2024 Series

Toward a Restorative Approach in Sport

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

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

Delivered by Erika Sasson on May 13, 2024 at 7:30 PM via Zoom. 

Delivered by Erika Sasson on May 13, 2024 at 7:30 PM via Zoom.

2023 Series

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.

THE US CARCERAL STATE, GENDERED VIOLENCE, AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

Delivered by Donna Coker on Monday, March 27, 2023.

Healing and Learning after Harm in the Healthcare System: The Potential of a Restorative Approach

Delivered by Allison Kooijman on Monday March 13, 2023.

 
 

2022 Series

Kindness Isn’t Weakness: Working together as a Restorative Community to Tackle Intractable Problems

Delivered by Dr. Holly Northam on Monday April 4, 2022.

Lighting A  Spark: Feminism, Emotions, and The Legal Imagination of Campus Sexual Violence

Delivered by Dr. Daniel Del Gobbo on Monday May 9, 2022.

A Restorative Approach to the Harm of Nonconsensual Pornography

Delivered by Dr. Alexa Dodge on Monday May 30, 2022.

Lighting a Spark: Feminism, Emotions, and the Legal Imagination of Campus Sexual Violence

Daniel Del Gobbo

Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, McGill University Faculty of Law

Fellow – Restorative Research, Innovation, & Education Lab 

Monday May 9th, 2022, at 6:30 pm Atlantic Time via Zoom

This talk will explore how feminist law and policymakers have been inspired by collectively generated experiences of emotion that help to shape what counts as justice and injustice in campus sexual violence cases. Focusing on events surrounding the Faculty of Dentistry at Dalhousie University in 2014-2015, I explain how emotional incitements in the case contributed to a political and discursive infrastructure that supported formal, adversarial, and punitive responses to campus sexual violence. Correspondingly, I explain why alternative modes of legal and political formation that challenged the premises of the formal law, including the restorative justice process employed in the case, were misread by some commentators as being a form of “weak justice” and therefore outside the bounds of feminist action. My claim is not that particular emotional reactions to campus sexual violence are right or wrong – they just are – but that feminist law and policymakers should critically reflect on and assess their political force. Considering the ways that emotions are mobilized reveals the benefits and drawbacks of engaging with the law in ways that feel emotionally gratifying and therefore legally and politically necessary, but which can lead to harmful consequences that contradict feminist goals.

A Restorative Approach to the Harm of Nonconsensual Pornography

Alexa Dodge

Hill Postdoctoral Fellow – Law, Justice, & Society Program, Dalhousie University

Associate – Restorative Research, Innovation, & Education Lab 

Monday May 30, 2022, at 6:30 pm Atlantic Time via Zoom

The nonconsensual distribution of nude or sexually explicit images (i.e. nonconsensual pornography) is increasingly recognized as a form of sexual violence that violates a victim’s right to privacy and bodily autonomy. High-profile cases of nonconsensual pornography from around the world have resulted in several international jurisdictions creating criminal and civil law responses to this act. As is often the case when governments are called upon to respond to harm, legal responses have been framed as amounting to taking the issue of nonconsensual pornography “seriously” and the creation of legal remedies have often overshadowed other options for response. While the framing of law as the most impactful remedy can result in the false belief that this issue has been adequately dealt with through legal regulation, in practice legal options do not serve the majority of those harmed and offer limited possibilities for prevention and culture change. In this presentation, I posit that the harm of nonconsensual pornography is often “rhizomatic” in nature and is, therefore, in need of a holistic, restorative response. 

Kindness isn’t weakness- working together as a restorative community to tackle intractable problems

Holly Northam

Faculty of Health, School of Nursing

University of Canberra, Australia

International Fellow – Restorative Research, Innovation, & Education Lab 

Monday April 4, 2022, at 6:30 pm Atlantic Time via Zoom

This presentation will explore the challenges that I have encountered within our restorative community for principled relationships- and a flourishing community. Specifically in the context of colonised institutional structures that create potential conflicts of interest for restorative practice. I will discuss ideas that inform the next steps that we are taking to enable safe spaces for dialogue that contributes authentic restorative practice for positive change and societal healing.

Danny Graham of Engage Nova Scotia discusses the future of restorative justice in Canada at the National Restorative Justice Symposium in Halifax, Nova Scotia on November 21–22, 2016. 

Judge Barry Stuart, retired Chief Judge of the Territorial Court of Yukon, speaks at the International Restorative Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on June 27, 2016.

Gale Burford, an Emeritus Professor at the University of Vermont, speaks at the International Restorative Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on June 27, 2016.

Danny Graham, Chief Engagement Officer for Engage Nova Scotia,  speaking at the International Restorative Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on June 27, 2016.

Chief Judge Pamela S. Williams, appointed a judge of the Provincial and Family Courts of Nova Scotia in September 2003, speaks at the International Restorative Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on June 27, 2016.