The Christie Community Bike Ride

Students at the McGill Faculty of Law organized the 4th annual Christie Community Bike Ride (CCBR) to raise funds for the Just Solutions Clinic, the only clinic of its kind in Quebec offering legal information and assistance to the refugee population. 

The CCBR was founded at McGill Law in 2009. This fourth bike ride, slowly becoming a tradition at McGill, honours Dugald Christie, a Vancouver lawyer who offered legal services to low-income people and set up several pro-bono clinics across western Canada. He charged extremely low fees and challenged the courts on legal aid regulations that impaired the ability of poor people to have access to legal representation. In 2006 Christie began biking across Canada to raise awareness about the inadequacies of legal assistance programs in Canada. Tragically, four months into his campaign, he was struck and killed by a van.

As such, every year, McGill Law gets together to fundraise for a local legal clinic and takes up the challenge to bike 50km in and around Montreal, all the while fostering a sense of community within the McGill Law community and putting the theme of access to justice front and centre at the beginning of the year. 

Daniel Jutras, the McGill Law Dean, as well as Rick Goldman, the supervising lawyer at Just Solutions, kicked off the morning with great speeches and although shy, the sun was out to warm the bikers during a rather autumnal day!

This year, the Ride had around 60 participants who were able to raise just above $4,200. For more information and photos, visit: http://christieride.wordpress.com/. 

The organizers: Leslie, Alain, Olga and Myriam

* A special thanks to Thomas Chalmers, from the McGill Student Affairs office, who was able to raise over $1,500! 

Text: Leslie Ning
Photos: Marie-Laure Tapp

MCM Presents!

After three years abroad working with migrants and asylum seekers, it is such a pleasure to have joined MCM and have the opportunity to continue this meaningful and inspiring work with newcomers in my very own city!

Developing the Equi-Net project, which facilitates access to the labor market for refugees, has certainly been a learning process for me; business plans, financial forecasting, labor laws, contracts, managing a janitorial and maintenance business! Nevertheless, it has been such a fruitful journey that I’ve shared with the former residents of Project Refuge who have received their first employment opportunity in Canada with Equi-Net. Together with them, I have learnt so much about the challenges that one faces integrating into a society and work
environment very different from one’s own.

MCM has been an inviting and refreshing community for me to join, and I only hope to help in our work to ensure that newcomers feel that same warm and welcome when they arrive in Canada.

Chris Mariano