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/.
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| 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
Photos: Marie-Laure Tapp
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