What We Do

KBCLS provides free services for people who qualify for the service. Our legal clinic work is carried out through:

Advice and Representation
Free summary advice is provided on request in our areas of legal practice. Where the clinic has a conflict of interest, or potential conflict of interest, we may be required to refer you to other services available to you.

Representation is free and available to clients who meet eligibility guidelines and whose legal problem falls within our areas of practice. If we are unable to provide representation, we will refer clients to the appropriate legal, community or government services.

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Public Legal Education
KBCLS staff organize, conduct and participate in legal education on topics of interest to people living in our community. Public Legal Education includes presentations at conferences, to groups, and individual organizations. We will consider all requests for presentations. Public Legal Education also includes the production of written materials, usually in the form of plain-language pamphlets.
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Our clinic, and all clinics in Ontario, are mandated to challenge the law where we have determined it does harm to our client community. Therefore, we take test cases to higher courts, make submissions to government bodies and lobby politicians at all levels of government on behalf of our client community.
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Community Development
Clinics are mandated to carry out community development work. This can take the form of organizing groups of tenants, low-wage workers, social assistance recipients or homeless people to assert their rights. It may also involve working in concert with other progressive community organizations in our community to improve the quality of the lives of our client community.
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Our areas of law include:

Housing
We provide a range of services in assisting tenants to defend against evictions, in getting repairs done and to stop illegal rent increases.

Employment Insurance
We help workers establish eligibility for benefits.

Employment Standards
We help workers who have been unfairly dismissed, or who have not been paid for their work.

General Administrative
We commission/notarize applications for birth certificates, name changes, rental subsidy agreements and provide statutory declarations for proof of income for OSAP, daycare subsidy and housing purposes.

Immigration and Refugee
We help with matters of sponsorship, citizenship and Humanitarian and Compassionate applications.

Income Security
We help people to obtain Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security benefits.

Social Assistance
We assist people in matters with Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program.

Human Rights
We assist complainants in negotiating the human rights complaints process.

Domestic Violence
We give initial advice and referral to other services. We can arrange for a free two hour consultation with a family law lawyer.

We do NOT deal with the following areas of law:
Aboriginal Rights
Child Welfare
Correctional Law
Criminal
Family Law
Public Services
Environmental
Healthcare
Wills and Estates

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