PCLS Resigns from Transformation Project Working Group

We have learned that earlier this month, the Executive Directors of Parkdale Community Legal Services (Nancy Henderson) and South Etobicoke Community Legal Services (Julius Mlynarski) resigned from the Transformation Project Working Group.

According to the Project’s Vision Report, the Working Group comprises a handful of clinic EDs, whose role is to “manage the project as directed by the Transformation Project’s Steering Committee” (page 85). The Report states that the Working Group “meets regularly to discuss details and options at each step of the process, including approaches to transformation and consequences of possible recommendations” (page 33).

With PCLS’s and SECLS’s departures, only 5 clinics remain in the Working Group (page 86 of Report):

1. Christie McQuarrie, Executive Director, West Scarborough Community Legal Services, mcquarrc@lao.on.ca
2. Jack De Klerk, Executive Director, Neighbourhood Legal Services, deklerkj@lao.on.ca
3. Jack Fleming, Executive Director, North Peel and Dufferin Community Legal Services, flemingj@lao.on.ca
4. Marjorie Hiley, Executive Director, Flemingdon Community Legal Services, hileym@lao.on.ca
5. Stewart Cruikshank, Executive Director, East Toronto Community Legal Services, cruikshs@lao.on.ca

No reasons have been provided for Ms. Henderson’s and Mr. Mlynarski’s resignations, nor have their resignations been formally announced by the Transformation Project. PCLS also has not yet informed PCLS members about Ms. Henderson’s resignation. Given the lack of information, it is difficult to determine what this change means.

However, it certainly suggests that Ms. Henderson and Mr. Mlynarski, under direction from their respective Boards, determined that active participation in the Transformation Project did not represent the interests of their clinics. We welcome this as an important step forward and a reflection of the mounting opposition to clinic closures within the clinic system and within the Transformation Project itself.

Yet we note that PCLS has still not openly rejected the Vision Report’s proposal to close PCLS and/or other clinics. We continue to call on Transformation Project members to heed the growing public pressure to re-think the Transformation’s “vision” and to find ways to improve access to justice in Toronto. In particular, we look forward to PCLS rejecting the Vision Report, following the lead of clinics like West Toronto Community Legal Services and Kensington-Bellwoods Community Legal Services.