Request Legal Support - Movement Defence Committee (MDC)

The Movement Defence Committee (MDC) is an independent working group of the Law Union of Ontario comprised of volunteer legal workers, law students, activists, and lawyers. We facilitate legal support to progressive organizations and activists in Toronto. The MDC will consider a request for support from any political organization, group or individual that is working to create progressive social change and which operates under basic anti-racist and anti-oppression principles.

Please fill out this form to request MDC volunteer legal support. We try to respond to every request - but we are volunteers! We cannot assure legal support until we confirm it with you.

Please note that if you have security concerns with sharing any of this information over google forms, please fill out what you can and leave contact information, and we can have a follow up conversation through more secure technology like Signal! We welcome feedback on our process, if you have any comments, please email lawunionmdc@gmail.com 
Sign in to Google to save your progress. Learn more
Name of action *

Please only provide information that will be available to the public.

Names of groups organizing the action
General demands / goals of action

Keep it general if there is a higher risk of legal consequences. We don't need details about a direct action. 

Link to action - for more background
Date *
While we try our best to respond to every request we receive, we cannot always guarantee we will have the capacity to facilitate support, particularly for short-notice requests. Whenever possible, please send us your request at least 2 weeks in advance of the date for which you are requesting support.
MM
/
DD
/
YYYY
Start Time *
Time
:
End Time *
Time
:
General location (incl meeting place and ending location) *

If this action has a higher risk of legal consequences, only provide the general area. We'll follow up to get information on the meet-up location. 

MDC provides a range of legal support - see details:
MDC will try to connect with you before the action - to talk about what legal support would be helpful and answer know you right
questions. Please let us know what type of support you are requesting from MDC and we will try to provide what we can.

LEGAL OBSERVERS - trained volunteers who's role it will be to observe & document police abuse and support if arrests occur.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS TRAINING - MDC can provide information so organizers have more info on peoples' rights with the police and if arrests occur, as well as potential risks of different actions.

LEGAL SUPPORT/JAIL PHONE - If you think your action is higher risk and arrests might occur, please request the MDC jail phone to be on so that people can call if arrests occur (to inform MDC of arrests and for people to have a call with a political lawyer if they are arrested). The lawyer on the jail phone will also support to try to get people released from the police station. The MDC phone number is 416-833-6137.

BAIL SUPPORT - If people are arrested, MDC will try to support with bail hearings. If MDC members cannot, MDC will reach out to trusted lawyers to support.
Do you request legal observers on the ground at your action?
Clear selection
Would you like know your rights info before or at your event?
Clear selection
Would you like the MDC phone to be on during the event?
Please only select this if it is important for a lawyer to be on call for the action (e.g. higher risk action etc)
Clear selection
Point of contact from the organizing committee (Name, email and phone number) *

If your action has a higher risk of legal consequences, share a secure way for MDC to follow up with you (for example, a Protonmail or Signal number). Please don't share your full legal name and contact information; we just need to know how to follow up. An email is helpful!

Any special legal needs/information we should be aware of? (i.e. is your demonstration involving people who are particularly targeted by police, are there accessibility concerns? Will there be youth, indigenous people, migrants without full status, BIPOC people involved etc.)
Any questions for MDC?
Submit
Clear form
Never submit passwords through Google Forms.
This content is neither created nor endorsed by Google. Report Abuse - Terms of Service - Privacy Policy
Google Forms