Denise McArthur has been involved with Restorative Justice Cowichan for the last 8 years, where’s she’s currently the restorative justice coordinator.
She says over the years her group has discovered that if you can help someone take responsibility for their actions in a way that doesn’t end up being a huge crisis in their life, but offers them an opportunity to repair harm to the community, “they won’t re offend and they become part of the community and a healthier community.”
Restorative justice is an approach to addressing crime and violence that seeks to Address the needs of victims or affected parties,to hold offenders or responsible parties meaningfully accountable for their actions, and to engage the community in the justice process. It’s used in every province and territory in Canada and is supported by legislation and federal, provincial and territorial government programs and policies.
McArthur says some people may initially think the approach is soft on crime, but the work involved in taking accountability and facing an affected party can be more difficult than going through the motions of a criminal justice process.
“We get accused of being too soft on on the responsible party, that it’s an easy way for them to get out of a criminal record. But in reality, restorative justice is is way harder work for the person who is taking responsibility,” she said.
“They have to actually face the affected party and tell them why they did what they did. And, and how they feel about what they did. And that person gets to have a voice in, ‘why did that happen?’ this is how it’s made me feel. And then the two of them sit across from each other, eye to eye, and figure out how to fix it.”
McArthur says the process also gives the affected party more of a voice in how things play out.
“It’s really amazing to see how people learn from each other. Somebody who would have pressed charges went, ‘you know what, this is not something that should go through the criminal justice system. It’s really, I get it. And so if you’re going to repair my window, or you’re going to do some volunteer hours, or you’re going to go get some counseling to help with this, then that’s a much better outcome than it is with the court system.'”
McArthur says most Canadians don’t know they have the option of pursuing restorative justice in situations where they might otherwise be open to it.
“Restorative justice is probably one of the easiest things to access, but is one of the least known options.”
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