Ontario Law Foundation to Fund Rural Legal Information Fellowships

A year ago, we mentioned that the Law Foundation of Ontario had launched a project on access to legal information and legal services by linguistic minorities and persons living in rural or remote areas. It focussed on access to two components (legal information and legal services) by two groups who can face isolation in our communities (linguistic minorities and persons in rural or remote areas). We should have updated that report to note George Thomson’s report issued in January, and the creation of a website on the topic.

It discusses the digital divide in terms of rural access to legal information, offers suggestions on how technology might help, and assesses how rural Ontarians currently get information about the law. It suggests the creation of an Ontario Legal Interpretation Network.

On Sunday, the Foundation announced the creation of ten Linguistic and Rural Access to Justice Articling Fellowships. These Fellowships will fund ten articling positions for community legal clinics and Legal Aid Ontario to provide legal information and services to linguistic minorities and residents of rural and remote communities.

Successful organizations will be funded to hire students beginning in the 2010 articling period and may be eligible to receive the grant for three years. Once an organization has been selected, it will choose a student through the articling process governed by the Law Society of Upper Canada.