KENORA – The Kenora Justice Centre is seeing “extraordinary” results with a 70 per cent drop in property crimes and reciidivism related to property crime in the last six months.
Justice David Gibson, regional senior judge, attributed those results to the centre’s bi-cultural approach to rehabilitation, “based on love and kindness.”
Gibson was able to present these results to Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Edith Dumont, during her visit to Kenora on Tuesday.
The judge also said crimes against the person have dropped about 35 per cent, and crimes involving the administration of justice have dropped by 43 per cent.
“We think that this is the future of the way justice will be done, not just in Kenora, but in Ontario and hopefully across this country,” he said.
The Kenora Justice Centre, also known as Ga Naa Na Da Waa Ba Dang, is a partnership between the Ontario Court of Justice, the Ministry of the Attorney General and Grand Council Treaty 3.
It receives everyone between the ages of 12 and 24 that are charged with a criminal offence in the city.
“The provincial government had the idea many years ago to introduce justice centres as a pilot project in the province of Ontario, and Kenora along with London and Toronto were selected as representative places to put a justice centre in,” explained Gibson.
Opening the doors three and a half years ago, he continued that Kenora was directed to offer the program in a bi-cultural form.
When youth come through the doors, they’re assigned to a case manager who they can discuss their needs and life obstacles with. They then meet the court that sits on Mondays and Tuesdays, and the youth have discussions with the judge and two elders, always a female and male, explained Gibson.
“We discuss what an appropriate rehabilitation plan is, what an appropriate way of making amends for whatever harm has been done, and how to offer services to victims so that they’re equally supported,” he said.
Dumont learned about how the justice centre works and sat in on court proceedings.
“You can find a second chance and good (support), so you can thrive as youth and you can participate in the life of your community,” she said.
Dumont said that “everything related to how we help youth to thrive” is important to her.
“I’m happy, always happy to discover a part of our province, and especially in areas that are close to my heart, so of course everything related to education,” she said, as she used to be an educator.
During her visit, she also spoke about the importance of speaking in one’s mother tongue to connect to oneself and keep culture alive, something that she said she learned later in her life from attending Indigenous events.
Gibson added that “Everyone that I know of my vintage has never seen the kind of results that we’re having here and we’re very proud to share those results with the Lieutenant Governor and it was a real privilege to have her here today.”
They are also making efforts to bring the approach of the justice centre to people of all ages in Kenora and the Northwest.
“We started a restorative justice court in Thunder Bay which we’re also very proud of. We’re bringing restorative justice courts to five fly-in communities,” he said, listing Pikangikum, Weagamow, Cat Lake, Mishkeegogamang and Sandy Lake First Nations.
