Last week, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) presented its 2015 National Ron Wiebe Restorative Justice Award to Professor Jennifer Llewellyn at a ceremony in Quebec City, as part of the annual National Restorative Justice Symposium.
“This award recognizes Professor Llewellyn’s reputation and leadership, locally, nationally, and internationally, in restorative justice matters,” says Schulich School of Law Dean Camille Cameron.
Prof. Llewellyn is the Viscount Bennett Professor at the Schulich School of Law and an international expert in restorative justice. She has consistently demonstrated a deep commitment to the values of restorative justice through both her academic work and her personal life.
Understood restoratively, justice demands we appreciate that harms aren’t done just to the individuals but also to the way individuals are connected to others.
“Restorative justice is an idea that, at its core, has to be about repairing or addressing the harm caused to social relationships when wrongdoing happens,” . “Understood restoratively, justice demands we appreciate that harms aren’t done just to the individuals but also to the way individuals are connected to others. Justice is then focused on addressing harmful relationships at interpersonal, social, and systemic levels.”
Her teaching and research is focused in the areas of restorative justice, truth commissions, international and domestic human rights law, and Canadian constitutional law. She is the author of multiple publications on the theory and practice of a restorative approach for local, national, and international audiences.
Global restorative reach
Prof. Llewellyn has developed and facilitated restorative justice projects around the world. She has worked for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa in the wake of apartheid and was a senior advisor for the United Nations Development Programme supporting the development of a National Restorative Justic Policy for Jamaica. Her work on international peacebuilding led to an invitation to present to the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission and the World Summit of Nobel Laureates in Warsaw, Poland.
Here at home, she has advised Nova Scotia’s Department of Justice in the development of its restorative approach to youth justice, worked with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that addressed abuses of First Nations peoples in Canada’s residential schools, and facilitated the design of the recently launched restorative public-inquiry process for the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (she was recently appointed by the Cabinet to the Council of Parties that oversees that process).
Prof. Llewellyn also helped establish ±«Óătv’s own restorative justice program, which has been in place since 2011, when the university began participating in the Restorative Justice Pilot Project with the Halifax Regional Municipality and the Nova Scotia Department of Justice.
"This award really feels like an acknowledgement of the many dedicated and talented people I have been privileged to work alongside as we try to support inclusive and just communities here in Nova Scotia and throughout the world," says Prof. Llewellyn.
The is given annually to recognize Canadian individuals who demonstrate leadership in the service of justice and peace.