The Law Union provides for an alternative bar in Ontario which seeks to counter the traditional protections afforded by the legal system to social, political and economic privilege.
By demystifying legal procedures, attacking discriminatory and oppressive legislation, arguing progressive new applications of the law, and democratizing legal practice, the Law Union strives to develop collective approaches to bring about social justice.
[1] The genesis of the original Law Union was in the "Village Bar" formed in 1967 at the University of Toronto by activists including social activist and journalist June Callwood and law students Clayton Ruby and Paul Copeland[2] to provide legal assistance to young people attracted to Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood and soon also to the nearby Rochdale College which, at the time, were bohemian cultural centres and a focal point of the 1960s youth counterculture in Toronto, particularly hippie and radical students.
[3] In 1968 and 1969, the Village Bar, staffed by law students and several lawyers, set up a table set up outside a convenience store on Yorkville Avenue and dispensed legal advice to young people in the area and particularly the growing colony of American draft dodgers and military deserters seeking refuge in Canada.
[3] In 1974, the idea of a law union was revived after a number of progressive lawyers, many of whom had previously been involved with the Village Bar or the original Law Union, worked together in the defence of workers and activists who had been arrested during a long and contentious strike at Toronto's Artistic Woodworking Plant the previous year.