Transformative Justice Details and Logistics

TJ at Salal will probably look different than the way that TJ or community-based accountability processes have looked like:

1. As a non-profit we reserve the right to uphold the privacy and confidentiality of all participants of a TJ process at Salal, as they are fundamentally our clients. This means we are unable to support any interventions, actions or responses that would jeopardize a client’s identity, or personal information.
2. Where community-based accountability and transformative justice approaches leverage relationships, and may use forms of pressure to incentivize people who’ve caused harm to become accountable, TJ at Salal requires all participants to be willing and consenting parties to a TJ process. We will aim to leverage the relationships that participants have with others to create “support pods”. Pods members (particularly those who are part of the accountability pod for the person who has caused harm) will help build the necessary pressure and incentive to keep the processes moving forward in a way that aligns with a survivor’s goals and needs.

WAVAW will be inviting participants into the TJ pilot who are existing WAVAW clients. This will involve internal referrals beginning with individuals who are already connected to WAVAW’s Counselling and Victim Services programs. There are 2 reasons for this:

1. It is highly likely that demand for participation in a TJ process at WAVAW will be greater than our team’s capacity.
2. Given the focus of a TJ process which will involve directly addressing the harm of sexual violence, survivors who have just experienced violence may not have the personal capacity, desire or ability to engage and participate as fully. It is reasonable to anticipate that survivors who are in immediate crisis have urgent needs related to safety, managing trauma or triggers. Survivors who need this immediate support are encouraged to leverage WAVAW’s 6 sessions of crisis counselling with a Sexual Assault Response Team worker, rather than engage in a lengthy TJ process. Other wraparound services include WAVAW’s 24 hr crisis and information line, WAVAW connect chat and text support, our monthly drop-in support group, our Victim Services program or our community group at WISH.

Often, people who have caused harm to survivors of sexual violence include direct perpetrators, and can also include other individuals, like family or friends. The TJ Pilot Team recognizes these different “waves” of harm to be primary, secondary, and tertiary forms that have the potential to impact survivors in violent, (re)traumatizing ways.

Primary harm is the immediate and initial experience of sexual violence. Secondary harm refers to the ways that responses to the violence that negatively impacted the survivor–perhaps victim-blaming by members of the survivor’s community or family, or collusion with the perpetrator against the survivor. Tertiary harm can include the ways that systems, institutions and members of those venues enact harm after violence–perhaps police officers, health care staff, crown attorneys, etc.

All types of harm are scoped into this project.

Given this, the TJ pilot will allow the participation of 3 types of cases, listed below.

• Both the survivor and the person who committed direct sexual violence, abuse or harm.
  No direct ‘perpetrator’ involved –just the survivor. This may make the most sense in cases where the perpetrator is not contactable, not willing to participate, or the survivor does not want them to be involved.
• The survivor and those who may have contributed to compounded, secondary and tertiary waves of harm are involved. For example a parent, partner or friend who may have not been supportive to the survivor, those who have perpetuated rape myths/did not believe the survivor, etc. In cases where the person who has caused direct harm may not be contactable, not willing to participate, the survivor does not want them involved, or the actions of other individuals have also caused harm to the survivor.
• The TJ pilot will not take on cases where only the person who has harmed the survivor (also known as the perpetrator) is the only interested party who is willing to participate in a TJ process.

While the TJ pilot remains open to all survivors who are existing WAVAW clients, we will work to prioritize marginalized survivors, including Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, LGBTQ2IA, gender diverse and gender marginalized, and communities that face criminalization such as sex workers, those who use drugs, and those without legal status. 

All participants in the TJ pilot must be 19 years of age or older. This would be particularly important if there are youth who may be under pressure by their family to participate (in the instance that violence happened within the family).

As an extra-judicial process aimed at working towards meaningful accountability on survivor’s terms, all participants of WAVAW’s TJ Pilot must have no outstanding cases related to the specific episode of sexual assault that are with police or before the court. 

Participants in the WAVAW TJ pilot will be required to complete intake with the TJ Counsellor and Project Lead, and complete a signed consent agreement.