Kenora Justice Centre aims to bring social, cultural services together to support Indigenous youth

Just inside the Kenora Justice Centre, visitors are welcomed by a wall-sized mural filled with a kaleidoscope of colours representing the seven grandfather teachings common in Anishinaabe culture.

Down the hall are offices home to several social service agencies, adorned with artwork and positive affirmations.

Then, there's the courtroom. Outside is a cart filled with traditional Indigenous medicines. Inside, the seats are arranged in a circle, all on the same level.

"There is no hierarchy in terms of how high people are sitting or who's sitting at the front and the back," said Patti Fairfield, executive director of Kenora's Ne-Chee Friendship Centre.

The Kenora Justice Centre is one of four justice centres the Ontario government committed to building in 2019, the others in London and Toronto. It opened this February in a downtown building owned by the Kenora Chiefs Advisory.

Justice centres are designed as an alternative place for justice within a community setting rather than a traditional courthouse, where people have access to wrap-around support for things like housing, health care and employment.

These spaces focus on restorative justice, which means helping to rehabilitate offenders by considering the root causes behind the behaviours that led them to the justice system in the first place. They also address how their actions have impacted their community, according to a 2019 press release from the provincial attorney general.

"In many Ontario communities, we see a revolving door of repeat offenders struggling with poverty, mental health issues, addictions, lack of secure housing and unemployment," said Attorney General Doug Downey in a more recent news release when the Kenora Justice Centre opened.

"The Kenora Justice Centre will offer community supports to address these challenges, hold individuals accountable, reduce the likelihood of future contact with the justice system, and help victims and communities heal from the effects of crime," he said.

The Ne-Chee Friendship Centre runs an Indigenous Courtwork Program, which assists people in navigating the court system, and an Indigenous Community Justice Program, where Indigenous offenders diverted from the mainstream court system are supported in developing a healing plan.

Providing this expertise through an Indigenous lens, Fairfield said the Friendship Centre was involved in designing the Justice Centre from the start, helping to make it less intimidating than a traditional court setting. 

"There's usually trauma involved, or there's underlying reasons why somebody commits a crime, so that restorative justice piece is looking at the core cause of what caused them to take a different path in life that maybe isn't so great, and be able to work with them from that," she said.

Justice centres are also intended to address the disproportionate number of Indigenous people incarcerated in Canada.

Indigenous adults accounted for about one-third of all adult admissions to provincial and territorial and federal custody, while representing about five per cent of Canada's adult population in 2020, according to Statistics Canada.