On Thursday, Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath said that Doug Ford\u2019s appointment of Charles Harnick to be the new Chair of Legal Aid Ontario is deeply troubling.<\/p>\n
Harnick served as Attorney General and Minister responsible for Native Affairs in Mike Harris\u2019 cabinet. During his tenure, he made devastating front-line staffing cuts, including consolidating regional Family Responsibility Offices (FRO) throughout Ontario, laying off approximately 85 per cent of staff.<\/p>\n
During the Ipperwash Crisis \u2014 during which Dudley George, an Indigenous man, was shot and killed by police \u2014 Harnick lied to the legislature in an attempt to cover up then-premier Mike Harris\u2019 involvement. Harnick later admitted in court that Harris had yelled \u201cI want the fucking Indians out of the park.”
\n\u201cThousands of families look to Legal Aid Ontario for help each year. Many of them are Indigenous. Almost all of them are in a desperate situation. And for most, Legal Aid Ontario is their only option to get equitable access to justice,\u201d said Horwath. \u201cFor many, Harnick\u2019s appointment will erode the well-deserved trust currently placed in the organization, and it signals that devastating Harris-style cuts could be on the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sol Mamakwa, NDP critic for Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and MPP for Kiiwetinoong, said that Harnick\u2019s appointment is a step backwards in building the province\u2019s relationship with First Nations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ipperwash Crisis remains a deeply sensitive issue for First Nations people throughout Ontario,\u201d said Mamakwa. \u201cIt highlighted the racist attitudes towards First Nations people, and papering over Harnick\u2019s role in the crisis by welcoming him to head Legal Aid Ontario opens wounds that, even now, haven\u2019t healed for many.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Thursday, Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath said that Doug Ford\u2019s appointment of Charles Harnick to be the new Chair of Legal Aid Ontario is deeply troubling. Harnick served as Attorney General and Minister responsible for Native Affairs in Mike Harris\u2019 cabinet. During his tenure, he made devastating front-line staffing cuts, including consolidating regional Family …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 12:10:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19997,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19996\/revisions\/19997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}