Good morning.
Thank you for having us here. This is a really important issue, and I'm happy to see so many people out and finally paying attention to this.
My name is Melanie Nimmo. I'm an assistant professor in criminal justice at the University of Winnipeg, with a background in street gangs. I'm on the board of John Howard Society, and I'm here speaking for our executive director, John Hutton. He's not able to be here today. However, Kate Kehler is here, and she'll also be able to attend to any questions the committee has.
I apologize in advance, but unfortunately I will have to leave at noon. I teach today, and this is as much time as I could allot. I'm really sorry that I'll have to dash out.
That said, I also want to thank you for the opportunity to share some of the important work we're doing at John Howard Society. We work predominantly with men in conflict with the law, so a lot of people question what we can offer in terms of aboriginal women, the violence against aboriginal women, and the issue of missing aboriginal women. However, it comes into play because we take a very holistic and multi-faceted approach to crime--namely, restorative justice, which is based on traditional first nations notions of community healing and how to deal with offenders and repair harm in the community.
First I'm going to talk a little bit about John Howard Society in Manitoba, and then I'm going to talk about the notion of restorative justice, and specifically our program “Restorative Resolutions”. I then want to conclude by highlighting two programs that we've found to be very successful in attending to violence perpetrated by men, and not just aboriginal men but white men as well, against aboriginal women.
John Howard Society is a national coalition. We have 65 chapters across Canada. We all come together under the banner of advocating for an effective, just, and humane system. In Manitoba, John Howard Society formed here in Winnipeg in 1957. Shortly after that, we also recognized the need in Brandon, and they were incorporated into John Howard Society in 1965. We are currently trying to expand our services to reach out to northern reserves and communities, which are also in dire need of some assistance for alcohol-related and violence issues on the reserves. We're trying to reach out in that regard.
Now I'll talk a little bit about restorative justice. I know that a lot of people are familiar with it. It has a long history. In a nutshell, restorative justice seeks to repair harm. At the same time, it instills accountability on the part of the offender. We note that many victims....
By the way, 41% of the programs that fall under the auspice of restorative justice are for violent offences. Not many people know that. It's not just property crimes. We have found that it's a very rewarding experience for the victim. They're able to describe the harm that was done to them. The victim, the offender, and the community work together to mediate, and to make amends, and to repair harm. So we find it's very significant for empowering everybody involved in the process.
As an example of that, we began running the restorative resolutions program in 1993, with the focus of encouraging men to take responsibility for their behaviour, including violent behaviour against women and children, and to make amends for that.
There are a couple of statistics that I find really interesting: 95% of our proposed plans have been accepted by the courts, and 89% of our clients have successfully completed the conditions without reoffending. This translates into 51,000 hours of community service done in our communities. As well, 450 clients have provided their victims with letters of apology. Again, we're talking about making amends and repairing harm. Finally, in terms of monetary compensation for acts of violence and property damage, over $1 million has been paid back to victims directly.
We strive to meet the root causes of offending. In that regard, we deal with literacy. We deal with employment skills and helping to reintegrate an offender into the community. We recognize that this is the only way to really resolve some of the issues that bring a person into offending to begin with.
I now want to highlight two specific programs that deal directly with acts of violent behaviour.