Advancing People-Centred Justice in Canada: Data Sharing and Knowledge Building
May 26–28, 2026
Library and Archives Canada
395 Wellington St, Ottawa, ON K1A 0N4
CONFERENCE AGENDA
DAY 1 - May 26, 2026
TIME
5:00-7:00PM
Opening reception at the Supreme Court
Pre-recorded remarks from the Honourary Chair – The Right Honourable Chief Justice Richard Wagner (in the courtroom).
Welcome remarks from the Honourable Andromache Karakatsanis, Chair of the Action Committee on Access to Justice (in the courtroom).
PROGRAM
SUPREME COURT OF CANADA
ROOM
DAY 2 - May 27, 2026
PROGRAM
TIME
8:30-9:00
ROOM
Breakfast
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
9:00-9:15
Plenary Session 1 – Welcome and housekeeping
The Conference Chair, Doug Ferguson, and the Executive Director of the Action Committee on Access to Justice, Véronique Morissette, welcome attendees and go over housekeeping items.
JOHN MCRAE AUDITORIUM
Recorded session
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9:15-9:30
Plenary Session 2 – Remarks by the Honourable Doug Downey KC MPP, Attorney General, Province of Ontario
JOHN MCRAE AUDITORIUM
Pre-Recorded session
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9:30-10:30
Plenary Session 3 - “What Would It Take? Towards a National Strategy for Access to Justice Data”
What would it take for Canada to develop a coherent national justice data strategy?
Across jurisdictions and institutions, justice data are collected, analyzed, and interpreted in different ways — often in isolation from one another. Could shared standards, coordinated governance, and meaningful inclusion of diverse legal traditions and lived experience strengthen Canada’s capacity for collective learning and system-wide improvement?
This opening plenary brings together leaders from the Department of Justice, StatsCan, academia and administrative tribunals to examine the foundational questions: Who should be at the table in shaping a national justice data strategy? Who stands to benefit? Where do we begin?
Moderator: Trevor Farrow, Dean and Professor at the Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
Owen Ripley, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Department of Justice Canada;
Sylvie Lamoureux, Vice-President, Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council;
Paul Aterman, Former Chairperson, Social Security Tribunal;
JOHN MCRAE AUDITORIUM
Recorded session
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10:30-10:45
Morning break
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
10:45-12:00
Concurrent Session 4A - “Before Data, We Listen: Reclaiming Experience as Knowledge”
Speakers on this panel are united by a shared premise: justice systems must learn from the people who navigate them. Each panelist exposes the emotional and procedural realities of engaging with justice institutions and argues that meaningful participation — from self-represented litigants to citizen researchers — is a precondition for legitimate and people-centred reform. They transform “experience” from anecdote into evidence, making the case that hearing people’s stories is part of system learning.
Moderator: Jennifer Leitch, Executive Director at the National Self-Represented Litigant Project, Program Director at Trinity College, University of Toronto
Barbara Captijn, Listen to end-users of the justice system;
Meg Holden, First you get the info, then you get the court time, then you get the justice? Walking back the shame in self-represented litigation;
Kaitlyn Blaser, Paving the Way for People-Centred Change: Strategies for Improving and Embedding Participatory Frameworks;
Jessica Moye, La participation citoyenne en accès à la justice au Québec;
JOHN MCRAE AUDITORIUM
Recorded session
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10:45-12:00
Concurrent Session 4B - “Nothing About Us Without Us: Rethinking Participation and Power in Justice”
This panel explores how justice systems can better include people — especially those traditionally excluded or disempowered — as active participants in shaping, interpreting, and experiencing justice. Together, they illustrate that justice is not only delivered to people but also co-created with them.
Moderator: Mx. Lee Nevens, Counsel, Department of Justice Canada and Immediate Past President of the Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch
Anne Levesque, Advancing Children’s Access to Justice in Canada: Lessons from Non-Judicial Mechanisms;
Charlene Moore, KC, Advancing Human-Centered Justice: Lessons from the Restorative Inquiry and Nova Scotia Legal Aid Initiatives;
Audrerie Adeline, Justice centrée sur les personnes, règlement des différends et rapports de pouvoir : le logement comme terrain d’analyse;
Mary-Anne Popescu, Screening for Safety and Justice: Advancing Family Mediation with the HELP-M Toolkit;
MARGARET AVISON ROOM
Recorded session
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10:45-12:00
Concurrent Session 4C - “Making Knowledge Usable: Language, Literacy, and Legitimacy in Justice”
Driven by the premise that access to justice begins with access to understanding, this panel examines how law, language, and institutional culture can either empower people or keep them excluded. Together, they show how knowledge—when translated, shared, and co-created—becomes a means of participation.
