About Aboriginal Legal Services

Aboriginal Legal Services gives low-income Indigenous people in Toronto free legal help through a community legal aid clinic funded by Legal Aid Ontario. It doesn't matter whether a client is Status or Non-Status, Inuit, Métis or self-identified Aboriginal. The clinic takes on housing, ODSP and Ontario Works, Indian Act matters and human rights problems, among others, and when ALS can't help with something itself, it can arrange a referral to another lawyer.

The organization dates to February 21, 1990, when it began as Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto to fill the need for a legal program serving Aboriginal people across the Greater Toronto Area. Its mission is to build the capacity of the Aboriginal community and its members to handle justice issues, and to offer justice alternatives that are culturally based and controlled by Aboriginal people.

Indigenous clients who qualify for legal aid can now get criminal and child protection help from the clinic as well. Around it sit a courtworker program in Toronto's criminal, family and youth courts, Gladue reports and letters for sentencing, the Community Council diversion program, and Giiwedin Anang, an Indigenous family dispute resolution program. Gladue writers and caseworkers also work out of satellite offices in places such as Barrie, Ottawa, Sudbury and Windsor.

The head office is Suite 500 at 211 Yonge Street, open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. New legal matters can be raised in person or by phone on Mondays and Wednesdays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and by phone on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

History

ALS started in 1990 as a spin off of the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, taking over some of the Centre's legal programs and working from an office inside it at first. Its founding board of directors was Mike Sherry, Murray Klippenstein, Grant Wedge, Wanda Whitebird and Carol Montgagnes. In 1991 elders, traditional teachers and faith keepers gathered to guide the Community Council, including a meeting on Birch Island from August 27 to 30, and after eleven months of development the Council heard its first cases in March 1992.

The Gladue program began in 2001 with funding for a single Gladue Worker, the same year Toronto's Gladue Court was set up at the Old City Hall courthouse. By 2017 every region with an ALS Gladue Writer also had a Gladue Caseworker.

The organization moved from the Native Canadian Centre to 197 Spadina Avenue and, in 2000, to 415 Yonge Street. In 2015 it dropped "of Toronto" from its name and moved down the street to 211 Yonge.

Practice areas

Indigenous Law Criminal Defence Administrative & Regulatory Law

Indian Act matters and test cases

ALS has made test case litigation a priority, and when it intervenes it brings the perspective of Aboriginal people, urban Aboriginal people especially, before the court; its Supreme Court of Canada interventions include R v Gladue, R v Ipeelee (2012 SCC 13) and R v Kokopenace (2015 SCC 28). Its 2017 win at the Court of Appeal in Gehl v. Canada led to changes in the Indian Act.

Criminal legal services and courtworkers

Legal-aid-eligible Indigenous clients can get criminal legal services from the clinic. Aboriginal criminal courtworkers cover every Toronto area criminal court, including Old City Hall and College Park, where they explain clients' rights and obligations and help with finding counsel and interpreters, bail hearings, pre-sentence reports and referrals.

Gladue reports and letters

ALS writes Gladue Reports and Gladue Letters in regions from Barrie, Ottawa and Sudbury to Toronto and Windsor. Both set out the Indigenous background of the person being sentenced and give the court detailed sentencing recommendations, and they're prepared only once there's been a guilty plea or a finding of guilt.

Community Council diversion

The Community Council diverts Aboriginal adults and youth living in Toronto out of the criminal courts and before members of Toronto's Aboriginal community. The Council decides by consensus and can choose any outcome except jail.

Benefits, human rights and inquests

The clinic's work before tribunals and agencies covers Canada Pension and disability matters, criminal injuries compensation, police complaints, human rights and inquests. In 2011 ALS represented Garry McKay at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario in a hearing on the racial profiling of an Aboriginal person.

Child protection and family dispute resolution

Child protection matters have their own intake day at the clinic. Giiwedin Anang offers another route: Elders, Knowledge Keepers, Aunties, Uncles and trained community volunteers sit with ALS circle facilitators to help families settle conflict in talking circles.

Victim rights advocacy

Ki-ne-go zon-gah-zay mani-do, the victim rights advocacy program, offers culturally grounded support to survivors of violence of any gender. It helps with Criminal Injuries Compensation Board and Human Rights Tribunal applications, and supports the families of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited people who are missing or were murdered.

Good to know

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Fees & payment

Scales of justice and a gavel above a Legal Aid bannerLegal aid

How Aboriginal Legal Services works

ALS works from the belief that justice alternatives do more good when the community controls them and when they rest on the Aboriginal community's own traditional norms and values. The Community Council was built on that footing, with kindness and respect for the offender and the victim alike at its centre, and Giiwedin Anang follows the same idea: its Council guides families but never decides for them or imposes a result.

