The 2022 Dr. Gordon Wicijowski Law Foundation of Saskatchewan Lecture

"Reimagining Public Safety Restoratively: Implications for Policing"

Presented by Professor Jennifer Llewellyn (Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University)

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Presented 31 March 2022

Reliance on policing at the core of our model of public safety has put a priority on maintaining existing social order thus systemically perpetuating and reinforcing privilege, marginalization, inequality and harm for many, including those who are racialized, Indigenous, living in poverty, unhoused, experiencing gender-based violence, 2SLGBTQ+, differently abled, and living with mental health issues.

Calls for transformation echo across movements and in official reports - from Black Lives Matter, Me Too/Times Up, and Idle No More movements to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the Restorative Inquiry for the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children.

The current experience of Covid-19 and the transformations required within our justice and social systems and human services in response have also revealed the need for a sustained shift in our ways of thinking about and securing public safety and justice.

It is clear we need to reimagine safety and justice beyond policing. This requires more than operational reforms - more than new training and tactics. It requires fundamental structural, system, and culture change in our understanding and approach to public safety and justice. This presentation considers the potential of a restorative approach for this re-imagining and the “relational shift” needed to realize it.

Professor Jennifer Llewellyn is the Chair in Restorative Justice and Director of the Restorative Research, Innovation & Education Lab at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University.

This is a free event and all are welcome.

ABOUT THE LECTURE SERIES

The Law Foundation of Saskatchewan is an organization dedicated to enhancing legal education and research in order to respond to challenges facing the administration of justice. Owing to the generous support of this organization, the Law Foundation Chair in Police Studies was established in 2005 at the University of Regina Faculty of Arts.

The Law Foundation Chair allows the University to function as a centre of excellence in police studies, enabling the Chair to support issues of direct relevance to policing in Saskatchewan, to bring world-renowned experts in the field of criminal justice to Saskatchewan to share their expertise, and to participate in national discussions about current policing practices.

In support of these goals, each Fall a speaker is invited to the University of Regina in order to deliver a public lecture. In February 2011 the Law Foundation lecture was renamed ‘The Gordon Wicijowski Law Foundation of Saskatchewan Chair in Police Studies Lecture’, in recognition of the key role played by Dr. Gordon Wicijowki in the establishment of the Chair in Police Studies. This title change acknowledges Dr. Wicijowski’s years of service with the Law Foundation of Saskatchewan as well as the contributions he has made to the University of Regina, including serving on the Board of Governors – contributions for which Dr. Wicijowski has been presented an honorary doctorate. Today the lecture is known as the Dr. Gordon Wicijowski Law Foundation of Saskatchewan Lecture.

Past Law Foundation Lectures

• 2019: Changing the Story We Tell Ourselves About Alcohol, presented by Harold R. Johnson, author and former Crown Prosecutor. View lecture recording.  

• 2018: Why Do Hackers Hack? presented by Dr. Thomas J. Holt, Professor of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University

• 2016: Domestic Violence: The Challenge of Taking Account of the Interests of Children
  presented by Professor Nicholas Bala, Faculty of Law, Queen's University
  View Prof. Bala's slide presentation (2.51 MB)

• 2015: Smart Policing and the Challenge of Translational Criminology
  by Dr. Scott H. Decker, Foundation Professor, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State University
  View videotape of lecture. View Dr. Decker's slide presentation (671 KB) 

• 2014:Beyond the Criminal Law: What Local and Provincial Authorities Can Do to Regulate Sexually-oriented Business
  by Dr. Mariana Valverde, FRSC, Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies at the University of Toronto
  View event poster (1.7 MB)
  View videotape of lecture on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL2PR9bXqm8

• 2013: Proceed Until Apprehended
  by Karyn McClusky, Director of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit
  View event poster (671 KB)

• 2012: Murder and Maggots: The use of insect evidence in criminal investigations
  by Dr. Gail Anderson, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University

• 2011: The Future of Policing in Saskatchewan
  by Dr. Rick Rudell, University of Regina

• 2010: Some Reflections on the Discourse of Crime and Punishment in Canada
  by Howard Sapers, Correctional Investigator of Canada

• 2009: Does the Charter Matter?
  by Harry Arthurs, University Professor Emeritus and President Emeritus, York University