Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic (CSALC)

About Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic (CSALC)

The Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic (CSALC) is a community legal clinic in Toronto funded by Legal Aid Ontario. It has provided free legal services since 1987 to low income clients from the city's Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian communities who can't communicate fluently in English. Staff, including lawyers, community legal workers, a paralegal and a law student, advise and represent eligible clients on immigration, tenant's rights and human rights matters, and give advice on Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, and Ontario Works and ODSP claims.

CSALC also runs public legal education and a long running law reform practice, and it holds ECOSOC Consultative Status with the United Nations. Gary Yee was the clinic's first Clinic Director when it opened in 1987. Avvy Yao-Yao Go became the second Clinic Director in 1992 and spent 29 years in the role, including as co-counsel in the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act Redress Class Action, before a 2021 appointment to the Federal Court of Canada. A volunteer board of directors drawn from the communities CSALC serves oversees the clinic, which remains independent of government.