Collège La Cité receives funding for language services to boost access to justice

Collège La Cité has received funding for language services to boost access to justice for French-speaking Ontarians.

The announcement was made by Member of Parliament for Ottawa—Vanier Mona Fortier on behalf of Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani. The funds earmarked for the 2024-2025 period amount to $68,589 and will be funnelled into the Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Fund.

According to the Department of Justice Canada, the funds were provided in support of a feasibility study conducted to examine the shortage of law clerks from francophone minority communities. The funds will support Collège La Cité in evaluating how its French Law Clerk program can address labour shortages in Ontario and other provinces with such communities.

“Funding to Collège La Cité will go toward a one-year project to study the shortage of law clerks in francophone minority communities. Advancing knowledge in this area will help to ensure that the needs of Canada’s official language minority communities are met,” Fortier said.

Collège La Cité will also apply the funds towards determining how training can be customized and expanded for provincial legal systems. The college’s President and CEO, Lynn Casimiro, explained that the support would “enable the Collège to conduct a study aimed at better identifying the various needs and at developing a broader picture of the Francophone resources that are essential to our justice system, particularly law clerks.”

“We believe that expanding the delivery of this program could help increase the availability of French-language services in French-language minority regions and provinces. If the results of this study prove conclusive, the Collège looks forward to working with its college partners in other provinces and territories to provide Francophones, wherever they may be, with quality legal services in their own language,” Casimiro said.

Collège La Cité’s two-year French Law Clerk program was established in 1990 and is the only program of its kind in Ontario. The training offered in the program includes preparing legal documents, conducting legal research, providing accounting support to law firms, and drafting family law documents and pleadings. Collège La Cité also offers the Paralegals program, which offers an affordable alternative for people seeking legal services or representation.

“The funding we announced today will advance efforts to offer affordable legal services to official language minority communities across Ontario and Canada,” Virani said. “Our government is working to improve access to justice in both official languages across the country, so that Canadians can access the justice system in either language. Thanks to partners like Collège La Cité and their innovative ideas, we are making important progress.”

The Department of Justice Canada’s Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Fund assists not-for-profit organisations, educational institutions, and provincial and territorial partners in addressing the needs of English- and French-speaking minority communities. The fund is part of the Action Plan for Official Languages of Canada.