The achievements of approximately 290 graduates were celebrated by the Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC) at its Spring Convocation earlier this month.
The ceremony also included the conferring of honorary degrees on two recipients, Tsawwassen’s Sharon Sutherland, Director of Strategic Innovation for Mediate BC and retired Abbotsford Police Department officer Michael Novakowski.
For more than 20 years, Sutherland has spearheaded and advocated for the increased use of conflict resolution and mediation in B.C. She has mentored, trained and coached mediators across Canada, helping to expand access to justice both within and independent of the court system.
She helped launch Mediate BC’s Quarantine Conflict Resolution Service in March 2020 to provide low cost and pro bono services in housing, family and workplace conflicts caused by or worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Noting the significant causal link between conflict and loss of housing, she is currently working to build this into a sustainable continuing project to offer affordable conflict intervention services with a particular focus on the housing sector.
Sutherland was recognized for her contributions to conflict resolution through practice, advocacy, and the training and mentoring of mediators across Canada. She spoke at the virtual ceremony on the opportunities presented amidst the challenges of the pandemic, noting that change can be good.
“As a direct result of the pandemic, we have engaged in heightened discourse on equity and inclusion,” said Sutherland. “We have seen, and been a part of, meaningful, and sometimes profoundly positive, examinations of long unquestioned assumptions that have shaped institutions and systems.
“In conflict resolution courses at JIBC and elsewhere, instructors often encourage learners to shift their perceptions of conflict - to think of it as an opportunity. There is much opportunity to transform our justice system in order to reduce unintended harms and hopefully offer earlier, less adversarial interventions in conflict. We have an opportunity to commit to acknowledgment of truth and to meaningful reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. And we have the opportunity to examine our unstated assumptions about the intersections of public safety, health, and community wellness.”
Following the ceremony, the Optimist caught up with Sutherland where she shared that she was quite surprised when she found out she would be honoured by JIBC.
“I thought it was a prank and continued to think that until they announced it publically. I literally showed up on the day to record my speech and out front of the JI they were doing a staged intervention and there were all these cameras…I felt like I was walking into something that was similarly being staged,” she recalled. “Very grateful for the recognition. My field is very much collaborative decision-making, so obviously I’m incredibly grateful for the honour, but incredibly conscious of all the people who have been a part of any project I have been involved in, so I see this as recognition of some amazing projects that I have been involved in and really needs to count as recognition of other amazing individuals who have contributed a lot of time.”