The Timeline of the Victoria Restorative Justice Society
2002: A citizen’s group interested in the philosophy of restorative justice was formed, in part from the RJ Coalition that meets at William Head Institution. This group of individuals, including Penny Joy, Saul Arbess and Robert Ball, eventually became the Victoria Restorative Justice Society (VRJS). Penny Joy was Chair of the VRJS Board until 2010, and kindly offered her basement (also owned by Saul Arbess) as the principal operating location of the organization until 2009, when we got our own office.
2003: Following a series of community meetings, fundraising and police liaison meetings, the group acquired start-up funds from the provincial government’s Community Accountability Program.
2005: VRJS was officially incorporated as a society and embarked on a pilot project with the Victoria Police Department (VPD).
2006: This year was a critical point for VRJS; we signed a MOU with VPD to take pre-charge diversion cases for minor offenses, Geanine Robey took on the role of Program Coordinator from Dana Caple Smith, and the amount of referrals and projects began to grow exponentially.
2007: VRJS established an ongoing relationship with VPD serving the City of Victoria and Esquimalt, and provided training on restorative justice to the uniformed divisions of the VPD. At that time we had 42 volunteers, 33 of whom were trained facilitators.
We then became community partners with Crown Counsel, Volunteer Victoria and School District #61, offering community justice conferencing and related services (e.g. victim-offender reconciliation) for cases referred by police, Crown, court, school and community agencies. We also developed restitution sessions at lunch hours in a middle school and workshops and speakers for our volunteers, as well as public education events.
2008: VRJS signed a memorandum of understanding with the Crown Counsel to receive cases. We were community partners with the Victoria Police Department, Crown Counsel, Volunteer Victoria and School District #61, offering community justice conferencing and related services (e.g. victim-offender reconciliation) for cases referred by police, Crown, court, school and community agencies. We also developed restitution sessions at lunch hours in a middle school and workshops and speakers for our volunteers, as well as public education events.
2009: Thanks to seed funding from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General and the Victoria Family Court & Youth Justice Committee, a “Theatre Outreach” project (including R J training for youth) was designed and presented at the Belfry Theatre and several Victoria schools.
2010:
-Gillian Lindquist took over the role of Program Coordinator.
-VRJS began receiving referrals from ICBC.
Over the years, we have gained the firmly expressed support of Chief Jamie Graham, who at our 2009 AGM said “I would like to see RJ in Victoria become one of the cornerstones of community policing.” We also have the support of BC Assistant Deputy Attorney General Robert Gillen who at an Infonet meeting expressed his belief in the efficacy of restorative justice and remarked that the criminal justice system was at an all time low and alternatives must be considered. Out of a total of approximately 75 non-Aboriginal community justice programs, VRJS is one of six others that has an MOU with the Attorney General’s office to take Crown referrals.
Thanks to Penny Joy for providing the information for this page.
