( Alex Tavshunksy sketch )A Toronto judge has criticized the income cutoff for legal aid funding in Ontario as “not realistic” given the face of poverty in Canada. Nordheimer put a halt to the charges against Moodie until the government picks up the tab for his lawyer, which court heard could cost a minimum of $11,000. “Everyone is presumed innocent, and should be able to pay for a lawyer,” he told the Star. “It should be obvious to any outside observer that the income thresholds being used by Legal Aid Ontario do not bear any reasonable relationship to what constitutes poverty in this country,” Justice Ian Nordheimer wrote in a ruling last week. “It should be obvious to any outside observer that the income thresholds being used by Legal Aid Ontario do not bear any reasonable relationship to what constitutes poverty in this country,” Nordheimer wrote in a ruling last week.

Source: thestar June 03, 2016 09:56 UTC