Fellows and Associates Public Lecture Series | Erika Sasson

The Long Road to System Transformation: Lessons from an RJ Practitioner in New York City

Erika Sasson is an attorney and practitioner who designs and facilitates restorative justice processes. Her work is focused on piloting restorative frameworks for complex harm, including for intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and homicide. She also consults on long-term projects with organizations in New York City and around the country who want to create restorative justice programming, or who need to navigate complex dynamics in pursuit of a healthier workplace. Erika’s work is anchored by her experiences learning directly from Native American peacemakers from across North America. Among her current projects, Erika is working with Violence Intervention Program—NYC’s only Latinx-led nonprofit focused on providing culturally-specific services to Latinx survivors of domestic and sexual violence—to create a localized restorative justice program tailored to the needs of their community. Erika is a 2023 recipient of The David Prize for extraordinary New Yorkers. Originally from Canada, Erika moved to NYC in 2009 and is raising a family with her husband Misha in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more or get in touch at erikasasson.com.

https://youtu.be/wU54dPA_NLs?feature=shared




Fellows and Associates Public Lecture Series | Jacob Glover

Toward a Restorative Approach in Sport

Delivered by Jacob Glover on May 26, 2024 at 7:30 PM via Zoom.

Jacob Glover has a background in ancient philosophy, contemporary continental philosophy, and law. His interest in restorative justice took root in Prof. Jennifer Llewellyn’s seminars when he began thinking about the philosophical overlap between relational theory, restorative justice, ancient rhetoric, and network theory. Before returning to graduate school, he practiced corporate and property law. His graduate work focuses on taking a restorative approach to sport.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSVCmi1d6o&ab_channel=RestorativeResearchInnovationandEducationLab




NRCLC 2022 Final Report

Final Report from National Restorative Justice Collaborative Learning Conference (NRCLC)

 

The National Collaborative Learning Conference 2022 was held October 2022 in Halifax, NS. The NRCLC engaged delegations from provinces, territories and the Federal level in a collaborative process to identify key elements and commitments required to advance and realize the potential of restorative justice to transform the approach to justice in Canada.

The convenors and facilitators of the 2022 NRCLC prepared this report, which provides background and an overview of the 2022 conference and shares insights, ideas and recommendations that emerged from the NRCLC. 




Reimagining our Healthcare System: A Restorative Approach

Reimagining Our Healthcare System: A Restorative Approach was a presentation and panel event hosted by First Nations Health Authority, Interior Health, and UBC Okanagan’s School of Nursing on October 5, 2022. The presentation by Professor Jennifer Llewellyn describes how a restorative approach to healthcare can transform systems and service delivery and create a shift in values and thinking, strengthening relationships between healthcare providers and the people and communities for whom they provide care.




Fellows and Associates Public Lecture Series | Emma Halpern

COVID-19’s Disorienting Impact on
Criminal Justice in Nova Scotia

Delivered by Emma Halpern on April 17, 2023 at 7:30 PM via Zoom.
Emma Halpern is the inaugural Graduate Fellow at the Restorative Lab. Emma is a lawyer, activist and advocate who has worked extensively on behalf of vulnerable and marginalized people in Nova Scotia.  She is also the Executive Director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia an organization that is devoted to improving the lives of women, trans and non- binary people through comprehensive housing supports, innovative programming initiatives, advocacy, justice system reform and through fostering and developing personal empowerment. In 2022, Emma joined PATH Legal as the Legal Director. Prior to this role Emma was the Equity and Access Officer at the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society. She was also a consultant on the provincial government restorative approaches in schools initiative and has conducted extensive research and project development around building a restorative approach to working with children and youth.  In 2011, Emma was named one of Chatelaine Magazine’s Women of the Year in the category of “Everyday Hero” for her work on this project. Emma enjoys spending time with her three fantastic sons and is completing her LLM at Dalhousie Schulich School of Law focusing on the transformative opportunities born out of the pandemic’s impact on criminal justice in Nova Scotia. In particular, her research interests are in decarceration and relational justice.
Learn more about PATH Legal here: https://www.pathlegal.ca/
Learn more about Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia: https://www.efrymns.ca/




Public Lecture Series 2023: Donna Coker

THE US CARCERAL STATE, GENDERED
VIOLENCE, AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

Delivered on March 27, 2023 at 7pm at Dalhousie University in collaboration with the Criminal Justice Coalition of the Schulich School of Law. 

