Restorative Justice and Sexual Assault: Exploring the Options

Community Justice & Lanark County Interval House invite you to a community dialogue exploring Restorative Justice and Sexual Assault: -Exploring the options

Across Ontario and beyond, survivors are increasingly speaking out about their experiences in the traditional criminal justice system. Many are calling for greater choice, voice, and agency, including access to alternative, survivor‑driven pathways that focus on accountability, safety, and healing. This event creates space to listen, learn, and reflect on what restorative justice could offer in some cases, when it is survivor‑led, trauma‑informed, and carefully designed.

Robin Parker is criminal lawyer who has spent more than 25 years working within the justice system — as a Crown prosecutor, defence counsel, counsel for victims, adjudicator, and legal educator. She has appeared at every level of court across Ontario and in Northern Canada, with extensive experience in complex criminal and constitutional matters. She is the recipient of an Award of Merit for government service and holds a Master’s degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford. In 2024, she received the Victim Services Award of Distinction for her work supporting survivors and advancing trauma-informed approaches to justice. Outside of her legal work, Robin loves backcountry lakes, Dragonboat paddling, and being her daughter’s mom.

Robin is also a survivor of sexual assault, and her own experience navigating the justice system has profoundly shaped her advocacy. After being sexually assaulted in 2018, she sought a process centred on accountability, dialogue, and healing rather than traditional prosecution. Despite Ontario policies that have generally limited the use of restorative justice in sexual assault cases, Robin successfully advocated for a restorative process in her own case, becoming part of a growing survivor-led movement calling for expanded access to alternative pathways to justice.

Since then, Robin has become a prominent voice in public and legal conversations about survivor choice, publication bans, and access to restorative and community-based justice processes. She has testified before parliamentary committees, supported survivors seeking to lift publication bans, and works closely with community organizations to promote trauma-informed, survivor-centred responses to sexual violence.

This gathering will bring together justice providers, restorative justice practitioners, violence against women advocates, survivors and community members to explore:

• Why some survivors seek alternatives to the traditional justice process.
• What restorative justice is—and what it is not.
• What other alternative paths to justice could there be?
• What safety, support, and accountability must be in place
• What system‑level changes are being discussed in Ontario
• What we need to consider if alternative pathways are to be expanded responsibly
• Justice and healing pathway model

Info: 1:00 – 1:20 p.m. | Welcome and Opening 1:20 – 2:20 p.m. | Guest Speaker: Robin Parker
Why Survivors Are Asking for Alternatives: Restorative Justice and Sexual Assault. Robin Parker will share:
• Her personal and professional experience with the justice system
• Why many survivors do not experience the criminal process as healing or responsive
• What restorative justice can offer survivors when they choose it
• The current Ontario context and the growing movement to listen to survivors requesting alternative pathways
2:20 – 2:40 p.m. | Break 2:40 – 4:10 p.m. | Restorative Practice Circle Discussions
Participants will break into small, facilitated circles. 4:10 – 4:30 p.m. | Large Group Reflection and Closing

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Lanark County Community Justice and Lanark County Interval House