Last vocational day

This day was a day at court for me. I got to see Thunder Bay's twocourt houses. The morning I met people working with the Victim WitnessAssistance Program who are located in the Ontario Court of Justice.The program is funded by the Ministry of the Attorney General. The mandate of the program is to provide information, assistance andsupport to victims and witnesses of crime throughout the criminal justice process in order to increase their understanding of, and participation in, the criminal justice process. They prioritise service to male or female victims/witnesses of sexual assault, childabuse and partner assault. I think these people do a fantastic jobtrying to reduce the stress for victims of predominantly domestic violence. This is also a big problem in Sweden. Sadly, I was told thatthe trend here right now is that it seems to be getting worse.

After having lunch with two Rotarians, Kristina and a Canadian colleague of hers I went to see Doug Shanks who works as a lawyer at Cheadles law firm. He took me to the Superior Court of Justice to meetthe judges. We had an interesting and rather informal discussion intheir lunch room about our different court systems. Five of the sixjudges were present. After four weeks in the states I had become quitefamiliar with their court system but now I learned that here in Canada it was completely different.

The judges wear a really nice outfit when they appear in the courtroom. Madam Justice Helen Pierce asked me if a wanted to try on herdress – what an honour. First they put on a white cotton shirt withwing collars, then a black waist coat of wool, black trousers/skirt, ablack robe of silk, white tabs and finish with a red sash of wool. I felt like a very important person.

Before I left the court house a got to sit at a civil trial and seeJustice John deP Wright wearing these clothes. The case was aboutmedical maltreatment and was very interesting.In the evening we had dinner with the Fort William Rotary Club. Wewere welcomed by the city mayor Lynn Peterson, who is also a Rotarymember. We then did our tenth presentation.Before it became dark we went to see the Kakabeka Falls. What a wonderful scenery.