Access to Justice in French News Archive

March 25, 2022 — 
March 18 to 20 was the fourth annual version of the Michel Bastarache Moot Court Competition, named for the Honourable Michel Bastarache, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and leading jurist and champion of language rights. The Manitoba team was nominated by their fellow competitors – and won – the Michel-Bastarache Prize, which is awarded to the team that exemplifies the spirit of fair play and dedication to French.

March 18, 2022 — 
It takes a village to train a moot team, as Associate Professor Gerald Heckman pointed out after completing another year as Laskin Moot Faculty Advisor. “Acting as a faculty advisor for a competitive appellate moot is probably one of the most rewarding teaching opportunities at Robson Hall,” he said, after the national bilingual appellate moot in Constitutional and Administrative Law wrapped up February 25 – 26. This year’s Laskin took place by videoconference.

December 23, 2021 — 
Another year of virtual teaching and learning has passed, another Spring graduating class of law students endured final exams, convocation ceremonies, grad celebrations and commencement of articles in front of a screen at home. Another cohort of 1L students were introduced to law school virtually. Professors spent another year recording and uploading lectures, staring at boxes on screens hoping students were behind them, heeding the lessons. At some point, everyone wondered where the community was and what was happening at Robson Hall?

December 10, 2021 — 
Manitoba’s francophone jurists’ association and Francofonds (the community foundation of Manitoba’s francophone community) have just established an Access to Justice in French Endowment Fund that will assist law students.

September 3, 2021 — 
In June of 2019, the Department of Justice Canada provided the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law with $768,372 in funding over four years (2018/19 to 2021/22) through its Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Fund. The purpose was to develop a common law certificate in French, making a more formal program out of what has so far consisted of a collection of bilingual course offerings. So far, two years’ worth of law students have been able to take advantage of the funding, and have been working towards being able to represent French-speaking clients once they graduate as lawyers.

June 6, 2019 — 
Access to Justice program to train Manitoba law students in both official languages

March 29, 2018 — 
The Laskin Moot was held on March 16 and 17, 2018 in Toronto. Our ambassadors, consisting of bilingual students, Nicole Deniset, Zachary Rodgers, Natalie Copps and Amy Robertson, skillfully argued complex questions surrounding the constitutional rights of a federal inmate to be consulted on decisions relating to programing cuts or changes.

December 1, 2017 — 
La télé de Radio-Canada, CBC’s French language counterpart, was invited to Robson Hall last month to take part in the Français juridique class (legal French terminology) to gather students’ impressions on the importance of bilingualism in the context of the Law Society of Manitoba’s 140th anniversary.

March 9, 2015 — 
Free public panel discussion on the case of Caron-Boutet