The province’s very first Francophone youth justice camp is scheduled for later this month.
Young French speakers will gather at the Ramada in St. John’s to discuss the legal system, get a tour of Hermitage House in CBS—an important building linked to the history of the province’s legal system, and hear from local lawyers and Justices over the course of three days.
The justice camp is an initiative of Franco Jeune, in conjunction with the local Francophone federation and the Francophone justice network.
Provincial Youth Co-Ordinator with Franco-Jeune Gaston Letourneau says although Canada has two official languages, French language opportunities are not the same across the country. He calls the justice camp a bit of a pilot project.
He’s been involved in youth parliaments in Ottawa and in Acadia for the last ten years and “when I saw these parliaments….(I thought) why not bring a new concept, something a little different? Because if you look at all the ministers in Ottawa, 90 per cent of them are lawyers. So therefore the idea came from ‘why don’t we do this at the provincial level and hopefully we can push this for other provinces to get involved?'”
The Justice Camp runs March 25 through to March 27 and involves young people from across the province and St. Pierre et Miquelon.
