Community crimes are a time for questions

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

Kings County Register

For Pierre Allard, when a crime occurs, it is time to start asking questions. “If you have a victim in a community, a crime has happened, you have an opportunity to become a better community.”

Ask “what do we do to become a healthier community? It’s not time to get tough, but to ask the deeper questions.”

Allard knows what he is talking about. For five years, he was Assistant Commissioner for Community Engagement with the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), responsible for engaging the public in ensuring the protection of society.

Since retiring in 2006, he became president of a new Canadian registered charity, Just.Equipping, which is committed to training and equipping prison chaplains for developing countries in the area of restorative justice. Just.Equipping is working in Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and Cameroon this year.

Allard was at the Divinity College at Acadia University recently to teach a popular course in prison ministry and restorative justice.

According to Allard, society has to work harder to engage at-risk youth before they become criminals. “Who is journeying with them?” he asks. “We have to learn from them, and never give up on them as adults.”

From work in Africa, Allard thinks Canadian youth need to develop a worldview. “They should be volunteering. They want to make a difference.”

Allard began working with the CSC in 1972 as a chaplain at Archambault Penitentiary, then Dorchester as Regional Chaplain for the Atlantic Region, and, later, as national Director of Chaplaincy.

His work as a chaplain - and the 1980 murder of his brother, Andre - helped shape his strong belief in restorative justice. He is also a strong supporter of "circles of support and accountability."

A former Catholic priest who became a Baptist minister, Allard received his doctorate in 1986. He holds two honorary degrees in divinity, along with many awards. Upon his retirement, the Correctional Service of Canada created the Pierre Allard Award, first presented last year. In November, he received the Mitchell Sharp Award for Meritorious Service, given to a retired federal employee who has made - and continues to make - an extraordinary contribution to the community.

Convinced restorative justice can make things better, Allard shared his belief all of us are on a spiritual search. Above all, he states, youth need an ally in the world of adults. “In Atlantic Canada, it is traditionally more religious,’ he says. “There is also a hunger and desire for identity and meaning. Where do we fit in this crazy world?”

However, all too often, Allard says, religion presents itself as faith, and that does not satisfy. Punitive churches and theology deprive prisoners of the experience of God’s amazing grace.

The late Dr. Charlie Taylor, who taught prison chaplaincy at Acadia, and his wife, Charlotte, offered that kind of deep caring, Allard said. For him, that knowledge made coming to the Divinity School a visit to “sacred ground.”

Justice defined

Restorative justice: the concept that stresses restoration of relationships between offender and victim, bringing together communities, offenders and victims of crime to discuss the effects of criminal acts on the community