Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Feb 15/02) - Restorative and community justice were the focus during the regional justice conference held Feb. 5-7 at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex.

More than 80 delegates representing Inuvik, Paulatuuq, Holman, Sachs Harbour, Tsiigehtchic, Fort McPherson, Tuktoyaktuk and Aklavik took part in discussions and heard presentations on a wide range of topics.

Among the topics covered on day one were presentations on current trends in community justice, and on proposal writing, as well as a presentation by Lana Woodfine, the new victim services co-ordinator for Inuvik.

Const. Serge Robitaille of Inuvik RCMP gave a presentation Feb. 6 on the role of police in restorative justice. A group discussion took place on the proposed Youth Criminal Justice act.

A presentation on the NWT Community Mobilization Program took place Feb. 7. That afternoon Crown attorney Brent Lepage and defence lawyer John MacFarlane spoke on their relative roles pertaining to restorative justice.

They pointed out that community justice committees can receive referrals either prior to someone being charged, or afterwards.

Lepage said that restorative justice in some cases is better handled within the community than by the courts. He said there's a partnership between justice committees or other restorative justice agencies, the courts and the police.

"That's very important," Lepage said.

He pointed out that justice committees can refuse to hear cases, especially if they are serious in nature.

MacFarlane agreed.

"The more serious the charge, the more it should be in front of the court," MacFarlane said. "I'm a very big fan of justice committees."

MacFarlane said these committees are better able to provide in depth, long term solutions than the courts.

Lepage pointed out that with justice committees, not all the attention is focused on the accused.

"Victims are extremely important in the process," he said.

Lepage said the court system and restorative justice are not opposed to each other, just work differently. He said they are all trying to bring peace to communities and ensure people are saved from further injury and property damage.

Repairing harm

After the conference John Nash, co-ordinator of the Inuvik justice committee, said the whole purpose was to give people information on restorative justice and what it takes to start up and operate one.

Aside from Inuvik, community justice committees also exist in Tuktoyaktuk and Fort McPherson, with one just started in Sachs Harbour. Nash said residents in Aklavik, Tsiigehtchic and Paulatuuq are trying to revive their justice committees.

Nash said one important aspect of restorative justice is that it involves community members in the wake of a crime.

"Healing damaged relationships between a victim and an offender, and repairing harm that's been done, that's all restorative justice is about," Nash said.

Probation's role

Tracy MacPherson, regional probation supervisor for the Beaufort Delta, spoke during the conference. On Monday she explained that she wanted people to understand what probation officers do.

"I talked about the role that probation can play with community justice, and how can we work together, because it's always seemed that it's been so separate," MacPherson said.

"We should be working with the community and community justice. Because that's my background, is community justice. Now coming into probation, I can see lots of links."