‘Criminal legal system continues to fail survivors’: LEAF executive director
The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) and Community Justice Initiatives (CJI) have collaborated to launch a new report that emphasizes the importance of offering sexual violence survivors more meaningful options for justice that promote repair, healing, and accountability.
“The criminal legal system continues to fail survivors of sexual violence,” said Ruth Goba, LEAF executive director, in a news release. “It’s time for Ontario to modernize its justice system and align it with what survivors, experts, and communities are calling for.”
The report – titled “Bridging Justices: A Critical Exploration of Moratoriums on Restorative and Transformative Justice for Sexual Harm in Ontario” – addresses how Ontario can improve access to restorative justice and transformative justice (RJ/TJ) for survivors of sexual harm.
“At CJI, we are continually humbled by the courage of survivors who reach out to us for a restorative response to the harm they experienced,” said Kate Crozier, CJI interim executive director, in the news release.
“What we hear, time and time again from survivors is that they want a process that centres their needs, moves at the pace of readiness and can result in meaningful accountability from the person who harmed them,” Crozier added.
The report noted that Ontario Crown policy D.4 currently denies sexual assault survivors the option to divert their cases outside of the criminal process, even though the law permits this for numerous other offences.
Building upon LEAF’s October 2023 report titled “Avenues to Justice: Restorative and Transformative Justice for Sexual Violence,” the report saw a need to reevaluate Crown policy D.4, which bans the use of s. 717 of the Criminal Code, 1985, for all sexual offences, among other provincial and territorial policies restricting or preventing diversion under s. 717.
The report urged the Ontario government to:
- Amend Crown policy D.4 to enable survivor-initiated diversion to RJ/TJ programs under s. 717 in connection with sexual offences
- Invest in public RJ/TJ education regarding non-criminal legal options for sexual harm for survivors, lawyers, police, judges, and gender-based violence (GBV) sector workers
- Hold province-wide community consultations on RJ/TJ implementation, centred on cultural responsiveness and jurisdictional oversight
- Fund four three-year pilot RJ/TJ sites for sexual harm that are survivor-centred, community-led, and responsive to the needs of marginalized populations
- Invest in community-based responses to sexual violence to support Indigenous sovereignty and legal revitalization
- Offer sustainable provincial funding for restorative and transformative justice education and capacity building
Two assistant professors of criminology – Dr. Mandi Gray of Trent University and Dr. Jessica Evans of Toronto Metropolitan University – authored the report.
Launch event
According to the news release, LEAF, CJI, and the report authors officially launched the report at a press conference held at the Queen’s Park Press Gallery in Toronto on Nov. 27, within the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
Amid this international campaign for concrete steps to combat GBV, LEAF and CJI joined advocates across Canada in calling for concrete action to promote gender justice.
LEAF, a national charitable organization, seeks to ensure that the law advances substantive equality for women, girls, trans, and non-binary people.
As a not-for-profit organization in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, CJI aims to facilitate restorative justice for a range of conflicts and harms.
