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Santos out as head of Legal Aid Manitoba
Mario Santos (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store
Mario Santos, the embattled head of Legal Aid Manitoba, has been released from his job.
In a letter from director Bruce Gammon sent out to all LAM employees on October 12, the news was delivered with maximum efficiency:
"EMC (Executive Management Committee) is writing to advise Mr. Santos has been informed that his position has not been renewed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council, and his term as Chair ended today."
Sources indicate Santos had wanted a third term as LAM chair but Attorney General Andrew Swan decided to go in another direction.
In recent months, Santos and LAM had been embroiled in several controversies. Earlier this year, Santos was assailed for demanding that private lawyers meet youth suspects in custody in the middle of the night without compensation. Last June, a Queen's Bench Court judge took LAM to task in a written decision for failing to provide an accused person with a lawyer, thus forcing the court to issue an order to fund his defense. The judge called LAM's response "overly bureaucratic, overly self-centred and generally unresponsive."
LAM board member Wendy Whitecloud will serve as acting chairwoman. She is a professor at the University of Manitoba faculty of law, and director of the faculty's academic support program.
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