Ontario Youth Deserve a Voice: Support The Pathways to Law

There is no justice when students are locked out of the systems meant to protect them.

Across Canada, young people from underrepresented and marginalized communities are growing up in environments shaped by over-policing, incarceration, intergenerational poverty, and systemic neglect. Many have lost family members to the criminal justice system. Some carry the trauma of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives. Others grow up watching their parents navigate immigration hearings without legal aid, or face eviction without knowing their rights.

Too often, those who are most impacted by the law are the least likely to enter the legal profession, not because they lack the drive or potential, but because the pathways into that world are designed to keep them out. The cost of an LSAT prep course shouldn’t be the barrier that prevents a future human rights lawyer from fighting for her community. A student shouldn’t have to choose between part-time jobs to support their family and unpaid internships. No one should grow up believing the legal system was built for everyone but them.

When the legal system continues to be shaped by those who’ve never felt its weight, it fails to protect the very people who need it most. That’s why Pathways to Law exists: to disrupt that injustice at its root.

Launching in January 2026, our program will bring legal mentorship, education, and career exposure to youth in three underserved regions across Ontario: London, Peel, and Thunder Bay. But this is more than a career initiative — it’s about giving students tools to break cycles of incarceration, discrimination, and systemic exclusion. It’s about building a generation of legal changemakers from the communities the system has failed for far too long.

Your donation will directly support underrepresented youth, covering program materials, mentorship events, and community-based legal workshops. Every dollar helps us ensure that a young person who has never felt seen by the justice system begins to imagine a different future: one where they belong, and one where they lead.

Because justice can’t be just for some.