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Welcome to the Restorative justice center of Quebec

The Restorative Justice Centre of Quebec (RJC-QC) was created in order promote an understanding of the concepts of restorative justice and to implement restorative justice programs within the province of Quebec.  Restorative justice focuses on a reconciliation and healing process between offender and victim, where both take an active role in a process wherein offenders take direct responsibility for their acts and attempt reparation and victims can express how they have been affected by the wrongdoing. Restorative justice recognizes that crime is an offense against individuals rather than the State and emphasizes reconciliation and catharsis rather than punishment as in our modern criminal justice system. Thus, our mandate is based on respecting the fundamental dignity of human beings and the need for societal harmony.

Restorative Justice is a process of empowerment that allows restoration of self-esteem and self-confidence. It aims to summon understanding from confusion and hope from despair. It involves reconciliation with oneself and the “other” resulting in inner healing.

Experts develop restorative justice proposals to address Catholic sexual abuse crisis

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Ornamental cross on the Basilica of the Sacred heart. Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame.

Ornamental cross on the Basilica of the Sacred heart. Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame.

A group composed of scholars, psychologists, clergy, restorative justice experts and victim-survivors of the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis has developed a set of proposals that encourage the use of restorative justice as a means to help heal victim-survivors and the broader Church.

The proposals are the result of a two-year study supported by an initiative created by the University of Notre Dame’s Office of the President as part of the Notre Dame Forum, ‘“Rebuild My Church’:  Crisis and Response,” to fund research projects that address issues emerging from the crisis. The proposals have been forwarded for consideration to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Read full article.

Walking Together

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Walking Together is a Salt + Light Media original documentary about Canada’s residential schools, the ongoing process of reconciliation which led to Pope Francis’ apology in 2022, and the long road ahead for healing and reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Indigenous Peoples of Canada.

Lisa Raven, Executive director of our partner Returning to spirit, was in Rome to meet the Pope:

https://slmedia.org/w/ZhaLgxkd/walking-together

Corrections and Conditional Release Statistical Overview 2020

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January 2022

This document was produced by the Public Safety Canada Portfolio Corrections Statistics Committee which is composed of representatives of Public Safety Canada, Correctional Service of Canada, Parole Board of Canada, the Office of the Correctional Investigator and the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics (Statistics Canada.

 

 

The Corrections and Conditional Release Statistical Overview (CCSO) is an annual report published by Public Safety’s Research Division. The CCRSO has been published since 1998, with the 2020 report marking the 23rd edition. The CCRSO provides key Canadian criminal justice system statistics across a topics such as crime rates, criminal charges in courts, and the description of offenders in Canada’s correctional systems. The report compiles data from Correctional Service of Canada, Parole Board of Canada, Office of the Correctional Investigator, Statistics Canada, and for the 2020 CCRSO, Justice Canada.

A selection of key trends identified in the CCRSO are included below:

  • The overall police-reported crime rate increased 9.5% in the last 5 years (from 2015 to 2019), but remained 6.9% lower than 2010. Property crime followed a similar pattern, with an 8.7% increase from 2015 to 2019, but remained 8.7% lower than 2010. The rate of violent crime increased 19.3% between 2015 and 2019. The 2019 rate was slightly lower (1.2%) than 2010.
  • Police-reported violent victimization (which counts victims rather than incidents in the crime rate) increased 19.8% in the last 5 years (from 2015 to 2019) and 9.0% in the last year (2018 to 2019). Police-reported sexual violations against children increased 94.3% in the last 5 years. This was the largest increase during this period.
  • Self-reported victimization data in 2019 showed large variability in the crimes reported to police. Motor vehicle/parts theft was the most likely crime to be reported to police with 52% of self-reported motor vehicle/parts theft reported to police. Sexual assault was the least likely crime to be reported to police, with only 6% of self-reported sexual assaults reported to police.
  • The rate of youth charged decreased 47.3%, between 2010 and 2019. The rate of youth charged with violent crimes in 2019 was 17.2% lower than 2010, but has increased 16.0% since 2015.
  • Common assault was the most frequent case in both adult court and youth court in 2018-19. The next most common cases were impaired driving in adult court and theft in youth court.

The CPB Research Newsflash is published by Public Safety Canada. If you received it directly, your name is already on our mailing list.

If you are receiving it from a third party and would like to add your name to the mailing list, please contact us by e-mail at PS.CPBResearch-RechercheSPC.SP@ps-sp.gc.ca.

Source

Full document (PDF format)

Statement of Apology by the Catholic Bishops of Canada to the Indigenous Peoples of This Land

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Friday, September 24 2021

We, the Catholic Bishops of Canada, gathered in Plenary this week, take this opportunity to affirm to you, the Indigenous Peoples of this land, that we acknowledge the suffering experienced in Canada’s Indian Residential Schools. Many Catholic religious communities and dioceses participated in this system, which led to the suppression of Indigenous languages, culture and spirituality, failing to respect the rich history, traditions and wisdom of Indigenous Peoples. We acknowledge the grave abuses that were committed by some members of our Catholic community; physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, cultural, and sexual. We also sorrowfully acknowledge the historical and ongoing trauma and the legacy of suffering and challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples that continue to this day.  Along with   those Catholic entities which were directly involved in the operation of the schools and which have already offered their own heartfelt apologies[1], we[2], the Catholic Bishops of Canada, express our profound remorse and apologize unequivocally.

Full text

‘Unthinkable’ discovery in Canada as remains of 215 children found buried near residential school

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(CNN)The gruesome discovery took decades and for some survivors of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada, the confirmation that children as young as 3 were buried on school grounds crystallizes the sorrow they have carried all their lives.

“I lost my heart, it was so much hurt and pain to finally hear, for the outside world, to finally hear what we assumed was happening there,” said Harvey McLeod, who attended the school for two years in the late 1960s, in a telephone interview with CNN Friday.
“The story is so unreal, that yesterday it became real for a lot of us in this community,” he said.
The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc community in the southern interior of British Columbia, where the school was located, released a statement late Thursday saying an “unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented” was confirmed.

Link: https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/28/world/children-remains-discovered-canada-kamloops-school/index.html