NSCJA History

History of the Nova Scotia Criminal Justice Association

The forerunner to the NSCJA, the Nova Scotia Criminology and Corrections Association was founded in the mid-1970s.  This Association was very active in its early years, sponsoring many regional and provincial workshops and hosting very successful CCJA Congresses in 1979 and 1989.  With the retirement of a number of its most active leaders, the NSCCA ceased activity by the late 1990s.

At the urging of Willie Gibbs, then President of the CCJA, a meeting of representatives of governmental and community organizations involved in criminal justice issues was called in early 2005 to assess interest in resurrecting the Association.  Participants in the Halifax meeting gave a resounding endorsement to the establishment of a new organization – the Nova Scotia Criminal Justice Association.

A founding meeting was held on November 4, 2005 at Saint Mary’s University, in conjunction with the workshop Criminal Justice in the 21st Century: Public Policy Challenges.  At that meeting a Provisional Board of Directors was selected: Pamela Harrison, Verona Singer, Maria Franks, Cindy MacKinnon-North, Dan MacRury, Kit Waters, Fred Honsberger, Karen Meins and John McMullan.  The Provisional Board was directed to serve as an interim Executive Committee of the NSCJA and to bring forth a slate of officers and draft Constitution to the first Annual General Meeting of the Association on March 31, 2006.

Since then the NSCJA has been active in sponsoring workshops and training events, including a lecture by Professor Archie Kaiser of Dalhousie University “The Criminalization of People with Mental Health Problems on Nova Scotia: Opportunities for Innovation” in March 2006; Peacemaking Circle Training conducted by Kay Pranis and Jane Miller-Ashton in May 2006; and a major workshop Lessons from Nunn: A Collaborative Course in March 2007. 

On April 4, 2008 the Association sponsored a workshop held at Saint Mary’s University Building the Crime Prevention Continuum: Where do you fit in? The Association sponsored another workshop at Saint Mary’s on March 27, 2009: Seeking Social Justice: Aboriginal Encounters with the Justice System.
In April 2009, the NSCJA was honoured to be presented with the Canadian Bar Association Law Day award.  The CBA - Nova Scotia Law Day Award is to honour, recognize and celebrate the contribution of organizations who:

The NSCJA was very pleased to have been selected to host the 2009 Canadian Congress, co-sponsored by the Canadian Criminal Justice Association.  Over 400 delegates attended Congress 2009 in Halifax held October 28-31.  The theme of the Congress was Problem-Solving Justice: What Problems? Whose Justice? Over 100 justice practitioners, academics and members of the community made presentations in 31 workshops and 4 plenaries.  Some of the presentations are available o the CCJA website: www.ccja-acjp.ca/cong2009/en/presentations_en.html

On April 30, 2010 the Association, again in partnership with the Justice Learning Centre and Saint Mary’s University presented a workshop entitled: African Nova Scotians and the Criminal Justice System: Conversations toward solutions.