Donna Coker is Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law (Miami, Florida). She is a longtime advocate and researcher in the field of preventing and responding to intimate partner violence (IPV) and opposing racial and gender subordination in the criminal legal system. Donna began her career as a social worker in victim shelters and community-based programs. Her experiences assisting survivors convinced her that the increased reliance on the criminal legal system response to IPV that occurred in the 1980s-90s did not serve the needs of many survivors, particularly women of color and others most vulnerable to state control. Her interest in finding a different pathway led her to study the work of Navajo Peacemaking Courts. The empirical study that resulted has influenced work in the fields of restorative justice and IPV. Her more recent research has examined restorative responses to campus sexual assault and to building school-based support for girls of color. She served as an advisory board member for A National Portrait of Restorative Approaches to Intimate Partner Violence, a survey of U.S. programmes. She is the co-creator of a public education project, Reimagining the Movement to End Gender Violence, consisting of interviews with leading activists and scholars regarding the need to refocus anti-violence activism to addressing the structural inequalities that maintain violence.  In 2015, she was a co-investigator for Responses from the Field, a U.S. survey of service providers regarding their experiences with policing, domestic violence, and sexual assault. She served as an expert consultant and advisory board member for a project of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, Ending Mass Incarceration, Centralising Racial Justice, and Developing Alternatives. Donna holds an M.S.W. from the University of Arkansas and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.

Read more of Donna’s work: https://people.miami.edu/profile/c0a19acf3f21a417cea4b7679dc9914d




Public Lecture Series 2023: Allison Kooijman

HEALING AND LEARNING AFTER HARM IN THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM: THE POTENTIAL OF A RESTORATIVE APPROACH

Delivered on March 13, 2022 by Allison Kooijman.

Ali is a PhD Student in the School of Nursing at UBC Okanagan where she studies the contributions that a Restorative Approach stands to make in the healthcare context. Ali experienced harm as a patient which ended her career as a Licensed Practical Nurse. This experience, both as a former healthcare provider and patient, provides her with a unique lens that she brings to this space. Ali believes that transformation and reimagining of our healthcare system requires a collaborative effort and identifying a principled approach to serve as a foundation for doing so. Ali lives on the lands of the Syilx peoples in beautiful Coldstream, British Columbia

Read more of Ali’s work: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Allison-Kooijman

Follow Ali on twitter: https://twitter.com/AllisonKooijma1




Listening and Learning from the Past

Listening and Learning from the Past:
The Restorative Process and the Home for Colored Children

Written by Roisin Boyle
Photos by Fiona Yang

On October 26th, 2022, I had the opportunity to see a preview of the upcoming exhibit “Journey to Light” at The Black Cultural Centre (“the BCC”). This experience was doubly exciting for me because Angela Davis and Margaret Burnham were also in attendance.  

The exhibit, which is set to be revealed in 2023, is focused on the history and impact of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children and the former residents’ journey for justice. The exhibit is based, in part, on the lessons gathered during the Restorative Inquiry into the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (“the RI”) and the work of a collaborative project called Digital Oral History for Reconciliation (“DOHR”). 500 sqft on the second floor will be devoted to shining a light on systemic racism through the history of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (“the Home”) and the experiences and journeys of its former residents.

The Home opened in 1921 and was hailed as a success for decades; however, the real stories of those who lived and worked there were not being heard. These stories reveal childhoods of abuse and suffering, experiences the former residents kept to themselves for decades because of a lingering sense of shame. In 2012, however, former residents gathered, shared their stories, and began to break the silence.

