Marathon & Manitouwadge Community & Youth Justice Program: An overview

The Community & Youth Justice program offers an alternative to court proceedings for minor, non-violent offences for first time offenders. The major prerequisites are that the offender admits up front his or her responsibility for the offence and that the victim is willing to participate in the program. The offender, the victim and their supporters attend the conference, along with a trained volunteer facilitator.

As of April 1, 2003, the Youth Criminal Justice Act came into effect, replacing the Young Offenders Act. One of the main pieces of this legislation is alternative justice programs.

Youth justice conferences, presided over by program facilitators who are all community volunteers, will be the main focus of the program. A justice conference involves bringing the victim and his/her supporters, the offender and his/her supporters, and a trained facilitator together in a controlled setting to talk about the crime and to see if a resolution can be arrived at to restore harmony in the community.

The heart of the program is the interaction between the parties. The offender speaks first, admitting what he/she has done. This can be a challenge for the facilitator since the offender is often reluctant to open up in front of the other people. The victim then speaks. This is usually very important for the victim because it is the first time he/she gets to say how they have been affected by the crime. It also provides an opportunity for the offender to see what the impact of his/her crime has been and how it affects the lives of other people.

Then, the victim's supporters are invited to speak on the harm the crime has done. This quite often is the first time the offender had given any thought as to how his/her actions affected others.

Finally, the offender's supporters speak, and they usually are as troubled as the victim. The theory is the offender will feel remorse, and that it promotes a desire not to stray outside of what society sees as acceptable conduct. The goal of the facilitation promotes offender awareness and allows the victim the opportunity - in a safe environment - to confront this person and find closure.

The group then is asked for suggestions on how the matter can be resolved. A contract is drafted, and the offender is expected to comply with the terms of resolution, reporting back to the co-ordinator of the program. An opportunity is given to the young person to offer an apology as part of a resolution, as well as other conditions could vary from a charitable donation, compensation, community service, curfews, and participation in community programs, among others.

The Youth Justice Committee has hired Isobel Nobel as the co-ordinator and an office set up at the Nursery School building at the bottom of the Ski Hill Road in Manitouwadge. If you are interested in obtaining more information on the program or on becoming involved, please feel free to call Isobel at 807-826-3515

Marathon & Manitouwadge Community & Youth Justice Program - History

September 2001, the Ontario Provincial Police met with a group of community volunteers as the initial step to developing the Marathon & Manitouwadge Community & Youth Justice Program.

In September 2002, an application for funding was submitted to the Ministry of the Attorney General. In January 2003, this application was approved and the program became incorporated as an official Youth Justice Committee site.

Training for facilitators was provided in May of 2002 and again in November 2002. Currently the program has 9 active volunteers who have been trained as facilitators - 4 in Manitouwadge and 5 in Marathon.

The Committee meets monthly and is managed by 7 directors:

Chairperson - David Giuliano
Vice-Chair - Randy Barnes
Secretary - Harold Griggs
Treasurer - Bill Harris
Directors - Don Dionne
Val Biggs
Gerry Courtemanche

The Committee is planning a training session for facilitators in the fall and for an afternoon refresher for current facilitators.

For more information on these training opportunities please contact Isobel Noble at
807-826-3515

Marathon-Manitouwadge Youth Justice Committee

Any measures taken must involve offender, victims and parents

By Debbie Sauve

The Marathon Mercury - April 15, 2003

A shoestring budget, a passion for helping people and a love for the community; these are the ingredients that started the Community Justice Committee that is now available for two small communities in northern Ontario.
" I feel very positive about our program here in Marathon and the way that it is going," David Giuliano, chairperson of the Community Justice Committee in Marathon-Manitowadge, said. "Our community involvement is endless and I feel like we do have a small town advantage."
Giuliano has been continually involved in many volunteer work hours to help the community of Marathon. This is the reason that he was hand-chosen by the Ontario Provincial Police to head this program. The Community Justice Committee will be another volunteer act to add to his resume of helping people.
Representatives from Marathon and Manitowadge, including Giuliano, have been meeting together since September 2001 in order to launch a community and youth justice alternative. These two communities work as one single program, with monthly meetings that alternate between them.

