QUEBEC - Justice Minister Rob Nicholson appeared to be on a collision course with members of the legal establishment Monday as he tried to promote the Conservative government's aggressive law-and-order agenda.

Attending a meeting of the Canadian Bar Association, Nicholson was challenged for failing to focus on dwindling legal aid, refusing to protest death sentences imposed on Canadians abroad and axing legal programs - including one that helped fund groups fighting for equality rights.

"We do not need more minimum mandatory sentences. We need more resources for the programs we have," said Victoria lawyer Susan Wishart, referring to a contentious federal bill to impose automatic prison terms for drug-related crimes.

Montreal lawyer Simon Potter, former president of the 37,000-member association, chastised Nicholson for the Conservative government's policy of not pleading for clemency for Canadians who face the death penalty when they have been tried in countries deemed to be democratic.

Albertan Ronald Smith, for instance, is on death row in the United States, and the government says it will not intervene.

"How do we expect Beijing to listen to our requests that Canadians not be put to death in China when we will not even ask that Canadians not be put to death in the United States?" asked Potter.

"When will we have a logically consistent policy on the death penalty abroad?"

Nicholson calmly fielded questions for about 45 minutes. He faced the strongest attacks from lawyers who appealed for federal intervention to help Canadians who cannot afford legal fees.

While the provinces and Ottawa pay for legal aid in criminal cases, civil legal aid is a rarity in Canada, and the bar association has pushed Ottawa for years for national standards and increased funding.

Nicholson asserted that civil legal aid is a provincial responsibility, with money provided by the federal Canadian Health and Social Transfer.

"The federal government says 'Talk to the provinces,' and the provinces say 'Talk to the feds,' " said lawyer Susan McGrath, from Iroquois Falls, Ont.

"In the meantime, every day that passes, people are losing their children, people are being evicted, people are being put out on the street because they are wrongly cut off disability benefits," she said.

"As the minister responsible nationally for justice issues, including civil justice issues, what are you going to do to ensure civil legal aid is separately carved out of the social transfer and is separately funded?"

Other lawyers took Nicholson to task for the Conservative government's 2006 cancelling of the Law Commission of Canada, a legal research body, and the Court Challenges Program, a Trudeau-era program that helped fund individuals and groups fighting government laws on Charter of Rights grounds.

It was Nicholson's first appearance at the annual gathering of the bar association and praise for his government's justice policies was virtually non-existent.

Nicholson also announced Monday that the federal government will renew and increase money for the aboriginal justice strategy, a cost-share initiative with provincial governments to fund community-based programs, mainly one dealing with intervention for young people who run afoul of the law.

The government will increase funding by $40 million, bringing the total to $85 million annually by 2012.