Valerie G. Barnes Connell Jordan
Northern Advocate
Benjamin Roebuck is Canada’s Victims of Crime Ombudsman was in La Ronge July 22 to speak to a Victim Services conference at Eagle Point.
Roebuck and his office are available to support the Rights of Victims of Crime, such as “ the right to participate in a parole hearing and share Victim’s Statements … Canadian victims have a right to information, protection and participation and so we make sure that those rights are respected when victims are interacting with federal agencies,” which means “right now we would support a number of families that are here for interactions with the Parole Board of Canada at the Correctional Service of Canada,” he said, in an interview with the Northern Advocate.
And, after “somebody is sentenced and in custody so, it has to be a sentence of more than three years.”
Basically, it is to ensure their rights, as a victim of crime, are being treated fairly.
And, what’s important to him in doing this job?
“We’ll try to be trauma informed and compassionate in how we response, how we solve problems,” he said.
Another part of his job involves serving as a special advisor to the Minister of Justice on Victims of Crime, which involves having input for criminal justice legislations.
“We’re called in to parliamentary and senate committees to make sure that victim’s perspectives are considered in how the law is given shape,” he explained.
Right now, Roebuck said, his office is “conducting a national systemic investigation on how survivors of sexual assault are treated in the criminal justice system across Canada.”
The investigation is “going well, I think. The way people are being treated isn’t going well. We’re working with some great people across the country and we’re trying to identify what are some of the federal levers and ways the government is involved in these issues could be improved.”
“Our office, right now, does not have legislation, but we have federal regulations and a mandate to help resolve challenges that victims of crime are experiencing and then to systematically to bring an understanding of the emerging issues affecting victims of crime to the attention of policy makers so that it’s reflected in the law,” Roebuck said.
They were recently able to make some changes to the criminal code with Bill S12, which had to do with publication bans for sexual assault survivors.
“The practice had been that when somebody goes through the court system that there would be automatically, a ban imposed on their identity, so that they can’t be identified in the medial,” Roebuck said. “But, what happened in practice is that survivors were being censored, because they weren’t allowed to share their own stories, or use their own identity. Some people were criminalized for breaking the publication ban, which is horrific. So, the law is changed now, to require to ask the if the victim would like a publication ban, so that the protection is there for people who want it, but we’re not imposing something that could be harmful to people.”
Another area his office “championed,” is: among the rights of victims, such as to participate in hearings and get information on the offender, talk to someone from Victim Services.
“But, you have to register with the correctional service to access those services and if you don’t register, you’ll never hear from the system again,” Roebuck said.
“They won’t tell you when there’s a parole hearing. They won’t tell you when the person who harmed you is being released back into your community, and that’s really harmful to people.”
The change in Bill S12 requires, at the time of sentencing, that the judge will ask if the victim has been given the choice of whether they want to see information about the sentence and it’s administration. For people who do Victim Impact Statements, there’s just a check box now that they say “Yes I want to know.” And, it applies to federal custody and provincial custody, he added.
Roebuck is on leave from his job as a professor of victimology at Algonquin College in Ottawa. In that capacity he has “ done research for years on how people are affected by violent crime, whether interactions are in the criminal justice system and some trauma responses that people have.”
When a person has experienced violence, for example, he looks at how they are impacted. “We often talk about post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic growth, but we found in our research with survivors that we needed a broader concept to talk about the differences to experience in life.”
Some people may be uncertain whether their life is better or worse following an experience of violence. Others may look at growth differently. While some maybe at a place of growth others may have that sense. “Growth is a value-laden term to some people, like, I’m not ready to go there. But it’s different than just a stress response, cause there’s things in this that I value,” may be another response.
People may reach out to the Victims of Crime ombudsman’s office by email at victimsfirst@ombud.gc.ca or by phoning: 1-866-481-8429
Saskatchewan’s Ombudsperson, Sharon Pratchler, was also in La Ronge to speak at the Victim’s Services event. She will be featured in the September Northern Advocate.
