Gerald Heckman News Archive

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.

September 8, 2022 — 
This September, the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba will welcome the first cohort of its Access to Justice in French (A2JF) Concentration. One of few English Common Law institutions to develop and deliver a bilingual legal education, the A2JF program is unique in this regard.

June 10, 2022 — 
Associate Professor Gerald Heckman and Practicing Professional Instructor Elizabeth McCandless were recognized on Friday, June 3rd for excellence in teaching the next generation of lawyers at Robson Hall.

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.

March 1, 2022 — 
An Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba, Dr. Gerald Heckman's opinion piece on Charter rights in the context of the recent Ottawa protests was published in the Winnipeg Free Press on Tuesday, February 15, 2022.

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.

February 7, 2020 — 
On January 22, 2020, the Runnymede Society, a national student-led organization dedicated to exploring the ideas and ideals of constitutionalism, liberty, and the rule of law, hosted administrative law experts Dr. Gerald Heckman and Dr. Gerard Kennedy at Robson Hall for a discussion on recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions in the Vavilov Trilogy.