Squamish is now home to a restorative justice pilot project in partnership with North Shore Restorative Justice.
"As an alternative justice form, restorative justice examines crime and conflict as a breakdown between people and relationships impacting the victim, community, and offender," reads a Squamish RCMP news release on the program, which officially got underway this month.
"Restorative justice provides opportunities for all parties involved to communicate directly or indirectly about what happened, who was impacted and how, who is taking responsibility for what, and what needs to happen to address the needs of all."
To participate in the voluntary program all parties must agree and the offender needs to take responsibility for his or her actions.
"They don't have to be sobbing on the ground begging for forgiveness, but they do have to say 'I did what they are saying I did," Sioned Dyer, executive director of the North Shore Restorative Justice Society told The Chief.
"That lets us move past any conversations of basically taking responsibility and getting to what is really going on for that person and what is underneath the criminal activity."
Dyer noted that restorative justice has its roots in Indigenous communities "that have and continue to practice community responses to crime and conflict. That is a really important thing to note."
She added that it can support historically marginalized groups who have been disproportionately represented in the traditional justice system.
“Such as Indigenous people based on a history of systemic racism within the justice system,” she said.
Squamish RCMP Cpl. Angela Kermer told The Chief that there is no limit to what crimes could be referred by police to be involved with restorative justice.
"I am really impressed because it has come a long way since I became involved with restorative justice many years ago," said Kermer, who first became interested in this type of diversion program about two decades ago.
Previously, only minor crimes could be open to restorative justice, she said.
"I love this. I think our system is as good as it is adaptable and I think we need to adapt to serve our communities... to help keep them safer. Sometimes, what we are doing doesn't work. We need to be inventive. We need to work with other people... The entire justice system just isn't court and police and sheriffs. It is all-encompassing and multi-layered and we need to work within those layers to best serve our people."
Benefits of the system over the traditional court system include allowing the victim to ask questions of the offender and express the level of harm caused.
"Folks feel like they want justice and that going through the traditional court process is going to give them some form of justice and oftentimes that isn't the case because you don't have that opportunity to ask the person questions that are meaningful to you," Dyer said, noting a trained facilitator is present during restorative justice meetings between victim and offender. "Those spaces are incredibly transformative, both for the victim and the offender. The victim can see the offender as a human and not the monster that they have created in their mind... They realize this person was maybe really struggling with substance use or something... And the offender has an opportunity to take true accountability and ultimately move forward in a good way.'"
It is a confidential process and the offender can avoid a record for the crime committed if the program is completed successfully. Outcomes — punishment — can be the same as the provincial court, such as community service.
Unlike lengthy court processes that can take years to come to a resolution, restorative justice aims to wrap up in a little over three months.
“Talk about swift and sure,” Kermer said.
Dyer said global research shows that those who go through a restorative-type program are less likely to offend.
She said further work will be done to track local stats.
For further information on restorative justice, go to http://www.nsrj.ca or https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/justice/criminal-justice/bcs-criminal-justice-system/understanding-criminal-justice/restorative-justice or contact the Squamish RCMP at 604-892-6100.
