The grant makes up 99 percent of the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre’s 2026 funding
Less than a year after the Alberta legislature passed a law that requires the provincial government to sign off on funding for legal organizations, Alberta’s Minister of Justice has vetoed a grant that makes up nearly all of the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre’s funding, leaving the organization scrambling to secure alternative financial backing.
In an announcement this week about the development, the ACLRC said that the Alberta Law Foundation, which issues grants to legal organizations across the province, had agreed last fall to provide the ACLRC with $780,000 to fund its operations for 2026. The foundation has been the ACLRC’s primary source of funding for more than 40 years.
However, Justice Minister Mickey Amery’s office told the law foundation in December that it was vetoing the grant – a move that leaves the ACLRC with virtually no funding.
Justice minister spokesperson Heather Jenkins said the office’s decision was based on the ACLRC’s failure to demonstrate how it would deliver front-line legal services.
“Alberta’s government is working to ensure the Alberta Law Foundation’s long-term financial stability and that public interest grants deliver on ALF’s statutory mission, including front-line legal services,” Jenkins said in a statement on Wednesday.
Jenkins added, “Albertans expect, and Alberta’s government is committed to provide, robust oversight of public interest dollars.”
However, Michael Greene, chairman of the ACLRC's board of directors, told Canadian Lawyer that the government had never previously indicated that it was prioritizing funding for frontline legal services.
The ACLRC, which works on a variety of research projects related to civil liberties and human rights issues, prepared its annual grant application last year the same way it had for decades, Greene says: by referring to Alberta’s Legal Profession Act, which outlines the types of activities that the law foundation should financially support. These include research on law reforms and the administration of justice; the establishment and operation of law libraries; programs and facilities to enhance Albertans’ legal education; Indigenous peoples’ legal programs and student legal aid programs; and services administered by the Legal Aid Society of Alberta.
Greene says the ACLRC would have addressed the government’s new priorities had it been aware of them. While the law foundation had told the ACLRC to clearly articulate its measurable goals in its grant application last year, the organization received no other indication that the grant review process would differ from previous years.
The government is “trying to take the position now that we didn’t satisfy them that we’re providing frontline legal services, which is questionable because we provide legal advice on human rights and civil liberties issues directly to Albertans,” he says.
“It’s an odd situation where the minister’s priorities are not published anywhere, and nobody knows what they are,” Greene adds.
The development comes amid efforts by the Alberta government to assume greater control over the law foundation, which awarded 126 grants totalling $65.8 million in its 2024-2025 fiscal year. The grants are not public funds; they derive from interest on Alberta lawyers’ trust accounts. Grant recipients include the University of Calgary, the Canadian Bar Association’s Alberta branch, and a range of legal aid centres.
Last year, the Alberta legislature passed Bill 39, which amended the Legal Profession Act so that all Alberta Law Foundation grants, along with other “financial commitments” that total more than $250,000, must receive ministerial approval. According to the government, the changes are meant to “ensure Legal Aid Alberta funding is maintained at an adequate level, while finding efficiencies to ensure Albertans have access to an affordable justice system.”
In December, the government introduced Bill 14, which proposes giving the justice minister the power to dictate and write bylaws for the law foundation. The legislation prompted all 14 law foundation employees to resign in early January.
Jenkins did not respond on Wednesday to multiple inquiries about whether it vetoed law foundation funding for any organization other than the ACLRC. Greene says he isn’t aware of any other grantees that have been stripped of their core funding, though some organizations did not receive new or expanded funding they requested.
“We’re hearing from all kinds of organizations that are afraid that they could face the same kind of process, the same results,” Greene says. “It doesn't help that the law foundation – all of their staff quit… and nobody knows what’s going to happen going forward.”
Greene says the ACLRC is currently operating on reserve funds and is actively seeking alternative funding so it won’t have to let staff go.
The justice minister’s actions “should be a concern to lawyers across Canada,” he says. “Law foundations across Canada work independently and function independently, and they’re not politicized.
“In this case, the government of Alberta has done what appears to be a politicization of the whole process and basically hijacked the organization and the millions and millions of dollars that it administers, which it has administered for decades to fund various legal services in Alberta,” Greene adds.
