Français
  1. Home
  2. Our Work
  3. Annual Conference

Annual Conference

CALL FOR PROPOSALS NOW OPEN – PLEAC National Conference | February 18 – 19, 2026

We are pleased to open the Call for Proposals for PLEAC’s upcoming national conference, which takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, on February 18 and 19, 2026, with an additional day for producers of public legal education and information on February 20.

If your organization is interested in offering a workshop or presentation that may be of interest to other PLEAC members and colleagues working in public legal education and access to justice, we want to hear from you!

To submit a proposal, please complete this application form by Friday, October 10, 2025. 

If you do not have all the session information available to you at this time, please provide as much information as you can.

We will be reviewing all submissions and will be in touch with applicants within a few weeks of the deadline.

If you have any questions, additional comments, or materials, please do not hesitate to reach out to Hanna Holmes at hholmes@pleac-aceij.ca.

For further conference details, please see below.

PLEAC National Conference | February 18 – 19, 2026

The Public Legal Education Association of Canada (PLEAC) is holding its annual conference at the Westin Ottawa on February 18 and 19, 2026.

We are also planning to offer an additional half-day on Friday, February 20, for PLEI producers. This add-on day will have a separate invitation and registration process from the main two-day conference, but please save it in your calendars.

The conference will bring together public legal educators, legal aid and legal clinic workers, community organization staff, academics, federal and provincial justice ministry and court staff, and others interested in sharing and learning about developments relevant to public legal education and access to justice in Canada.

Twenty-five years into the 21st century, developments on multiple fronts are influencing the ways in which Canadians are learning about the law, how the law can assist them, and actions they can take to protect themselves—and, potentially, to protect the rule of law. In the midst of a changing landscape, PLEAC’s 2025 conference will give participants an opportunity to delve into, learn about, and discuss several of these developments, including:

  • The role of public legal educators in building an understanding of the rule of law
  • Using evolving technologies effectively, including interactive tools and generative AI
  • Using data in a practical way to inform and improve public legal education work
  • Experiences with and strategies for connecting with rural and remote, and Indigenous communities
  • Supporting the critical justice-related work being done on the front lines by non-lawyer community workers across Canada 
The conference will include full group plenaries, a participatory town hall, workshops, and social opportunities to gather with others around common areas of interest.

More details, including registration and a call for proposals, will follow in the coming weeks.

Please note that registration will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and space is limited. We encourage you to register early once registration opens to secure your place.

For now, please mark your calendars for February 18-19, 2026, with an additional half-day on February 20, and join us in Ottawa as we come together to explore and innovate in a time of change.

PLEAC Virtual Fair

The Public Legal Education Association of Canada (PLEAC)’s Virtual Fair has now concluded.

This event took place on February 25, 26, and 27, 2025 and featured two sessions each day from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM EST. Participants gained insights into initiatives and emerging practices from Canada, the US, and the UK, coming away with new knowledge, ideas, and connections.

Please see the event flyer below with session and speaker details. If you’d like to see recordings of the sessions, you can visit our Video Hub here.

We look forward to seeing you at our next event! Please stay tuned.

 

 

 

These last two years, our conferences have brought together PLEAC Members and the Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Project organizations. We had over 100 attendees at each conference who were able to network, share information, and attend a multitude of workshops and plenaries, including opportunities to interact with each other throughout the conference. Simultaneous interpretation was offered to accommodate our French-speaking attendees and larger sessions were webcast to allow those to tune in who were unable to travel. We received great feedback and look forward to hosting the conference again next year.

Click here and here to see the schedules for the 2022 and 2023 PLEAC and Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Conferences. 

For immediate updates, you can sign up to be a PLEAC member. For all other updates, please feel free to check back here.

Thank you!