Six women stand together with their arms around each other inside a wood-panelled lodge in Kawawachikamach, with mounted caribou and moose above them. From left to right: Me Annick Nguénang-Nono, Vanna-Kerri Einish, Me Anke Beese, Me Helen Sanders, Louise Cottereau and Angela Morency.

From June 7 to 12, Justice Pro Bono was in Kawawachikamach offering free legal services to our community. Six people ran that clinic, and one of them was ours.

What the clinic did

By the time the week was over:

  • 66 people from our community were served
  • 85 legal files were taken care of

Wills, estates, and the kinds of questions that are hard to get answered when the nearest lawyer is hundreds of kilometres away. All of it handled here, at home, for free.

The team

Six people gave their time and expertise to make this work:

  • Me Annick Nguénang-Nono, notary
  • Vanna-Kerri Einish, Naskapi Nation
  • Me Anke Beese, lawyer
  • Me Helen Sanders, lawyer
  • Louise Cottereau, Program Coordinator, Great North, Justice Pro Bono
  • Angela Morency, Info Justice Côte-Nord

That is the order they are standing in, left to right, in the photo above.

In her report on the clinic, Louise Cottereau took the time to recognize Vanna-Kerri Einish’s contribution to the work. We are glad to see one of our own in that room, and we want to say thank you to her here too.

What’s next

This was the third legal clinic held in Kawawachikamach through our partnership with Justice Pro Bono, across 2025 and 2026. When our people can sit down with a lawyer or notary to discuss a will or estate without leaving the community, that is worth doing. We intend to keep doing it.