Judge says Iqaluit lawyer was unfairly denied entry to legal aid panel
Justice Paul Rouleau sends Alison Crowe’s application back to Legal Services Board for reconsideration
Alison Crowe, seen here in a file photo, has won a partial victory in her attempt to be reinstated to the Legal Services Board of Nunavut’s list of defence lawyers who can take on legal aid criminal cases. Justice Paul Rouleau has ordered the board to reconsider Crowe’s application. (File photo)
A Toronto judge found that a Nunavut legal service “breached its duty of fairness” when it denied an Iqaluit lawyer re-admission to its panel of criminal lawyers.
In his Aug. 6 decision, Justice Paul Rouleau said the Legal Services Board of Nunavut should reconsider reinstating Alison Crowe to its legal aid panel, the board’s private practice lawyers who provide services to legal aid clients.
“The appropriate disposition is simply to remit the matter to the [board] for reconsideration,” he wrote.
In January, Crowe applied for a judge to order the board to add her to the panel, of which she was a member from around 2012 to October 2024, when she resigned and became a justice of the peace.
In June 2025 applied to rejoin the Legal Aid panel but was denied admittance. In court documents, Crowe said legal aid files had accounted for at least four-fifths of her annual income.
In his letter to inform Crowe of the board’s decision, co-chairperson Tim Zehr said that “a number of concerns were raised, including your interpersonal skills, your ability to work with Inuk staff and some questionable interactions with staff lawyers and judges.”
In January, she asked a judge to order the legal services board to reinstate her.
For that judicial review, the board had to file evidence for the basis of its decision.
For her part, Crowe had to “explain why [the board’s concerns] are either unfounded or do not provide a basis for rejecting her reinstatement application.”
Rouleau stopped short of reinstating her, partially because there was “no allegation of bad faith by the [legal services board].”
“I trust that, now informed of the applicant’s response to its concerns, the [board] will exercise its discretion fairly and appropriately,” he wrote.
Nunatsiaq News reached out to Stephen Bird, who represented the board in January, but he did not respond before press time.
Crowe, when asked for comment, said in an email that “as the matter is still pending, I am limited in what I can say. The decision and pleadings are all public documents and speak for themselves.”
Lawyers from the south really need to stop treating Nunavut’s Legal Aid as their own personal piggy bank. The entitlement stinks.
The board needs to clean up it’s act too, it’s filled with people putting unqualified people pleasers into well paid roles, so long as they support the board treating legal aid like their plaything.
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The board and administration of legal aid are a who’s who of some of the most unpleasant people in Nunavut.
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That’s why legal aid can’t keep any staff worth a damn and there’s such a delay in getting a lawyer up here.
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I hope nunatsiaq does more follow up reporting on legal aid, I’d love to know how many people they fired without cause and had to pay a big severance to…
Do you think there’s big money in it? my impression is that the one people who do this work do it to keep the lights on.
Nunavut has the highest paid legal aid lawyers in the country.
Nunavut is, or near, the highest paid in Canada for almost all occupations. Some of that has to do with the cost of living, and some is due to the premium required to attract and retain skilled staff who have options on work location (pretty much all positions requiring advanced diplomas, degrees, and professional designations).
Not at all true. NU legal aid rates for panel lawyers are pathetically low and haven’t increased since just after division. Doing legal aid panel lawyer work in NU is not going to make anyone rich.
Ms.Crowe has resided in Iqaluit for close to twenty years. She’s not a lawyer from the south…..
Good. Let’s start putting some of these gatekeepers and bullies in their places. Tired of “leaders” in Nunavut thinking they’re right because their cronies agree with them. Time to start doing what’s actually right by following policies, laws, and rules, not by just agreeing with your colleague because they’re your friend