Moderator: Jérémy Boulanger-Bonnelly, Assistant Professor at McGill University's Faculty of Law
Éliane Boucher, Nouvelles données sur la compréhension des textes de loi québécois par le public et sur le langage clair en droit;
Karen Sawatzky and Kirsten Wurmann, Making Meaning Through Story : Creating Legal Information Access for All;
Christian Crytes, People-centred justice or Person-centred justice? An epistemological distinction with practical implications for access to justice / Justice centrée sur les personnes ou centrée sur la personne ? Une distinction épistémologique aux effets pratiques sur l’accès à la justice;
Desy Wahyuni, Early learning from a year of Clicklaw as a digital service for British Columbians;
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
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12:00-1:30
Lunch
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
1:30-2:45
Concurrent Session 6A – “Between Light and Shadow: Court Data as a Cornerstone of People-Centred Justice”
This panel approaches court data as a cornerstone of democratic legitimacy and people-centred justice. They argue that open, ethical, and contextualized access to judicial data is essential for learning, fairness, and systemic accountability — and that without it, we cannot measure, understand, or improve justice outcomes.
Moderator: Timothy Outerbridge, Registrar of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia
Simon Wallace, Court Data Access and Access to Justice;
Jérémy Boulanger-Bonnelly, L'accès aux données judiciaires : entre lumière et ténèbres;
Julia Belanger and Argyri Panezi, From Data to Understanding in New Brunswick: Access to Knowledge as a requirement for Access to Justice;
JOHN MCRAE AUDITORIUM
Recorded session
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1:30-2:45
Concurrent Session 6B - “Beyond the Numbers: Rethinking Outcomes and Metrics that Matter”
Panelists challenge the justice sector’s reliance on traditional, output-focused metrics (e.g., number of cases closed, wait times) and propose frameworks that capture meaningful outcomes — those rooted in human experience, fairness, and wellbeing.
Moderator: Andrew Pilliar, Associate Professor at Thompson Rivers University
Natasha Jaczek, Beyond Metrics: People-Centred Approaches to Evaluating Public Legal Education;
Megan Capp, Measuring What Matters: Lived Experience and Data Gaps in Access to Justice;
Andrew Pilliar and Rob Lapper K.C., From Just Epistemologies to Justice Epidemiology: Exploring and Mapping Knowledges for Equitable People-Centred Legal Systems;
MARGARET AVISON ROOM
Recorded session
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1:30-2:45
Concurrent Session 6C – “From Raw Data to Real Insight: Making Sense of Court Records”
This panel moves beyond calls for data access to the more complex question of how to responsibly analyze and interpret the data we already have. Each paper examines the interpretive, ethical, and methodological dimensions of working with court data — revealing both its promise and its limits as evidence for justice reform.
Moderator: Suzanne Chiodo, Assistant Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School
Daniel Escott, AIRRL's Court Data Project;
Donald J. Netolitzky, Self-Represented Appellant Activity and Patterns, A Survey and Synthesis from Multiple Canadian Provincial and Federal Courts;
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
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2:45-3:00
Afternoon Break
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
3:00-4:30
Concurrent Session 7A - “Seeing, Naming, Claiming: Mapping the Invisible in Justice”
This panel takes participation one step further — from voice to agency. It examines how people, researchers, and communities generate and interpret knowledge about justice, reclaiming data and conceptual frameworks as tools of empowerment. Each proposal asks: Who defines justice, and whose knowledge counts?
Moderator: Meg Holden, Professor and Director of Urban Studies and Professor of Resources and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University
Jennifer Leitch, The Evolving Face of Self-Representation: A Data-Driven View;
Me Jessica Lee Moye et l’Honorable Frédéric Pérodeau, j.c.s, Création du Comité collaboratif citoyen de la Cour supérieure du Québec;
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
Recorded session
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3:00-4:30
Concurrent Session 7B - “Inside the Courthouse, Outside the Box: Making Justice Work for Real People”
These papers trace a progression from system-level redesign (data, process, transparency) to human-level redesign (safety, neurodiversity, dignity). They expose how courts’ formality, pace, and culture can amplify vulnerability — and how design, evidence, and empathy can re-humanize them.
