Report from the Restorative Justice Process at the Dalhousie University Faculty of Dentistry

Abstract

In December 2014, female students in Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Dentistry filed complaints under the University’s Sexual Harassment Policy after they became aware some of their male colleagues had posted offensive material about them in a private Facebook group. The select materials revealed from the Facebook group reflected misogynistic, sexist and homophobic attitudes. At the complainants’ request, the University began a restorative justice process to investigate the matter, address the harms it caused and examine the climate and culture within the Faculty that may have influenced the offensive nature of the Facebook group’s content. Twenty-nine students from the class of DDS2015 (out of 38 in the core four-year program) participated in the restorative justice process. This included 12 of the 13 men identified as members of the Facebook group when the offensive material was discovered. Fourteen women and three other men from the DDS2015 class also participated in the process over the last five months.

This report gives an account of the restorative justice process.

Keywords: Restorative Justice