Protecting lands and waters: Advancing legal rights for the Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek (ANA) Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area
The Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) will develop a report and accompanying toolkit about establishing Indigenous-led and governed protected areas, known as Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) in Ontario. Partners include Asubpeeschoseewagnog Anishinabek (ANA or Grassy Narrows First Nation). CELA will work with the ANA land protection team and Elders to gather community insights to support the development of the report and toolkit. This initiative will support ANA’s ongoing efforts to establish an IPCA. CELA anticipates that the resources created will benefit other First Nations communities looking to do the same.
$ 87,519
June 24, 2021
The Adolescent Transformative Justice Project
Peacebuilders International (Canada) will research and share findings on how extending the age for diversion could improve access to justice for youth aged 18-25 involved in or at risk of becoming involved in the criminal justice system in Toronto.
$ 25,000
June 24, 2021
LAWS Summer Job Program 2022
Law in Action Within Schools (LAWS)’s Summer Job Program will place students in paid four-week jobs with legal aid clinics and public interest organizations. The initiative benefits high school students involved in the LAWS program and offers them a unique opportunity to learn about access to justice, observe the legal aid system in action, and interact directly with the legal community.
$ 25,000
June 24, 2021
Automated Ontario Case Law Classification
Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) will use artificial intelligence to develop a custom classification for Ontario case law to enhance the CanLII website’s search capacity. The initiative seeks to make Ontario case law more accessible for users by making navigation easier based on area of law.
$ 75,000
June 24, 2021
Access to Innovation
The Law Society of Ontario will launch a five-year pilot that allows providers of innovative technological legal services (ITLS) to serve consumers while complying with risk-based public protection requirements. Participants that meet expectations can receive permits from the Law Society to continue providing legal services in Ontario on an ongoing basis. The project responds to regulatory issues that innovators and consumers have faced in developing and using ITLS. It is designed to provide greater certainty about the rules and standards that will apply to ITLS providers and to provide consumers with increased choice and confidence that the assistance they receive is effective and safe.
$ 100,000
June 24, 2021
AFCC-O Parenting Plan Guide and Template (Preparation of Version 2.0, Translation into French and Evaluation)
The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, Ontario Chapter will update its Parenting Plan Guide and Parenting Plan Template. The guide was created to assist parents, lawyers, judges, and other professionals in making developmentally-appropriate parenting plans after separation. The update will incorporate recent legislative changes, will be translated into French in collaboration with Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario, and evaluated with a view to increasing the usability of the materials.
$ 24,100
June 24, 2021
Helping Hands: enhancing SCS providers’ knowledge of laws and policies related to assisted injection
The HIV Legal Network will research and develop public legal education resources for nurses and other supervised consumption services (SCS) providers on the legal and policy framework governing nurse and SCS service provider assisted injection of controlled substances in Ontario.
$ 38,159
June 24, 2021
Fostering National A2J Coordination
The Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters is focused on fostering engagement, pursuing a strategic approach to reforms, and coordinating the efforts of participants across the country concerned with civil and family justice. It will undertake various activities including: ongoing national coordination; holding its annual summit, regional colloquia, and communities of practice events; and continuing to work on its justice development goals and justice metrics.
$ 50,000
June 24, 2021
Connecting Region - Connecting Ottawa
Connecting Ottawa will continue to coordinate a consortium of over 50 legal and non-legal organizations to implement a regional plan to provide legal information and referrals to people who are not proficient in English or French or who face communication challenges as the result of a disability or sensory impairment. Established to fulfil a recommendation in the "Connecting Across Language and Distance: Linguistic and Rural Access to Legal Information and Services" report commissioned by the Foundation, the initiative also strengthens linkages between legal and community workers in Ontario.
$ 279,750
April 27, 2021
Public Interest Articling Fellowship 2022/2023
Amnesty International Canada will host an articling student to support its research and action with respect to a variety of pressing international and national human rights concerns. Its work is both focused on individual situations such as taking up the case of an individual who is detained as a prisoner of conscience as well as on reform initiatives, seeking to create the legal, political, and social conditions that prevent human rights violations from occurring in the first place.
$ 69,500
March 30, 2021