It is through healthy family decision-making that most of us learn most of what equips us to be effective democratic citizens in communities.
To listen, to deliberate, to support others when their rights are abused, to speak out against injustice—these all are learned behaviors that attest to the morals and values we operate by in families, and in society; behaviours that provide a framework for the ways we treat and respect each other in the community.
A “rewards and punishments” philosophy teaches that when you are bigger or stronger than someone else, you can use that advantage to force the person to do what you want.
For example, the big corporation (City of Grand Forks) loses a legal case to a single mother with two young children (Councillor Butler). Oh well, they say. We’ll just move on and make like the whole thing never happened. Just shut up about it and it will all go away.
That is exactly the kind of behaviour that is destroying this town!
It is imperative that the verdict in Councillor Butler’s favour not be conveniently buried by the “poor losers” who would like nothing more than to have the whole tawdry mess swept under the proverbial rug. That way of handling the city’s affairs is dysfunctional and backward.
Restorative justice that brings lasting healing involves the wrongdoer’s identification and ownership of the bad behaviour (taking Councillor Butler to court); the wrongdoer (city and involved council members) making reparation that restores the wronged party’s dignity and includes more than the basic court directive to pay for all her legal costs; and finally, the commitment to desist from any further actions along the same lines.
The restorative justice that we need to see in this town involves public apologies and, where public trust has been sufficiently damaged, a willingness by the perpetrators to step down from their elected or appointed positions.
– Beverley Tripp, Grand Forks,
