more funds in the future, including with a fundraiser being held on Nov. 20, so that the clinic can become permanent and extend its office hours. For now, the clinic offers services at 31 Elm St. every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.