Reflections on Community Justice in Montreal
| Author | David Ward, Jean Hine |
| Pages | 57-68 |
57
REFLECTIONS ON COMMUNITY JUSTICE IN MONTREAL
By David Ward in conversation with Jean Hine
Jean Shall we start with where you wen t to, why you went and what you were doing
while you were there, to give a context?
Dave I went to Canada on the invitation from a former PhD student, Dr Annie Pullen
Sansfacon, who is a member of staff at the University of Montreal. We b oth share
an interest in the theory and practice of empowerment through group work and
so my main purpose for being there was to link into work that she was doing and
to evaluate and engage with community based projects in Montreal that were
taking a user community me mber centred approach. I was interested in
addressing structural issues around what ever was the focus of the project. In
addition, I agreed to run seminars, mainly for postgraduate students, around self-
directed group work, social action participatory methods of research, which is a
distinctive approach to user involvement in research. The seminars became very
open with a mixed membership including people who were based in academic
institutions and people who were members of projects working in the community
and in terested in th e methodology. I ran seminars in three universities in
Montreal and also in Quebec City and in another University i n the Province of
Quebec.
Jean Did they come up after you arrived - word got round that you were there?
Dave There had been a little bit of preparatory work before I got there but mostly it
was sending emails around when I got there saying I was there and then people
came back and made arrangements for me to go and lead workshops, rath er than
actively deliver seminars. The first part of the visit was fairly relaxed, getting to
know the environment, getting to know people, getting to find one’s way around.
As I got to know people and got involved in things it became busier and busier
and it was very hectic towards the end. In particular this was true of my con tact
in the University of Montreal , which has a partnership with academic staff from
two other universities, and a grant from the Canadian Research Council, (which is
the equivalent of the ESRC), to do some action research with parents of children
who are gender variant or gender non-conforming. This is very much an area
which, if this is the right word, is being ‘discovered’ in the sense that as soon as
one gets involved in the subject area you find that it is an issue. The experience
of gender non-conforming children is n ot an uncommon thing and both the
children and their parents have to struggle to manage their development and to
access support services. There is also work with established services to help
British Journal of Community Justice
©2013 Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield
ISSN 1475-0279
Vol. 10(3):57-68
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