This is how I’m feeling today after watching the amazing documentary The Limits of Forgiveness, which explores restorative justice. In the film, both the predator and the victim were truly heard. Both left feeling seen, held, and brave. Thank you, Marlee Liss, for your courage and determination to fight for your rights. You are a role model to so many.
But the Crown Attorney, Cara Sweeny, was persecuted. Why? So Canadian courts wouldn’t risk another sexual violence case using restorative justice again. This is what justice looks like in Canada.
I sat there thinking about my own experience. My predator was one of the rare cases even considered a “successful” conviction—and he served only two months for raping a child. How is that justice?
And the system doesn’t stop at weak sentencing. Today, approximately 2,600 people are sitting in prison for sexual violence crimes, while just over 14,000 are locked up for property theft. Canada values cars over human bodies. Yet child sexual violence costs this country $11.5 trillion. That’s the human, social, and economic price of a system that consistently fails survivors.
Watching The Limits of Forgiveness reminded me of what is possible when survivors are truly seen. But it also reminded me how far we are from a justice system that actually values human lives.