Back to RJ Archive

Re-claiming Justice and Community: The Community Council Project of Toronto

Proulx, Craig
June 4, 2015

Source: (2001) Ph.D. dissertation, McMaster University, Canada

Aboriginal peoples, particularly urban Aboriginal peoples, are discriminated against and over-represented throughout the Canadian Criminal justice system. I review specific colonial and postcolonial actions that lead to Aboriginal over-representation and explore how the diversion program of the Community Council Project (CCP) provides justice for the Aboriginal peoples of Toronto. This research aims to investigate the under-researched intersection between alternative justice practice, individual and community healing, and identity in an urban Aboriginal community. The CCP appropriates a non-Aboriginal diversion format and combines it with culture-specific Aboriginal restorative justice traditions, and pan-Aboriginal discourse, to assist clients in the process of healing. This research illustrates how community based justice restores and/or transforms the identity of Aboriginal clients. I indicate how individuals are healed, and how they are reintegrated into the Aboriginal community of Toronto. Subsequently, I discuss how healthy individual and community identities can be fostered through CCP justice philosophy and practice. Finally, I delineate the role of the CCP in how Aboriginal “communityâ€? is conceived of and practiced in Toronto. Author’s abstract.

Tags:

Abstract
Support the cause

We've Been Restoring Justice for More Than 40 Years

Your donation helps Prison Fellowship International repair the harm caused by crime by emphasizing accountability, forgiveness, and making amends for prisoners and those affected by their actions. When victims, offenders, and community members meet to decide how to do that, the results are transformational.

Donate Now