Access to Justice Advocate – Nat Paul
Nabila Khan, Sabreena DelhonWednesday, February 25, 2015
Recent reports have underscored the importance of innovation and imagination to the pursuit of access to justice. At the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, we understand that such efforts come down to people – to advocates. In an effort to spotlight the diverse range of individuals working across the access to justice landscape, we are pleased to present the Access to Justice Advocates blog series. Each month we will profile someone who brings a unique perspective and makes a valuable contribution to the issue of access to justice. Do you know an access to justice advocate? Let us know at communications@cfcj-fcjc.org.
Nat Paul is an Ontario Certified Teacher specializing in Inner-City Education and holds a Masters of Arts in sociology and education. He has six years of experience in social justice teaching in secondary, community college and university classrooms, where he has emphasized personal and social transformation through student engagement and empowerment. Nat is currently a Program Manager at Ontario Justice Education Network (OJEN), where he has a special interest in helping teachers create effective, thought-provoking and relevant learning experiences for their students.
The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice visited the OJEN offices to speak to Nat about his work with Ontario secondary school students, and how access to justice issues have influenced his career. Nat highlighted how education can narrow the gaps in access to justice by challenging students on their misconceptions about the legal system and teaching them to recognize the legal dimensions of problems in everyday life. At OJEN, Nat plays a key role in developing educational resources that equip students with the ability to recognize legal problems and their related possible solutions. Most recently OJEN released an Access to Justice game, which featured our very own Advice Maze infographic.
The full length version of the interview can be found here.