The upcoming exhibit will feature these stories. The DOHR project, which is based out of the University of Waterloo, was developed in partnership with the former residents’ organization VOICES (Victims of Institutional Child Exploitation Society), the RI, and other organizational and community partners. DOHR developed a curriculum for high school classes, including a virtual storytelling experience aiming to help participants understand what residents went through at the Home. The exhibit at the BCC will include multiple virtual reality stations that will allow visitors to hear former residents recount memories of their time in the Home while immersed in a 3D visual representation of the Home. As Jennifer Llewellyn pointed out at the preview event, it is not designed to be an “empathy machine”; instead, it is a means of helping us learn from experiences of harm and resilience by travelling alongside former residents as they share their stories. The exhibit invites us all to be a part of the former residents’ journey to light by learning and considering what we might do to contribute to a better future.

angela

As a summer intern at the Restorative Lab, I was fortunate to take part in a workshop focused on how haptics (technology that brings the sense of touch) may be incorporated into the DOHR project and the museum exhibit’s virtual experience to enhance the experience and its social justice focus. I found the process to be impressively respectful and collaborative. The voices of former residents were central. While there could have been an instinct to use haptics wherever possible (after all, immersive technology is very cool), a presiding sentiment was that any digital experience must first and foremost be respectful of the lived experiences of the former residents, and not pretend to replicate them nor trivialize them by making the technology the focus of the experience. There was also a remarkable sensitivity to trauma and the need for safety.

The announcement and preview of the upcoming exhibit was led by three former residents of the Home and participants in the RI, namely Tony Smith, Gerry Morrison, and Tracey Dorrington-Skinner. They offered insights and accounts of their experiences with the restorative process. I had met a couple of these speakers before and heard them present in other contexts, as they are committed to sharing their stories widely and helping people understand the legacy and impacts of the Home. Indeed, Tony Smith spoke in a course in my sister’s Bachelor of Education program, where he emphasized the importance of education and of engaging upcoming generations, a value he reiterated at the BCC event. The former residents’ openness in recounting their stories both at the BCC event and elsewhere contributes to ongoing work against systemic racism in the form of education and the creation of a foundation of understanding.

It was refreshing to listen to people who, like me, believe there is a better way to do justice. I feel some of my friends think I am naïve in this belief. It can be hard, I understand, to break out of the assumption that retributive justice is the only way of doing justice, and that there is no way for people to move forward together when there has been so much harm. The RI and the former residents’ resolute commitment to breaking the silence, though, teaches that it is ok to inquire into our shared past to construct a meaningful future. Indeed, Angela Davis picked up on the sense of optimism and left attendees with a message of hope. Through the restorative process, it became possible to glimpse the potential for justice in something as massive as the Home and the systemic racism that created and sustained it. This hope in the potential for fuller justice and a better future allows us to continue to move forward together.

angela and margaret




Disorienting Dilemma Podcast

Jake MacIsaac, one of the Restorative Lab’s Associates, hosts this podcast reflecting on issues in society and spreading a restorative perspective. He and his co-host, Chris Jarvis, describe the podcast as:

Two longtime friends, both Canadian – one black, one white, and both men – explore what it looks like to adopt the mindset of an inclusive society. Instead of asking, ”How do we get there?”, Jake and Chris discuss what does it look like to act as if we’re there already.

You can learn more here and listen to some recent episodes below:




TRANSFORMATIVE JOURNEYS FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

Listen to the podcast version on CBC Ideas!!

This special event brings together three remarkable leaders who are beacons for racial justice in the US and around the world. Their advocacy and work for justice transformation has shaped a generation and seeded a vision of a better future. Their journeys for racial justice began together in Birmingham, Alabama, and continued to be interwoven through the height of the civil rights movement. Their relationship and connected experiences have rooted each panelist’s unique work for racial justice shared commitment to transformation through restorative justice. 

The Restorative Research, Innovation and Education Lab is hosting this event together with a number of organizations including: the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia, the Indigenous Blacks and Mi’kmaw Initiative at the Schulich School of Law, VOICES (Victims of Institutional Child Exploitation Society), the Criminal Justice Coalition – Schulich School of Law, the Black Cultural Centre, and Dalhousie University. We are grateful for the support from Sobeys Inc. that has made the event possible.