Canadian Lawyer

MEXICO PAKISTAN NJI has also set up chat lines on judicial topics that feature Canadian judges and academics as moderators. "We create a problem and then, over a one-month period, people work on that problem, contribute, and get feedback," says Thomson. Each project is animated by one theory — by sharing advanced judicial teaching methods, a pedagogical infrastructure can take root and thrive. Then, as more and more judges in a host country are exposed to Canadian-inspired training, the rule of law takes firmer root, enhancing fairness of their court systems and promoting human rights. "The rule of law is basic to economic development in these parts of the world," says McLachlin. "This is a way that Canada can help them get on their feet and establish a court system that will support democracy and freedom." NOT JUDICIAL TOURISM The NJI launched its international aid commitment in 2003 under Thomson's leadership. A massive list of volunteers had to be winnowed down to those willing to train in NJI's pedagogical methods and toil in uncertain conditions and foreign cultures on their own time. "This is not judicial tourism," says Lennox, a former chief justice of the Ontario Court of Justice. "Judges travel on odd schedules and work as soon as they hit the ground; often from 7:30 a.m. until 8:30 or 9 p.m." NJI teaching methods slant toward the use of audio-visual aides and "experiential learning." Students actively participate in discussion modules and report their conclusions to a "plenary" of the entire class. "The worst way of learning is just to receive a lecture," says Lennox. "Instead, you use the experience of other participants as part of the training. No one can hide. Everyone is forced to share experiences. That makes it a richer experience." The federal government's funding priorities have increasingly mandated aid programs focus on commercial and economic aspects of law. However, "social context" training remains a CIDA requirement for any project, meaning all relevant forms of disadvantage — whether based in gender inequity, race, religion, poverty, or disability — are addressed in each project. Both goals figured strongly in the NJI's Vietnam project. Rosenberg and Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice Adele Kent were part of a group that helped Vietnamese judges design teaching programs spanning economic issues, court administration, and social context. "Judges often don't really understand what we are talking about when we talk about gender equality," says Kent. "So, we talk about how gender equality developed in Canada and we discuss areas where Canada still faces great challenges, such as domestic abuse." Eventually, the Canadians left the Vietnamese judges to refine what they had learned in training courses. They returned months later to review their students' "homework," noting with great satisfaction how their advice and techniques had gelled. "Although Vietnam was still a Communist, one-party state, the judges were very open to modern methods of judicial education," says Rosenberg. "At the end, we left them with something they can deliver time and again." On another project Thomson, L'Heureux-Dube, and Fraser went to Nepal to persuade judges to import badly needed reform to the treatment of rape complainants. "If a woman claimed to have been raped, they might lock her up to protect her. And then the trial took forever," says Thomson. The group was taken to a shelter with 150 young girls who had been kidnapped and forced to work in brothels in India. After being repatriated by a social agency, the victims' families refused to accept them back. Equally appalling, says Thomson, the kidnappers were not being punished. "Judges in Nepal get paid very badly," he explains. "As a www.CANADIAN L a w ye r m a g . c o m F e b r uary 2014 31

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