OJEN History
At the “Opening of Courts” ceremony in January 2000, the Chief Justice of Ontario, the Hon. R. Roy McMurtry, commented on the desirability of increasing the public’s understanding of the role of judges, and the operation of our legal system. Chief Justice McMurtry, the then Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Justice, the Hon. Patrick LeSage, and the then Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Justice, the Hon. Brian W. Lennox, committed themselves to examine and explore ways to achieve this goal, and established the Public Legal Education Task Force.
The Task Force had broad participation from experienced and interested members of the judicial, legal, government, community-based public legal education, and education sectors. It included representatives of the Advocates’ Society, Community Legal Education Ontario, the County & District Law Presidents’ Association, the Law Foundation of Ontario, the Law Society of Upper Canada, Legal Aid Ontario, the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Ministry of Education, the Ontario Bar Association, the Ontario History and Social Science Teachers’ Association, and the Toronto District School Board.
From its inception, the Task Force was not “owned” by any of its participating groups; rather, it was the product of the collaborative support of those sharing a mutual interest in improving the reach of public understanding of the justice system.
Employing the expertise of its membership and with financial assistance from Legal Aid Ontario, the Task Force conducted research regarding the needs, resources, and issues related to public legal education. In addition to Task Force member organizations, the Task Force communicated with a range of organizations involved in public legal education, including meeting with representatives of law-related education programs for students, such as VIP (Values, Influence and Peers), DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education programs), and the Executive Director of the “British Columbia Law Courts Education Society”.
Through a variety of channels initiated by the Task Force, hundreds of volunteers with an interest in supporting collaborative local education activity came forward from the judiciary, courts administration, education communities, legal clinics, private bar, and offices of the Crown Attorney. An important program was created as a Task Force initiative. Courtrooms & Classrooms was designed to provide students with opportunities to engage in interactive sessions with justice system professionals in courthouses and classes throughout the province. With leadership from judges of the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice across Ontario, the program was established through a network of local committees.
In April 2001, a report was submitted to the Task Force by Elizabeth C. Goldberg, Trustee, Law Foundation of Ontario; Justice Fran Kiteley, Superior Court of Justice; John Kromkamp, Senior Legal Officer, Ontario Court of Appeal; Mark Leach, Director of Policy Branch, Ministry of the Attorney General; Julie Mathews, Executive Director, Community Legal Education Ontario; Justice Ted Ormston, Ontario Court of Justice; and Jeffrey Stutz, Project Director, Legal Aid Ontario. The report recommended that the Task Force continue to work towards its vision of “a commitment to an enriched understanding of the justice system in Canada.” It further recommended that the Courtrooms & Classrooms program and local education committees be supported, and that consideration be given to a long-term approach to information exchange and coordination regarding public legal education in Ontario.
Pursuant to these recommendations, funding for an implementation manager was sought from, and provided, by the Law Foundation of Ontario. In 2001, the Task Force evolved into the Ontario Justice Education Network (OJEN), a not-for-profit organization. OJEN was publicly launched with Law Day activities to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in April 2002.