Moderator: Karen Campbell, Executive Director at BC Law Institute
Suzanne Chiodo, Fighting the Backlog: How are Ontario’s courts using summary processes to address civil justice delays?;
Andrew Eckart, Staff Lawyer, Class Action Clinic and Meris Bray (they/them), Reference Librarian - Windsor Law, The Ontario Class Action Database;
Ontario Bar Association Access to Justice Committee, Improving Access to Justice for Neurodivergent Individuals in the Ontario Court System;
Karen Campbell, British Columbia Law Institute, Structural Abuse and Family Breakdown: Exploring ways in which economic and litigation abuse can impede family law outcomes;
MARGARET AVISON ROOM
Recorded session
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3:00-4:30
Concurrent Session 7C – “People-Centred Access to Justice Research and Data: A Global Perspective”
Drawing on interviews across 20 countries and every income level, this discussion shares insights from the Justice Data Observatory’s two-year global study of people-centred justice research and data. Panelists will explore how knowledge gathered worldwide can inform Canada’s efforts to translate evidence into more equitable, people-centred justice policies and programs.
Presenters:
Rebecca Sandefur, Professor, School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University; Faculty Fellow, American Bar Foundation;
Matthew Burnett, Director of Research and Programs, Access to Justice Research Initiative at the American Bar Foundation; Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center;
Respondents:
Adrian Di Giovanni, Team Leader, Democratic and Inclusive Governance, International Development Research Centre;
Gustavo Maurino, Professor at Law and Political Science, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina);
JOHN MCRAE AUDITORIUM
Recorded session
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DAY 3 - May 28, 2026
PROGRAM
TIME
8:30-9:00
ROOM
Breakfast
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
9:00-10:15
Concurrent Session 8A - “Justice That Learns: Borrowing Health’s Tools for Evidence, Evaluation, and Care”
This panel draws lessons from the health system to re-imagine how justice could measure effectiveness, share data, and integrate prevention and care principles into service design. Together they form a coherent story about justice as a learning system: measuring what works, building an evidence base, and scaling reforms through collaboration.
Moderator: Rami Shoucri, Articling student at BLG and practicing family physician
Allison Leadley, Community Legal Education Ontario, Measuring Quality in Direct-to-Public Legal Tools: Lessons from a Randomized Control Trial of CLEO’s Family Law Guided Pathways;
Elizabeth Sigouin, Accès à la justice et vulnérabilité : le rôle des modèles intégrés en santé et services sociaux;
Lachlan Deyong, The Cochrane Review method from medicine provides a template for concrete, evidence-based access to justice efforts that really work;
Jennifer Stone, From Framework to Facts: Implementing Evaluation for Health & Justice Partnerships as a Testcase for Data Mapping, Exploring, Sharing and Analysis Research for People-Centred Justice;
Michele Leering, No longer a “bridge too far”: Sharing knowledge for implementing health justice partnerships in Canada;
JOHN MCRAE AUDITORIUM
Recorded session
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9:00-10:15
Concurrent Session 8B - “WORKSHOP: The Architecture of Change: Building Systems that Learn and Adapt”
How do we move from innovation to transformation? This workshop explores practical tools and reflective practices that help justice systems evolve — featuring CREATE Justice’s Workbook for Change and Alberta’s Re-imagining the Family Justice System initiative.
Note: Workshop materials will be made available ahead of the conference.
Moderator: Brea Lowenberger, Access to Justice Coordinator, Director of CREATE Justice and Senior Advisor to the Action Committee on Access to Justice
Diana Lowe, KC, Senior Director, Centre for Transformation, University of Calgary;
Leah Howie, Liaison to the Saskatchewan Access to Justice Network;
Judy Jaunzems Fernuk, RTC, MTC, College of Law Wellbeing Coordinator, College of Education Curriculum Studies Lecturer, USask;
MARGARET AVISON ROOM
Recorded session
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9:00-10:15
Concurrent Session 8C – “Co-Designing Justice: Participation as a Design Method.”
