Access to Justice in French News Archive

June 21, 2024 — 
Joel Lebois is the first graduate of the Master of Laws (LLM) program from the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law to write his thesis entirely in French. Lebois is a proud Francophone and practicing lawyer in Manitoba. While working as in-house counsel at the University of Manitoba’s legal department, he realized that he wanted to deepen his knowledge of the law in the area of post-secondary institution complaints processes, and was drawn to the Robson Hall community, which would allow him to complete his degree in French.

April 1, 2024 — 
The Bastarache Moot was recently held at the University of Ottawa from March 22 to March 24, 2024. This French-language moot recognizing the Honourable Michel Bastarache, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, has been held annually since 2019. Brent Tichon (2L) was recognized as the 4th best mooter for his oral arguments during the competition (4e meilleur plaideur).

March 28, 2024 — 
Thirty-six teams participated in this year’s Laskin Moot which was held from February 29 to March 2, 2024 at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Law. The Laskin Moot is a highly regarded national bilingual moot in administrative and constitutional law. The Manitoba Team was honoured to be awarded the Spirit of the Laskin award, the recipients for which are selected by the other teams and given to the school that best showcases the spirit of the moot – fair competition, commitment to bilingualism, and professional camaraderie.

March 10, 2024 — 
Three University of Manitoba Faculty of Law teams from Robson Hall recently competed in the eighth annual Canadian National Negotiation Competition (CNNC). The competition was held at McGill University, Faculty of Law in Montreal on March 1st and 2nd, 2024, and for the second year in a row had both a French and an English stream. Against a talented field of the best law student negotiators from across Canada, the three U of M teams of Éric Gagnon and Seth Lozinski; Ryan Hall and Nicolas Nudler; and Rebecca Penner and Jamie Robertson put in extremely strong showings. The pair of Éric Gagnon & Seth Lozinski, who competed in the French stream, even received the “Spirit of Negotiation” award for that stream, which is peer-nominated and goes to the team that best illustrates the values of collaboration, humility, teamwork and respect.

November 10, 2023 — 
The fourth National Access to Justice week took place October 23 – 27, 2023. This year’s theme was centred around the 10th Anniversary of Canada’s Justice Development Goals. In Manitoba, the Faculty of Law, the Law Society of Manitoba and the Manitoba Bar Association joined forces to present a full week of events. For its part, the Faculty of Law hosted a hybrid panel discussion on Tuesday, October 24, titled Access to Justice in French: A World to Discover.

October 20, 2023 — 
On Friday morning, October 13, 2023, Justice Gerald Heckman was warmly welcomed back to Robson Hall. Prior to his appointment to the Federal Court of Appeal on June 1, 2023, Justice Heckman was well-known and respected at the Faculty of Law as Professor Heckman.

September 15, 2023 — 
Last week, on September 8, we welcomed our new Access to Justice in French Concentration (A2JF) students to their law studies with a tour of St. Boniface. After lunch at The Forks, we visited several of our program partners.

March 24, 2023 — 
The University of Manitoba Faculty of Law team competing at the Concours de Plaidoirie Michel-Bastarache at the University of Ottawa, March 17 – 19, 2023, earned much praise from judges and organizers when they took second-best pair overall and second and third-best oralists, especially since French is not the first language of any of the team members.

March 3, 2023 — 
The University of Manitoba’s 2023 Laskin Moot team proudly took home the Spirit of the Laskin Award, and finished in the Top 6 for their factum after competing in the annual bilingual competition held February 23, 24, and 25 at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

March 3, 2023 — 
Three University of Manitoba Faculty of Law teams from Robson Hall put in extremely strong performances at the seventh annual Canadian National Negotiation Competition (CNNC). The team of Chris Dick and Kennedy Pinette won second place in the inaugural French stream of the competition, an accomplishment that is all the more significant given the fact that four out of the six teams participating in French were from Québec. In the English stream, Ramsay Hall and Samantha Harvey placed third, and Benjamin Leahy and Jodi Plenert also performed at an extremely high level in a very talented field of 18 teams. This year, the CNNC was held at McGill University, Faculty of Law in Montreal on February 24 and 25, 2023.