Pathways to Justice is the name of a 3-year project conducted by Be the Peace Institute and the Nova Scotia Association of Black Social Workers to understand both how female-identified people subjected to gender-based violence find justice, and also how systemic dynamics tend to thwart that pursuit.

Funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada, the project tapped into the voices of survivors, as well as the accumulated knowledge of service providers, government workers, academic research and social patterns to understand the systemic changes needed to achieve better outcomes and more dignified and less traumatizing legal processes for survivors.

The Documentary

The documentary, “Pathways to Justice,” shares the stories of women who bravely came forward to be interviewed as part of the project. Their experiences bring a direct and current perspective to the issues they and multitudes of other women face in Nova Scotia in the aftermath of intimate partner violence and the search for justice as they define it. The documentary is 45 minutes.

Panel Discussion on “Allyship”

The Pathways to Justice project set Be the Peace Institute and the Association of Black Social Workers on a path of allyship together to articulate the specific and intersectional dimensions of intimate partner violence experienced by people of African descent and the challenges magnified by racial bias and marginalization that make them and their families significantly more vulnerable to harm by the systems that are supposed to help.

Along with the colonialist and degrading legacy that persists for our Indigenous sisters, the history of slavery and systemic anti-Black racism continues unabated. Justice for women experiencing gender-based violence requires justice for all women and gender non-binary people of colour, in communities who have been most dismissed and traumatized.

Allyship will be the topic of the panel discussion to follow the documentary, connecting the dots necessary for an anti-oppressive systems approach to shifts needed to better serve justice and gender-based violence prevention for all.

Panelists will be:

• Senator Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard, co-founder of the N.S. Association of Black Social Workers

• Denise John, Victim Services Navigator, Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre

• Dr. Nancy Ross, Assistant Professor, Dalhousie School of Social Work, researcher

• Moderated by Sue Bookchin, Executive Director, Be the Peace Institute

Please register for the event. The Zoom link for the event will be sent out to all those who have registered.