Tate Herbert Memorial Post-Secondary Award

This annual award is named after an exceptional young man who lost his life to cancer in 2013 at the age of 20. Tate was studying Law and Society at Wilfrid Laurier University. His passion for justice brought him to a co-op placement at the Barrie office of Legal Aid Ontario. Tate loved both law and education, and OJEN is honoured to administer an award commemorating his life. Every year OJEN works with hundreds of post-secondary students who assist in delivering justice education projects across the province. The Tate Herbert Memorial Post-Secondary Award recognizes a post-secondary student volunteer who has exceeded expectations and made a significant contribution to OJEN’s justice education initiatives. Past recipients are acknowledged on a permanent plaque that hangs in the Barrie Courthouse. If you have worked with an OJEN student volunteer whom you wish to nominate, send their name and brief description of their activities to awardsprix@ojen.ca. An OJEN staff member will follow up. Nominations are received year-round, but must be received before the end of April to be considered for that year.

Past Recipients

2022 Zoë Paddock

Zoë Paddock is the 2022 recipient of the Tate Herbert Memorial Post-Secondary Award. She came to OJEN during the summer of 2021 on a Social Justice Fellowship from Windsor University’s Faculty of Law. She had just completed her second year of law school and was interested in learning more about public legal education and OJEN’s work. Zoë arrived with a strong background in community service sector work. During her 10 week internship with OJEN, Zoë worked on a variety of programs, including Family Law for Young Parents programs (FLYP), Youth-Police Dialogues and Steps to Justice workshops.

2021 Nehmet Bedar

Nehmat “Nemee” Bedar is in her third year studying law at the University of Ottawa. Nemee was accepted as an OJEN Justice Education Fellowship program in 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic dramatically changed the nature of the Fellowship program during her time in the program. She was required, not only to learn how to deliver OJEN programming, but to re-imagine the program for remote delivery. She succeeded in adapting and delivering “Journey to a Career in Law” into an engaging 60 minute online career modeling activity for high school students.

2019 Rebecca Strain

Rebecca first joined OJEN to complete her BSW practicum placement from September 2016 to April 2017. During her time at OJEN, she went above and beyond her placement requirements. At the end of her placement, Rebecca took the lead and planned, coordinated, and facilitated two successful mock trial programs on her own, using the skills learned during her time at OJEN. Thanks to her contribution, OJEN was recognized by the City of Toronto’s Parks, Forestry and Recreation with an award in Community Education.