Living to Fight Another Day: The Story of Dalhousie Legal Aid

On Friday, January 31, 1986 at 4:00 p.m., The Nova Scotia Legal Aid Commission and the Provincial Department of Social Services issued a Press Release announcing the withdrawal of funding for Dalhousie Legal Aid Service, a teaching Clinic associated with Dalhousie University\u27s Faculty of Law. The announcement was made without warning to the Executive Director of Dalhousie Legal Aid, the Chair of its Board of Trustees or the Dean of Dalhousie Law School. Although reasons for this unexpected move were advanced by the Government at the time, it is this author\u27s view that the funding cut was a patently political action designed to silence a very effective reformist voice which has frequently set its sights on Nova Scotia Government legislation and policy. This paper attempts to provide the background to the decision, to explore the stated and the real reasons for it and to discuss the very serious implications such actions have for the continuation of non-government legal clinics in the Province of Nova Scotia and elsewher