Graduation of the First Official Cohort of the Access to Justice in French Concentration

On June 4, 2025, five students graduated with their JD degrees with a concentration in Access to Justice in French from the University of Manitoba, Faculty of Law. Congratulations to Maia Bacchus, Alexander Bastin, Cody Buhay, Samantha Pearce, and Brent Tichon on their accomplishment!

For the past decade, students at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law have had the opportunity to pursue part of their legal education in French. However, only since the Fall of 2022 have first-year law students been able to take French law courses that would apply toward obtaining the Access to Justice in French Concentration (A2JF Concentration) designation upon graduation. It is an important milestone to recognize our first official cohort of students who have graduated with this concentration. 

Students in the A2JF Concentration must complete at least 26 of the 92 credits required for the JD degree in bilingual courses – that is, approximately 1/3 of their law courses are completed in French. This innovative program addresses the access to justice need of increasing the number of lawyers in Manitoba and Canada who have the linguistic skills to provide legal services in French.

Left to right: Seth Lozinski [JD/24], Alexander Bastin [JD/25], Maia Bacchus [JD/25], Brent Tichon [JD/25], and Bradley Légaré [JD/24]

Dr. Lorna Turnbull, professor and director of the A2JF Concentration commented, “The graduation of this first cohort of students who have completed the Concentration represents the culmination of years of work by colleagues, members of the community and of course the students themselves, built upon the vision first shared by members of our community with our former colleague, now Justice Gerald Heckman, well over a decade ago.”

We had a celebratory lunch on June 5, 2025 at Promenade Brasserie in Saint-Boniface to recognize the new graduates of the A2JF Concentration and former students who will soon be called to the Manitoba Bar. The celebratory lunch also provided an opportunity to thank the members of the Franco-Manitoban legal community who have supported our students and the A2JF Concentration as instructors, guest lecturers, coaches and judges of the Laskin and Bastarache moots.

We wish to thank Justice Canada’s Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Fund for their generous support. We also wish to thank our students, the University of Manitoba, the Faculty of Law, the francophone legal community, l’Association des juristes d’expression française du Manitoba (AJEFM), Infojustice Manitoba, l’Université de Saint-Boniface, the Law Society of Manitoba, and the Manitoba Bar Association for their support of the A2JF Concentration. We wish to recognize Dr. Lorna Turnbull, director of the A2JF Concentration and Justice Gerald Heckman of the Federal Court of Appeal, former co-director of the A2JF Concentration, for their vision and instrumental work in creating this concentration at the Faculty of Law.

Dr. Turnbull noted, “With their vision, and support, as well as the funding provided by Justice Canada and Canadian Heritage, our community will have better access to justice. Our dedicated alumni who have taken courses in French over the years leading up to the formal approval of the Concentration demonstrate what a difference we can make. I look forward to following these students to see where they will make a difference.”

Félicitations et un grand merci à tous pour votre soutien continu! We look forward to the continued expansion of the A2JF Concentration and seeing the impact that our graduates will have in improving access to justice in French.

Story submitted by Andrea R. Doyle, Instructor and Coordinator of the Access to Justice in French Concentration, Faculty of Law.