Webinar: Restorative Inquiries: Considering the Cases of Dalhousie Dentistry and the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children

Societies turn to public inquiries, reviews or commissions to understand and address harms and complex social problems. Yet the effectiveness of the traditional adversarial and adjudicative approach to such processes is being called into serious question, particularly by those most affected or harmed. Professor Jennifer Llewellyn’s research and work has considered the potential of a restorative approach to chart a new course for such inquires and, in so doing, a new pathway for justice and societal transformation. In this webinar Professor Llewellyn will explain a restorative approach to inquiry. She will draw on her experience designing and facilitating the restorative process at the Dalhousie Faculty of Dentistry and the current Restorative Inquiry for the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children.

Guest Bio

Jennifer Llewellyn is the Yogis and Keddy Chair in Human Rights Law at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. In 2017-2018 she served as the scholar in residence for the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. Her teaching and research are focused in the areas of relational theory, restorative justice, truth commissions, peacebuilding, international and domestic human rights law, public law and Canadian constitutional law. She has written and published extensively on the theory and practice of a restorative approach. She is currently leading the International Learning Community on a Restorative Approach an international collaboration of researchers, policy markers and practitioners supporting jurisdictions committed to being restorative communities.

Professor Llewellyn has advised governments and NGO’s and supported governments, projects and programs including the Nova Scotia Restorative Justice Program, the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Jamaican government, the government of New Zealand and the United Nations. She was an appointed expert on the UN mechanism to review the UN Basic Principles for the Use of Restorative Justice in Criminal Matters. She facilitated the design process for a restorative public inquiry into the Home for Colored Children and now serves as a Commissioner for the Inquiry. She was awarded the National Ron Wiebe Restorative Justice Award from Correctional Services Canada in 2015 and was the 2018 recipient of the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council National Impact Award the highest award for research achievement and impact in Canada.
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