Under Chiefs Resolution 90/26 (dated March 1st, 1990), Nishnawbe-Aski Legal Services Corporation received direction from the Chiefs of Treaty No. 9 to strive in creating and promoting alternative and community-based justice systems for its members across the north. Today, we continue to strive in delivering this mandate by providing Restorative Justice to 14 of the 49 NAN First Nation communities. In delivering our culturally and traditionally appropriate means of justice in the north we count on the support and cooperation from various stakeholders in the current justice system, they include; Honorable Members of the Judiciary, the Department of Justice, Ministry of the Attorney General, Local Crown Attorney(s), Members of the Defense Bar and Local Police (NAPS and OPP) . We also count on guidance and support from; Chiefs and Councils, Elders, local Front-Workers and, perhaps most importantly community members like yourself.
In the delivery of our Restorative Justice program we use a model of facilitation called "Community Accountability Conferencing" (CAC) which is based largely upon the Maori and Samoan tradition of involving extended families in resolving disputes. In adapting this model for the needs of the NAN communities, the program integrates local traditional processes and practices that are made known to us by community Elders and leaders. Each community sometimes has its own unique custom or tradition that requires general modifications to the CAC model.
The Community Accountability Conferencing (CAC) Model
"Community Accountability Conferencing" (CAC) is an alternative system of addressing certain types of offences in First Nations communities. The CAC process has worked for other indigenous peoples throughout the world. The CAC model is not unfamiliar to First Nations people. It is an alternative method of resolving certain wrongdoing in communities familiar with the ways of resolving conflict long before the imposition of the Euro-Canadian justice system. The CAC is a process that most First Nations people can relate to in a familiar way. It is a community-driven process. Unlike the modern day court system, the CAC has a healing approach to resolving conflict and yet has the elements of shaming and expressing remorse. It is a healing means rather than a process that is adversarial in nature. It helps to restore balance and harmony in the community. For years, the contemporary justice system has not worked favorably for First Nations people, a system of justice that has been brought in from the outside. It is indeed foreign to the First Nations way of dealing with conflict. For a long time, First Nations people have sought ways to regain a system of justice that was never lost, never given up, and never replaced. And now, through the Community Accountability Conferencing process, an opportunity awaits to creatively restore a way of life that works for the First Nations Communities."
- Garnet Angeconeb, Report on the Restorative Justice Program,
Nishnawbe-Aski Legal Services Corporation, March 2000.
Nishnawbe-Aski Legal Services Corporation favors the use of the title Restorative Justice to describe its program because it is about restoring relationships and restoring the traditional justice system that is dormant but still existent in the NAN communities.
Primary goals and objectives of the program are:
- To give the community more empowerment over crime and its resolution by diverting specific criminal offences to the Community Accountability Conferencing;
- To acknowledge the effects of crime on victims by making offenders aware of the consequences of their actions and to make offenders accept responsibility for their actions;
- To provide collective support for the victim;
- To replace ineffective conventional court systems and process with a more people based Community Accountability Conferencing;
- To allow participants to repair the damage that was caused by the offender and to minimize further harm that may be caused by the offender. The conference agreement comes from the participants, not the facilitator.
Since the inception of the program in September, 1998, Nishnawbe-Aski Legal Services Corporation has dealt with both young offenders and adults; both pre charge and post charge diversions as well as community situations such as bullying in schools. We have also dealt with cases of historical sexual abuse. Although the cases were of a less serious nature they gave us the experience necessary to embark on the Training the Trainers Program that has successfully completed training of front line workers in six communities to deal with sexual abuse disclosure using Restorative Justice as part of the healing process.
