Department of Family and Community Medicine and St. Michael’s Academic Family Health Team
Health Justice Program
The Health Justice Program is a partnership between St. Michael's Hospital Academic Family Health Team, St. Michael's Hospital and legal clinics ARCH Disability Law Centre, Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto, HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic of Ontario and Neighbourhood Legal Services. The partnership is funded through Legal Aid Ontario with in-kind contributions from all partners.
What services do you provide?
- Legal information, referrals and brief services
- Legal education with the health team and patients
- Resources and recorded sessions from the 2019 Health Justice Tuesdays series
- Systemic advocacy project work grounded in community engagement
Who do you provide service to?
We aim to support patients who are low-income and have legal issues affecting their well-being, such as experiences of discrimination, personal safety, and problems with employment, family, and housing. We encourage patients who are in unstable housing, identify as aboriginal, as having a disability or have HIV/AIDS to access our services.
What are the Health Justice Program’s goals?
Our mission statement helps guide us in our goals:
1. Improve access to justice
2. Address the social determinants of health and health equity in our community
How do I make contact with the Health Justice Program?
1. Contact us directly
2. Ask to be referred to us through your doctor, nurse practitioner, social worker or other health care provider
What should I expect when speaking with the legal assistant, law students, or lawyer?
- Please ask for translation services and/or disability related accommodations
- Phone or in person appointments are around 30 minutes long
- At a minimum, we will give you legal information and a referral to legal services in the community
- Bring or have relevant documents ready for review
- To assess our program, we will ask you confidential questions that will remain anonymous. Answering these questions is voluntary
Phone: 416-864-3005
Legal administrative assistant, Marcello Ferrara
Email: ferrarm@lao.on.ca
Phone: 1-647-239-8283
Hours
Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where else can I go for information about my rights?
Community Legal Education Ontario has a wealth of print and online resources available on a wide variety legal issues. See the Your Legal Rights website for easy navigation of legal topics.
The Legal Aid Ontario Client Services Centre may be able to give you direction on legal service available to you: 1-800-668-8258.
The Human Rights Legal Support Centre can give you guidance on a potential human rights application to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario:
Tel: (416) 597-4900
Toll free: 1-866-625-5179
TTY: (416) 597-4903
TTY toll free: 1-866 612-8627
Telephone lines are open:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Thursday: 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The Law Society Referral Service is another option for finding a lawyer for a free consult on your legal problem. It is now an online system. You can ask to speak to a specific type of lawyer for a free consult. You will have a free 30 minute initial meeting with a lawyer, either by telephone or in person. In order to access this service, you will need to submit a request online, which you can access at https://lsrs.lsuc.on.ca/lsrs.
You may also contact our partner clinics directly:
ARCH Disability Law Centre
55 University Avenue
15th Floor
Toronto, ON
M5J 2H7
Telephone: 416-482-8255
Tel. Toll-free: 1-866-482-2724
TTY: 416-482-1254
TTY Toll-free: 1-866-482-2728
Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto
211 Yonge Street, Suite 500
416-408-3967
HALCO - HIV & Aids Legal Clinic of Ontario
Phone: 416-340-7790 or
toll-free in Ontario 1-888-705-8889
55 University Avenue, Suite 1400
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5J 2H7
FAX: 416-340-7248
email: talklaw@halco.org-633-2886
Neighbourhood Legal Services
101 - 163 Queen Street East, Toronto, ON M5A 1S1
Tel: 416-861-0677 | Fax: 416-861-1777
