This is a story from real people, told in
their own words
It contains information about themes that
may be difficult for some audiences.
Nova Scotia’s Restorative Justice Program
is one of the oldest and most comprehensive in Canada.
It emphasizes accountability, making amends,
and facilitated meetings between victims,
offenders, and other persons.
The results can be transformational
Antigonish, Nova Scotia
Meghan Peters, Co-owner Tall and Small Café,
Antigonish, N.S.
My name is Meghan Peters and I’m the co-owner
of the Tall and Small Café in Antigonish.
We opened 12 years ago; we just had our anniversary.
It’s definitely a work of passion and love
and we definitely get that back from the community,
for sure.
After my husband and I had gone on a rare
vacation to Halifax for a night, we left the
Café in some very capable hands.
The day that we got back, we discovered that
there was some money missing.
We checked on our cameras and we discovered
that we were broken into and robbed.
Last year, I honestly don’t remember everything
about it, I was drinking and I ended up just
walking by the Café and slipping through
the window.
I don’t know what exactly was going through
my head.
I never thought about doing anything like
that before or, if I would ever do something
like that.
It was just a stupid night when I was 21 years
old and just could have really ruined the
rest of my life.
It’s awful.
My first reaction to watching the video was
I was angry and disgusted and hurt.
There was a lot of backlash from the community.
People were up in arms about it.
It’s such a community place where everyone
gathers and spends lots of time and everyone
kind of feels like it’s theirs a little
bit so when this happened, everyone felt like
it was happening to them.
We read a lot of posts on different social
media sites that were just terrible and understandably
but some of the things were just completely
unnecessary.
Most of it was completely unnecessary.
So, we posted a little post on Facebook and
just said, you know, please remember that
this is a person and try and treat her kindly.
So, I spoke to Adam Merchant and I said, Adam,
if there’s any way I could meet this woman,
I think it would make me feel a lot better
about this situation.
So, Adam, Constable Merchant I should call
him, went and spoke with the Crown and the
Crown called me.
They assessed the situation and said there
is something called Restorative Justice and
it is a program that could possibly be available
to you.
So, they spoke with Carolyn and she was willing
to do it and so we went from there.
There are more than 400 RJ programs in the Department of Justice’s
newly launched Directory
http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/rj-jr/sch-rch.aspx
Research shows that victims are more satisfied in cases that are resolved using restorative justice
compared to those that do not go through
restorative justice.
The person who was harmed gets to decide kind
of what they, within reason of course, what
they think would be a good thing for the person
to do.
So, we decided to have a community dinner
and Carolyn and I cooked for over 130 people.
It was a really positive experience and the
community got to see that she’s actually
an amazing person and that she just made a
mistake and kind of restored that hurt that
happened within the community as well.
I went to the community dinner that they put
on and I met her and got to know her a little
bit and so, I think that was important for
the community to move on.
It’s not easier.
It’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card.
It’s scary and it shows me the impact that
I have really had on a real person and a real
community and a real family rather than just
never putting a face to it.
So, it’s not easier, it’s just better
for everyone.
Many victims have experienced decreased fear,
anger and anxiety after resolving their case
through restorative justice.
Research also shows that offenders are less
likely to re-offend after restorative justice.
Had things gone differently and I had gone
down the regular path of going through the
legal system and everything, I never would
have been able to come out of the dark place
or that negative place.
I would have probably spiralled further down in my own mental health and I can’t even
imagine how different things would be right now.
I mean, for me, I cherish this relationship
now.
Meghan has been, she’s  real role model
and she’s the type of person that I wish
that I can be and strive for and just a great person.
And I admire Carolyn’s courage and her willingness
to make things right.
This is a hard, it’s a hard thing to do.
Very courageous.
How can we transform the criminal justice
system to use more restorative justice programs?
Join the discussion on this page and share
your ideas.
To learn more, go to justicetransformation.ca
