People First Radio – January 18, 2024People First Radio – January 18, 2024
People First Radio
Lawyer and educator Myrna McCallum talks about trauma-aware justice, systemic racism and the impact of homelessness, addiction and mental illness in criminal courts, with a powerful example of restorative justice from survivor advocate Marley Liss. The conversation highlights how small changes in attitude and process can shift courtrooms from purely punitive spaces towards repair and healing.
0:00•18 Jan 2024
Justice, Trauma and Repair: Why Courts Need More Humanity
Episode Overview
- Legal training that ignores trauma, empathy and compassion can lead to serious harm for clients and communities.
- Many people before the courts are also dealing with homelessness, long-term substance use and mental health issues, which need to be considered alongside the offence.
- Tools like Gladue reports and impact of race and culture assessments aim to highlight systemic racism affecting Indigenous and Black people in sentencing.
- Restorative justice processes, when carefully prepared and facilitated, can support accountability, repair and long-term change for everyone involved.
- Small acts of respect and compassion from judges and lawyers can reduce fear in courtrooms and encourage people to seek real change in their lives.
““Emotion is not the death of reason. Dysregulation is the death of reason.””
Gain insights from experts and survivors on how justice systems can either deepen harm or open doors to healing. This episode of People First Radio brings together Vancouver-based lawyer and educator Myrna McCallum and audio clips from survivor and advocate Marley Liss to look at what happens when courts meet trauma, addiction, homelessness and mental illness. Myrna talks frankly about training as a lawyer in a system where no one mentioned trauma, empathy or compassion.
She explains how many people coming through criminal courts are also dealing with precarious housing, long-term substance use and undiagnosed mental health issues, and how a narrow focus on the offence ignores the bigger picture. Her aim? A “do no further harm” approach in courtrooms, with judges and lawyers becoming more trauma-aware and emotionally intelligent.
You’ll hear about tools such as Gladue reports and impact of race and culture assessments, and how they try to highlight systemic racism affecting Indigenous and Black people. Myrna also shares details of her conference “Justice as Trauma”, featuring voices like Dr Gabor Maté, Professor Ben Perrin, Justice Michelle Obansouin, Robert Wright, Natalie Gutierrez and others who question whether justice can ever be healing unless it changes how it treats people.
A standout moment comes from Marley Liss’s restorative justice story, where a sexual assault case moved out of a traditional trial and into a circle process focused on accountability and repair. Marley contrasts leaving a preliminary hearing feeling suicidal with leaving the restorative circle feeling like she’d “let go of a thousand pounds”.
Throughout, Myrna keeps bringing things back to very human questions: how judges greet people, how bail conditions ignore lifelong alcohol dependence, and how tiny acts of compassion in court can soften faces and shift lives. If you’ve ever wondered whether justice could be kinder without being weaker, this conversation might get you thinking about what real repair could look like. So, what kind of justice are you hoping for in your own community?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.