ACCESS TO JUSTICE

PRESENTED AND SPONSORED BY:

Access to Justice

How does the law impact current global events?

Access to Justice is a contest open to all ateendees that is held annually alongside the YLL national conference. Each year, a prompt related to a current, prominent sociopolitical event is released. Participants have the opportunity to submit an interpretive entry of the prompt in any form of expression that they wish, whether it be an art piece, a research article, etc. We encourage entries to be investigative and to consider the impact of the law in relation to the prompt. Entries will then be judged by a panel of lawyers from Calgary Family Law Associates for a chance to win cash prizes. 

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This year, ATJ will be held synchronously across all branches of YLL. Details for the 2022 prompt and contest guidelines have been released below! 

Contest Details

ATJ 2022 prompt, guidelines, and how to submit entries

2022 Topic: How can restorative justice improve the criminal justice system and access to justice and/or benefit Canadian society as a whole?

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Additional details can be found in the contest guidelines, which are available as a PDF or Word document:

The submission form for entries can be found here. This should be sent alongside your actual submission when emailed.

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To participate in the contest:

1. Please familiarize yourself with contest guidelines before completing your submission.

2. Once you are ready, please submit your entry to Calgary Family Law Associates, c/o Rani Wong, at #450, 340 12 Avenue SW., Calgary, AB T2R 1L5 or to rani.assistant@cfla.law (submission details available in contest guideline document).

3. The Entry Submission Form must accompany all entries and students’ names should not appear on the work itself, only on the Entry Submission Form.

4. All submissions must be received on or before 4:00 PM MDT on Thursday, February 24, 2022.

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For any questions or concerns, please contact us through email: admin@youthleadersinlaw.com

Access to Justice

2022

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How can restorative justice improve the criminal justice system and access to justice and/or benefit Canadian society as a whole?

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Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who participated!

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1ST PLACE ($300)

Never Your Fault

- Written entry by J G Makade (Calgary) 

2nd Place ($150)

How can restorative justice improve the criminal justice system and access to justice and/or benefit Canadian society as a whole?

- Essay entry by M. Maramat (Calgary)

2nd Place ($150)

Regret and Retribution: Why Canada Must Reimplement Restorative Justice as Its Response to Crime 

- Essay entry by S. Sivasathiyanathan (Ottawa)

ATJ 2021: Systemic Racism and Access to Justice

Canada’s access to civil justice has been ranked ninth out of 12 European and North American countries. We still have a long way to go in many aspects. Canada’s Department of Justice released a report in 2019 that shares the four biggest problems regarding access to justice: underreporting due to scared victims, trial delays, bad treatment within the system, and the lack of affordable and timely support/resources. 

According to a 2019 study done by the Canada Race Relations Foundation, Indigenous Peoples and Black people are the most common targets of discrimination and unfair treatment in Canada, followed by Muslims and people from the Middle East. 

This discrimination may mean that people have less access to some services, such as healthcare, jobs, and justice. 

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This year, Youth Leaders In Law wants your submissions for the following prompt: How does systemic racism impact an individual’s ability to access justice?

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