This panel explores participatory and inclusive design as both a philosophy and a methodology for people-centred justice. Each proposal examines how systems can be co-created with those most affected — survivors, northern communities, newcomers, and people navigating multiple institutions. The emphasis is on the shared design of infrastructure, where participation itself becomes a tool of justice.
Moderator: Tonya Pritchett, Lawyer, Mediator, Access to Justice Advocate, Workplace Dispute Resolution
Aaron Leakey, Participatory Legal Design and Intimate Partner Violence: Barriers and Opportunities;
Jennifer Dagsvik, Infrastructuring Access: How Infrastructures Shape Justice for Immigrants and Refugees in Northern Ontario;
Mavis Morton, Centering Diverse IPV Survivors’ Experiences: Data-driven suggestions toward justice in the Ontario Family Law System;
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
Recorded session
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10:15-10:30
Morning break
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
10:30-11:45
Concurrent Session 9A – “You Have to Find Them First: Meeting Legal Needs of People in Remote Locations”
This session explores what access to justice looks like when geography, isolation, and limited infrastructure stand in the way. From mobile legal clinics on rural highways to community-based justice workers in Nunavut, these projects bring legal help to people who might otherwise never be reached. The panel will highlight how listening and adaptability — not just technology or data — are reshaping the meaning of “access” in access to justice.
Moderator: Jasmine Redfern, Chair of the Nunavut Human Rights Tribunal
Giulia Reinhardt, Stephanie Clendenning and Ab Currie, You Have to Find Them First: Learning about People-Centered Justice through the Rural Law Van;
Megan Siksik, Nunavut Community Justice Workers;
Valentine Fau, Juristes mobiles : un projet de recherche action pour améliorer l'accès au droit et à la justice;
MARGARET AVISON ROOM
Recorded session
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10:30-11:45
Concurrent Session 9B - “Beyond the Algorithm: People-Centred Design in an AI Age”
This session examines how artificial intelligence is transforming access to justice — from automated legal tools to generative technologies — while asking a deeper question: who benefits? Each paper takes a critical look at how to ensure AI serves people, not systems, and how innovation can be guided by fairness, transparency, and human dignity. Together, they explore what it means to design intelligence that reflects human values, advancing the vision paper’s call for justice reform that is co-created with the people it serves and measured by what matters to them.
Moderator: Zeynab Ziaie Moayyed, Certified Specialist in Citizenship & Immigration Law and co-founder of the AI Monitor for Immigration in Canada and Internationally
Daniel J Escott, Artificial Intelligence, Real Value;
Christiane Saad, People-Centred Justice in the age of AI;
Matthew Dylag, Generative AI and Legal Advice;
Drew Jackson, People’s Law School Beagle+;
JOHN MCRAE AUDITORIUM
Recorded session
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10:30-11:45
Concurrent Session 9C - “Innovating for Impact: New Models of People-Centred Justice”
This session brings together four initiatives that demonstrate how people-centred justice takes shape in practice. Each panelist presents a concrete example of system redesign grounded in data, collaboration, and innovation. Collectively, they move beyond diagnosing problems to showcase tested and emerging models that embody people-centred reform.
Moderator: David Wiseman, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa
Jamie Maclaren KC, Serving the Missing Middle – Data, Innovation, and People-Centred Justice;
Leah Morris & Katherine Haist, The Journey to Housing Stability for Survivors of Gender-Based Violence;
Bérangère Desfonds, Justice Pro Bono / Partenariats médico-juridiques: un modèle innovant de justice centrée sur les personnes
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
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11:45-12:30
Plenary Session 10 – “Fireside Chat: The Honourable Justice Andromache Karakatsanis and The Honourable Sean Fraser P.C. M.P.”
Session details to come.
JOHN MCRAE AUDITORIUM
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12:00-1:15
Lunch
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
1:15-2:30
Concurrent Session 11A – “Law Reform and Access to Justice in a People-Centred Justice System”
This session features members of the Federation of Law Reform Agencies of Canada (FOLRAC) and bridges the NAC conference and the FOLRAC annual meeting, illustrating the centrality of law reform in advancing access to justice within a people-centred justice system. Panelists will discuss how they approach their work guiding the evolution of law and share examples from FOLRAC agencies that re-imagine and re-build legal systems for the public good.
