The Connecting Report/
Linguistic & Rural Access to Justice Project


In January, 2009, the Law Foundation of Ontario released the report “Connecting Across Language and Distance: Linguistic and Rural Access to Legal Information and Services” [ the Connecting Report ] which described significant barriers to access to legal information and services for people who do not speak English or French and people living in rural or remote areas and made recommendations for improving linguistic and rural access to justice. The LFO has actively implemented many of the Connecting Report's recommendations.

The LFO has implemented the Connecting Report’s recommendation that it fund Articling Fellowships to provide legal information and services to linguistic minorities and residents of rural and remote communities. It awarded eleven Connecting Articling Fellowships to community legal clinics and Legal Aid Ontario for the 2010 articling year, and extended the program to the 2011 and 2012 articling years. It has awarded four Connecting Articling Fellowships for the 2013 articling year.

In addition, the Connecting Report recommended the creation of a Connecting Communities Consortiumof legal and non-legal organizations that would improve the ability of non-legal organizations to provide basic legal information and referrals to their clients. The LFO funded the creation of the Connecting Communities Consortium and to date has funded three projects aimed at increasing information about housing rights, consumer rights and workers' rights respectively for the target groups.

The LFO also has confirmed a Connecting Region where a consortium of legal and non-legal organizations will work together to develop a coherent system for the delivery of legal information, referrals and services to linguistic minorities in the Ottawa area.

Finally, the Law Foundation has approved two projects aimed at improving access to sign language interpretation in community legal settings, as part of its Connecting Legal Interpretation Network. It has also issued a Connecting Legal Interpretation Invitation for applications with one or more of the following purposes:

  • To design and test policies, protocols, guides and tools to support legal service providers to work effectively with interpreters.
  • To design and test supports to increase the capacity of interpreters to serve vulnerable clients in community legal settings.

The Invitation includes an announcement, FAQs and an application form. The application deadline is March 30, 2012.

For further information on the Connecting Report, see Background and Summary of the Report.


Contact:
Tanya Lee
Director,
Access to Justice Fund
416-598-1550 ext. 318
tlee@lawfoundation.on.ca