By Cédric Thibeault

Publié le 17 juin 2026

The access to justice is a fundamental right in our society. However, this is hard to apply for many people. There is a large number of good reasons that force people to represent themselves. Because of this, many are not judged properly and end up losing everything. This problem raises an important question: is justice accessible to everyone? 

The simple answer to this question would be that, yes, our system provides some resources to help people. But, in reality, there are many inequalities, especially for those with fewer financial resources. 

This problem is contrary to the 16th Sustainable Development goal: peace, justice, and strong institutions. This goal promotes equality and access to justice for all. 

To start, access to justice is not equal for everyone, because of many reasons. The most obvious reason would be the cost. Judicial services are expensive. Not only families with low income, but many others are forced to represent themselves in front of justice because they cannot afford a qualified lawyer. Another problem is the long delays. According to the Supreme Court of Canada, people can wait for months or even years to receive a verdict. Which can discourage many individuals. The lack of information in the legal field is also a major reason why justice is inaccessible. If the public had better access to this kind of information, they could understand better and would have more tools to access justice.  

Pointing out the problem is a good start, but it would be better to find at least some solutions. To help find solutions to the inaccessibility of justice, on April 20, 2026, I conducted an interview with ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence developed by OpenAI. When prompted with “What changes would improve access to justice?,” it responded that “Improving access to justice isn’t about one big reform—it’s about removing a series of practical barriers that keep people from using the system.”  

Good solutions to this problem would be to have greater legal aid from the government to help people with fewer resources. We could also simplify procedures and languages to accommodate those who choose to defend themselves. For the same reason, it would be good to have better access to legal information on the internet. Furthermore, to shorten the delays, filling the many vacant judge positions in Canada would help a lot. 

Some people are already taking action. For example, there is a project named ADAJ, that is in place in many countries and is led by sixty researchers from ten different universities. They try to inform people about the legal field so they can understand and handle their procedures. 

In conclusion, access to justice remains a major issue in our society. However, there are plenty of solutions and if we apply them, we can reduce or even eliminate these inequalities. If we want real equality, we must work together and make access to justice a priority. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal16

https://www.scc-csc.ca/fr/about-apropos/judges-juges/list-liste/richard-wagner/sd-2018-10-04/