Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/466000
The Canadian Civil Liberties Education Trust (CCLET) is a non-profit research and educational organization created by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Since the early 1990s, CCLET has developed a special approach to teaching for democratic engagement in our increasingly diverse classrooms: workshops that activate critical thinking by seeking multiple viewpoints. CCLET is proud to be part of the Flip Your Wig for Justice collective. Funds raised will go to expanding the reach of the education program. Every year the program reaches thousands of educators and students. It introduces them to the exploration of civil liberties to help them develop democratic values. For more information about CCLA, visit www.ccla.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Education Trust: Teaching Democratic Engagement AIDWYC is a non-profit organization dedicated to identifying, advocating for, and exonerating individuals convicted of a crime they did not commit. AIDWYC is also dedicated to preventing such injustices in the future through legal education and legislative reform. AIDWYC is Canada's only independent, national organization working full-time to identify and correct wrongful convictions, providing a voice and access to justice for marginalized individuals after conviction. To date, AIDWYC has exonerated nineteen innocent individuals who cumulatively spent more than 185 years in prison. AIDWYC does not receive any government funding and must instead rely on grants from the Law Foundation of Ontario and others, as well as private donations, in order to sustain their work. Most of AIDWYC's work is carried out pro bono by a team of over 50 experienced criminal defence lawyers. They freely devote hundreds of hours of their time reviewing the many cases that come to the attention of AIDWYC. There are, however, a variety of services outside the pro bono review process, such as case related travel, forensic testing and private investigations, which must be funded to establish innocence. The Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted: Justice for the Innocent Glen Assoun (left) with AIDWYC lawyer Sean MacDonald, just moments after being released from prison after 16 years incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. CCLET in the classroom For more information about AIDWYC, visit aidwyc.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. 21