I understand the sentiment that Canadians should be first in terms of receiving legal aid funding. But these cuts don't put us first. They ensure less of us will have representation and all of us will wait longer for our day in court

Yip. As someone with a criminal record from over a decade ago from a drunken mistake as a dumb 19 year old, which I completely acknowledge as being my own fault and nobody else's, this cut bothers me. I applied for legal aid and was working at a shit part time call center job at the time that paid only slightly above minimum wage, and even with a pay at only barely above minimum wage and definitely not earning enough to survive on, I was still over the amount that would qualify me. This move doesn't piss me off because I didn't get legal aid though, I accept that the $800 in legal fees I pay was probably a good deal given it got a reduced charge and went from likely jail time to a fine + probation, and also was frankly entirely justified given it was me who fucked up for no good reason but not understanding the effects of alcohol and my own chaotic emotional nature. It pisses me off because on average, crime is a function of poverty so this represents a clear poverty tax meant to throw red meat to the self-righteous voters.

People tend to take a self-righteous view on crime almost by default. We internalize success, and externalize failure. Which is why its so easy for many people to read a headline like this and think "good, those criminals shouldn't get my hard earned tax money". But what people don't see is that statistically crime rates spike as people's earnings relative the poverty line shrink. The closer you get to poverty, the more common crime becomes. And if you're in a region that exists sub poverty line, crime doesn't just exist, but it likely provides the most secure means of survival to a lot of people. And even if it doesn't they still tend to exist within a social circle where the bad behaviours that can lead to crime, or stem from it, are so commonplace that they don't seem so out of the norm compared to people in a better financial position who tend to play by the rules more strictly.

Someone once said that a people should be judged by how they treat our least. I think it was Jesus, I dunno. But in our society, its hard to get more least than a prisoner. Our prison system is leaps and bounds better than the US where prisoners are effectively legalized slaves, but IMO how we treat our law breakers is still an apt metric for the health of our society given we're so often willing to see them as non-citizens.