The committee works much like the Youth Justice Committees that are offered in numerous other communities throughout Ontario. The difference is that the restorative justice program in Marathon and Manitowadge is offered to both young offenders and adults.

"We are not only dealing with youth justice offenders," Giuliano said. "The value is around the restorative justice model, that I see as valuable regardless of whether you are a young offender or an adult offender."

The Restorative Justice Committee was started through the initiative of the Marathon-Manitowadge Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) detachment. The committee now works on an independent basis with the continuing support of the OPP.

Currently, there are two OPP consultants on the committee. Other members come from the community and consist of anyone that wants to sign up. "Right now, we pull together whoever we can to help out and volunteer their time to us," Giuliano said.

Up to mid-December, the committee worked strictly on a volunteer basis. The members, including Giuliano, volunteered about eight hours a month. They also used the Internet for communication to save money, and relied on OPP help for filing, and other office duties.

In early December, the Attorney General of Ontario funded the program $40,000 for the Youth Justice Committee aspect. Out of the $40,000, $15,000 is intended for the committee's yearly operating budget, while the other $25,000 is for their startup costs. The committee plans on stretching the budget to not only cover the youth justice aspect, but also the entire Restorative Justice Program. They also plan to use the funding to hire a coordinator for the program to take care of the administrative aspects.

This funding is part of a commitment the Ontario government made in the May 2000 Budget to triple the number of Youth Justice Committees across Ontario from six to 18. The May 2000 Budget, provided $500,000 per year for the expansion of the project.

Since the committees started in Marathon-Manitowadge, about a year ago, they have dealt with 15 cases. Offenses that are eligible for referral to committee include theft or possession under $5,000, false pretences under $5,000, mischief under $5,000, causing a disturbance, fraud under $5,000, and food or accommodation fraud.

"The offenses that are considered eligible are all considered to be minor offenses," he said.

Once the offender has been referred to the program, they must perform a multitude of tasks to complete the program to have their charges withdrawn by the Crown attorney.

In general, how the committee works is that once the offender has been charged and referred to the committee, they must first be willing to admit that they are guilty. If the offender admits to the charge and the victim is willing, they sit down with the members of the committee to try to work out an agreement.

"We do not deal with whether you are guilty or not," Giuliano said. "You don't even come into this process unless you are prepared to say 'I did it'.

A trained facilitator then leads the process, which includes family and community members. It begins with offender acknowledging to the victim their guilt. The victim then has a chance to say how they have been affected.

The consequences or measures decided on must satisfy the victim and be carried out within a set time frame; otherwise the case is turned back to the court system.

Measures take into consideration the individual circumstances of the offense and the offender, and are determined in conjunction with the offender, parents and victims. They include community service, curfews, paying back the victim and community, counseling programs, an agreement by the offender not to associate with a person or group, voluntary suspension of privileges such as a driver's license, and extra school time, provided the school consents.

"In the end, what we are trying to do is restore the social fiber that has been violated," Giuliano said.

Giuliano continued that there are many advantages to this program. Some of the advantages that he has sees it has over the judicial process are that it saves the courts money, there is a higher rate of victim satisfaction, the probability of re-offending is lower and the consequences of the agreement between offender and victim are more severe.

"Restorative justice is not a lighter way off," he said. "It goes beyond just a slap on the wrist in court by making the offender face the victim. The key element is that it is a form of constructive shame, by being confronted with your behaviour. "Some of the problems that have come up with the Youth Justice Committee process in larger areas are that the victims are not as willing to participate.

According to Giuliano, a reason that has come up for victims not being willing to participate is that storeowners, for example, are dealing with several shoplifting offenses a week and do not have time to work with the committee.

"Being in a small town we have an advantage in that our retailers and other community members are more than willing to be part of the process, and we are also not dealing with the quantity that a program like this would have to contend with in Toronto," he said.

Giuliano feels that the expansion of this program into communities both large and small across Ontario is a healthy move away from the court system.
"The court system does not provide justice to anyone," Giuliano said. That's why restorative justice is so important; the community can pull up its sleeves and provide that justice when the courts can't"

Giuliano plans to continue to offer his services and guidance to the community in any way that he can.