Reported cases

  • Gehl v. Canada (Attorney General), 2017 ONCA 319

    Christa Big Canoe acted for the appellant, Dr. Lynn Gehl, together with Mary Eberts and Emilie Lahaie. The court granted Dr. Gehl a declaration that Dr. Gehl is entitled to be registered under s. 6(2) of the Indian Act.

Decisions where the firm's lawyers appeared as counsel, from public court records. Past cases don't predict future results.

Milestones & recognition

  • Christa Big Canoe, the Legal Advocacy Director, was lead commission counsel to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
  • Christa Big Canoe received the 2022 Scotiabank Ethical Leadership Award from Dalhousie University's Faculty of Management, and the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic's Spirit of Schlifer Award.
  • Emily Hill, a senior staff lawyer who joined ALS in 2011, has appeared at coroner's inquests, administrative hearings, the Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada, and in 2021 took leave to serve as Senior Commission Counsel with the Mass Casualty Commission.
  • In 2022 Jonathan Rudin, then the program director, was one of eight commissioners on the South Australia Advisory Commission into Aboriginal Incarceration Rates.
  • ALS called for the independent review by the Honourable Frank Iacobucci, released in 2013 as First Nations Representation on Ontario Juries, and made submissions to it.
  • The Senate amended the Youth Criminal Justice Act bill to add a 718.2(e) provision, thanks in part to submissions from ALS.
  • ALS signed a memorandum of understanding with Australia's Victorian Aboriginal Legal Services (VALS) in 2015.

In the community

  • Since 2009 ALS and Osgoode Professional Development have held an annual National Conference on Aboriginal Justice Post-Gladue to look at what's working, what isn't and where to go next.
  • The Road to Your Name podcast, hosted by Lisa VanEvery, explores Haudenosaunee culture and knowledge and has subscribers in more than 20 countries.
  • Emily Hill, Senior Staff Lawyer and Court Worker Manager, presented on the Toronto Gladue Court at a West Toronto Human Services and Justice Coordinating Committee webinar on January 15, 2026.

Affiliations & connections

Lawyers 2

Christa Big Canoe Legal Advocacy Director Emily Hill Senior Staff Lawyer

The neighbourhood

ALS works out of the Adams Building at 211 Yonge Street, a commercial block in the Downtown Yonge East area that was completed in 1920 to a design by William Steele and Sons. It's a listed heritage building and now houses offices. The criminal courts at Old City Hall and College Park are among the courts the organization's criminal courtworkers cover, and the family and youth courtworkers are based at the family court at 311 Jarvis.

Frequently asked questions

Can Aboriginal Legal Services do a shorter Gladue Letter instead of a full Gladue Report?
Aboriginal Legal Services prepares both. Writers produce a full Gladue Report when the Crown is asking for custody of more than 120 days, and caseworkers produce a Gladue Letter when the Crown's position is 120 days or less. Even when the Crown is seeking more than 120 days, a Gladue Letter can sometimes be prepared instead of a Report, if it's specifically requested or because of time considerations. A report usually takes about eight weeks and a letter roughly four to five, though a letter can be sped up for someone who's in custody.
If the Crown agrees to send my case to the ALS Community Council, what happens to the charge?
Aboriginal Legal Services' Community Council can't decide guilt or innocence, so the accused person has to accept some responsibility for the charge and first talk it through with defence or duty counsel. Once the person agrees to go before the Council, the Crown Attorney stays or withdraws the charge.
Can someone with a criminal record volunteer on the Aboriginal Legal Services Community Council?
Aboriginal Legal Services doesn't automatically rule out an applicant with a prior record. Volunteers need to be of Aboriginal descent and at least 18, applications are taken all year, and ALS pays applicants back for the cost of the required CPIC check.
Which days does Aboriginal Legal Services take intake for criminal and child protection matters?
Aboriginal Legal Services runs criminal intake on Tuesdays and child protection intake on Thursdays, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., in person or by phone.
Can my family refer itself to Giiwedin Anang to work out a parenting plan?
Aboriginal Legal Services' Giiwedin Anang program accepts self-referrals from families with Indigenous children who want to create a parenting plan, and from families dealing with a child welfare agency in Toronto or Peel. Most families take part in about four talking circles before they reach some resolution.
Why will the Aboriginal Legal Services clinic not take my intake by email?
Aboriginal Legal Services doesn't accept intake requests by email, and its Legal Clinic can't reply to inquiries sent that way. Instead, call 1-416-408-4041 during intake hours to reach an intake worker, or walk in to the office.
Did Aboriginal Legal Services represent families at the Thunder Bay inquest into seven First Nations youth?
Aboriginal Legal Services represented six of the families at the Inquest into the Deaths of Seven First Nations Youth in Thunder Bay. The inquest ended with the jury making 145 recommendations.

Where to find them

211 Yonge Street, Suite 500, Toronto ON M5B 1M4 · 416-408-3967

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