According to a Jan. 20 news release, the province has kicked off its Access to Justice Francophone Service Hub — bringing together “francophone legal professionals, community organizations and Manitoba Justice to provide bilingual legal and family justice services.”
The hub will be based at the St. Boniface Court Office in the capital of Winnipeg, states the release.
“The hub is designed to meet the needs of French-speaking families navigating separation, divorce and intimate partner violence with services including legal advice, resolution supports, child support calculation and recalculation, as well as francophone legal student development opportunities, French-family justice training and public education,” it adds.
Manitoba Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said, “Francophone families and French-speaking Manitobans have a right to access government services, including justice services, in both official languages.”
“Our government is deeply committed to improving French-language services and making Manitoba a truly bilingual province where French is supported in all areas of public life,” said Wiebe in a statement. “The Access to Justice Francophone Service Hub is a new service model designed to reduce barriers and ensure francophone families have access to justice services in their language of choice, in their community, close to home where they are already connected.”
The release notes that public consultations indicated a desire for community service hubs as a way of reducing barriers to family justice.
The province announced plans for its new francophone service hub in 2024.
Following the consultations, Manitoba Justice’s Family Resolution Service entered into a $60,000 funding agreement to co-design the hub project with the Association of French-Speaking Jurists of Manitoba (AJEFM).
AJEFM’s Tarik Daoudi called the hub a “milestone” for francophone families wanting access to justice in the French language.
“AJEFM will contribute its expertise in legal guidance within a welcoming space designed to help families feel more at ease as they navigate the justice system, working closely with the Family Resolution Service staff to provide comprehensive and coordinated support,” said Daoudi. “This … hub will enable francophone families to receive high-quality legal support in French while benefiting from an environment centred on their needs.”
Over the years, there have been a number of moves in Manitoba to reduce barriers to justice in French.
In September, Manitoba Justice announced it was increasing bilingual supports for victims of crime and domestic violence through a funding program for French services, which included hiring bilingual intake staff and social workers for victim compensation and protection programs.
The initiative involved Manitoba and the federal government investing $1 million per year, over three years, as part of the Canada-Manitoba Agreement on French-Language Services.
And in 2022, Ottawa announced it would give Manitoba $1.6 million to provide people with improved access to family court proceedings in French.
And in 2019, the University of Manitoba’s Robson Hall law school announced it was looking to produce more bilingual lawyers by offering a French common law certificate.
According to Statistics Canada, 2.7 per cent of Manitoba’s population had French as their first official language in 2021. However, it notes that from 1991 to 2021, the number of Manitobans who had French as their first language “fell steadily” — from 4.3 per cent to 2.7 per cent.
However, it also found bilingualism to be on the rise, with the number of residents having both English and French as their first official languages increasing somewhat during the 1991-2021 period.
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