No'kmaw Village | Flat Bay Band
Liz Lasaga, Chief Executive Officer, No’Kmaw Village | Sarah Nash, Coordinator, Ktaqmukuk Restorative Justice Strategy
Background
No’kmaw Village is an independent Mi’Kmaw band serving membership residing in Flat Bay, E, W, and St. Theresa’s, NL as well as those living elsewhere across the province and country. It is a self-governing community without a governmental or municipal financial support base. Its mandate is to protect and represent the First Nations’ rights of its members to provincial and federal governments. It is a member of the Assembly of First Nations and a leader and active participant within the broader scope of the Mi’Kmaw communities.
For more information regarding the community, please visit the website: www.flatbayband.ca
Definition of Restorative Justice
Restorative justice includes a process for restoring peace and building up accountability for actions of harm occurring within the community. Its intention is to bring the community together in a respectful manner. Specifically related to the KRJS project, the Government of Canada defines rj as “an approach to justice that seeks to repair harm by providing an opportunity for those harmed and those who take responsibility for the harm to communicate about and address their needs in the aftermath of a crime.”
Demographic Served
Support is available for all ages for those navigating the judicial system.
Extrajudicial Measures program is available for youth ages 12-17, from Indigenous communities across the island.
Future plans, post Youth Justice Program funding, include serving all adults and youth referred by RCMP, Department of Children, Seniors, and Social Development, as well as the Department of Education.
Services
No’Kmaw Village has been providing restorative justice services for its members since time immemorial in the form of healing, sentencing, support, and accountability circles. More recently, since 2014, they have worked with Dr. Rosemary Ricciardelli to establish a formal extra-judicial measures for a youth program that involves and meets the requirements of the provincial judicial system. With a multi-year, 2020-2023, grant from the Department of Justice, Canada, Youth Justice, they have created a specific service whose vision is to “reduce youth contact with the law and equalize the Indigenous incarceration rate which is proportional to the population” (p. 2, K’Taqmkuk Restorative Justice Strategy, 2022).* Similar to the approach used by Miawpukek First Nation, circles to address harm and conflict are facilitated in a traditional, Indigenous manner. Participants include those directly causing the harm, those experiencing the harm, and a committee of community members. Currently, there are eight communities involved in this project in the Flat Bay region, each with their own restorative justice committee who work collaboratively with the RCMP to facilitate circles.
Services include:
Providing and facilitating healing, sentencing, support, and accountability circles for its members including youth
K’Taqmkuk Restorative Justice Strategy for youth addresses extrajudicial measures only (not extrajudicial sanctions). As such these circles do not involve formal pre-charge or post-charge circles, but involves and promotes specific conversations with the youth in hopes of resolution and learning
Supporting youth involved in criminal cases to navigate the formal judicial process
Information provided
March 21 & May 9, 2023