In February, devastating news of a province-wide funding cut to all LSS funded organizations, including the closure of over 50 community law offices throughout BC, and the elimination of all LSS funding to CLAS. The impact to CLAS was an annual funding loss of $812,000 effective August 2002. We recovered by working with our funders to realign and sign new contracts.
In July, the BC Human Rights Commission was disbanded and the current direct access model for human rights complaints was established. The Ministry then began its funding to CLAS for the BC Human Rights Clinic, which we operated in partnership with the BC Human Rights Coalition. By the end of the 2002/2003 fiscal year, our staff of 23 had increased to 32.