For the second in my series of podcasts on Canadian public legal education, I have an interview with two well-known and long-time PLE practitioners: Carol McEown, recently retired manager of public legal education services at the Legal Services Society of BC, and Lois Gander, Director of the Legal Studies Program at the University of Alberta. This turned out to be a sweeping, forty-minute discussion about the evolution of PLE in Canada, its radical origins and empowering possibilities, and a host of other topics. Here are two quotes to give a taste:
I absolutely grew up believing that the law belonged to me … to use and to challenge and to make work for my community. —Carol McEown
We have gone away from the idea that the public are citizens and have any ownership of the law or the processes … I think we’ve got to get away from the “consumer” mentality. —Lois Gander
The podcast is available as an mp3, which you can download by clicking here. If you have any trouble with the file, or any comments on the content, let me know by clicking on the “Comments” link, below.
March 12, 2007 at 1:28 pm
[...] would argue vigorously that PLE should not and maybe cannot be neutral. I asked Carol McEown, in Podcast #2, whether PLE has to be neutral if it’s going to be trusted. “Trusted by whom?,” [...]