The panel will conclude with an interactive workshop - participants will be asked to provide their input and feedback on a draft set of "Guiding Principles on Access to Justice for Law Reform Agencies" inspired by A2JBC's A2J Triple Aim Measurement Framework.
Moderators: Leah Howie, President, Federation of Law Reform Agencies of Canada and Nye Thomas, Vice-President, Federation of Law Reform Agencies of Canada
Shauna Van Praagh, President, Law Commission of Canada / Amélia Souffrant, Fellow, Law Commission of Canada;
Sandra Petersson K.C, Executive Director / Laura Buckingham, Counsel, Alberta Law Reform Institute;
Pierre Noreau, Président / Alexandra Pasca, Directrice Générale, Institut québécois de réforme du droit et de la Justice;
JOHN MCRAE AUDITORIUM
Recorded session
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1:15-2:30
Concurrent Session 11B – “Re-Engineering Professional Roles and Regulation for a Learning Justice System”
This session examines how professional regulation, licensing, and ethics can evolve to sustain people-centred justice. Collectively, the papers address the tension between protecting the public and enabling innovation — a central dilemma in access-to-justice reform. Each explores ways to build a justice workforce that is more diverse, flexible, and responsive to public needs. Together, they portray a profession in transition: learning to regulate for the public good rather than institutional preservation.
Moderator: David Wiseman, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa
Ashley Stasiewich, Exploring Professional Development for Paralegals in Alberta: A Mixed-Methods Study of Perceptions, Engagement, and Barriers to Career Growth;
Max Bilson, KC, Deputy Attorney General of Saskatchewan and Pamela R. Kovacs, Evidence and Lessons from Limited Licensing in Saskatchewan;
MARGARET AVISON ROOM
Recorded session
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1:15-2:30
Concurrent Session 11C – “Closing the Feedback Loop: Designing Justice Through Data”
This session explores how data and research can drive real system reform — turning evidence into design intelligence and feedback into governance. Each project illustrates how empirical insights, local data initiatives, and lived experience can shape more responsive laws, procedures, and services. Together, they embody the principle that learning is part of the work: progress depends on gathering regular feedback from those who use the system and acting on what is learned.
Moderator: Noel Semple, Associate Professor at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law
Hannah Main, Understanding access to justice for tenants in Nova Scotia;
Glenn Ng, Data-driven, people-centred projects at the Social Security Tribunal of Canada;
Noel Semple, New Data on Timeliness in the Canadian Civil Justice System;
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
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2:30-2:45
Afternoon Break
WINIFRED BAMBRICK ROOM
2:45-4:00
Plenary Session 12 – “Funding the Future of Justice: Investing in People-Centred Transformation”
This plenary brings together major justice funders — including the Law Foundation of Ontario, Law Foundation of British Columbia, and SSHRC — for a practical conversation about sustaining access-to-justice innovation.
Speakers will share emerging funding priorities, discuss what makes a strong proposal, and offer insights on building collaborations that deliver measurable, people-centred impact.
The session will help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers understand how funding can accelerate system learning and long-term transformation across Canada’s justice ecosystem.
Moderator: Adrian Di Giovanni, Team Leader, Democratic and Inclusive Governance, International Development Research Centre
Josh Paterson, Executive Director at Law Foundation of British Columbia;
Lisa Cirillo, CEO of The Law Foundation of Ontario;
Sylvie Lamoureux, Vice-President, Research Programs, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council;
Marcus Manuel, Senior Research Associate, ODI Global;
Note: The conference agenda is subject to change as programming is finalized.
JOHN MCRAE AUDITORIUM
Recorded session
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4:00-4:45
Plenary Session 13 – “Closing the feedback loop – Where to next?”
This final session brings together key insights from the past two days: what we learned, what surprised us, and what threads connected work across jurisdictions. Panelists will reflect on the ideas that emerged — from listening to lived experience, to using data for learning, to designing justice with the people it serves — and consider how these lessons can guide future research, collaboration, and reform. The session looks ahead to the practical next steps for strengthening Canada’s people-centred justice ecosystem.
Moderator: Doug Ferguson
JOHN MCRAE AUDITORIUM
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Conference rates
Regular registration - $400
Conference speaker - $250
Student (full-time) - $200
Young professional (<10 years into profession) - $300
Questions?
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If you have any questions, please contact us at info@actioncommitteea2j.ca.