The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) and other Victoria lawyers are trying to challenge Victoria's bylaws which prevent homeless people from sleeping outside in tents and other shelters. BCLAA argues that the bylaws violate Charter rights of the homeless and Canada's international obligations. Read a CBC story about the court challenge,"Homeless have right to tent in parks, Victoria lawyer argues" and a press release from BCLAA, Civil Liberties Association granted leave to intervene in important homeless rights case (in PDF).

The Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, an international program hosted by UN, has released two reports, Making the Law Work for Everyone Volume I and Making the Law Work for Everyone Volume II that call on governments to make legal empowerment a key pillar of the anti-poverty agenda. The reports found that the majority of the world's people are excluded from the rule of law because the majority of poor people live and work in the "informal sector" and are therefore locked out of recognized legal protections and economic benefits of the formal sector.

Pro Bono Law of BC has launched the Civil Chambers Pro Bono Duty Counsel Project as a pilot project operating at 800 Smithe Street in Vancouver. Each Wednesday in 2008, volunteer lawyers from several large Vancouver law firms will provide pro bono legal assistance and representation to unrepresented low- and modest-income people who need to appear in civil chambers (BC Supreme Court and BC Court of Appeal, contested and uncontested). They cannot assist on family chambers matters, see other eligibility criteria and other information on their website.

Legal Services Society has just approved the following report: Building Bridges: Improving Legal Services for Aboriginal Peoples (PDF) prepared by Ardith Walkem (First Nations lawyer). The report documents the unmet needs of Aboriginal people and recommends how LSS could improve services for Aboriginal people by finding solutions within Aboriginal cultures and delivered in partnership with Aboriginal communities.

Over seven years ago, two Sudbury men, were denied disability benefits under the Ontario Disability Support Program Act (ODSPA). Each man filed an appeal to determine whether in fact he met the definition of a “person with a disability” under the law. It has taken more than seven years, but with the help of the Sudbury Community Legal Clinic, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the Social Benefits Tribunal (SBT) has to deal with any human rights arguments in their decisions. Read the Supreme Court disability decision and information on the case on CLEONet.

Pivot's report, Beyond Decriminalization: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform presents the results of two years of research and in depth discussions with eighty-four sex workers from various aspects of the sex industry in Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton. The report moves beyond the question of criminal law reform by looking at what kind of reforms would be required in a number of different areas of law including labour, municipal, immigration, and family law, in order to protect sex workers in the event that the adult sex industry is decriminalized. Katrina Pacey, Pivot lawyer and author of the report says, "The bottom line is that sex workers want access to the same legal and human rights protections that are afforded to other Canadians. Decriminalization is only the first step to making this possible." Pivot's Sex Work page has more information on their work to empower sex workers to determine the laws they would like to see governing sex work.