Provincial Court Chief Judge Melissa Gillespie announced today that Williams Lake will be opening an Indigenous sentencing court in the spring of 2020.
The court will provide an Indigenous perspective, based on a holistic and restorative approach, to sentencing Indigenous persons who have acknowledged responsibility for their criminal offences.
Local Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers who have completed a program of orientation will be giving advice on a healing plan. The healing plan may then be incorporated into the sentence for those who have pled guilty. The opening ceremony for the Court will take place in April 2020. This event will be open to the public.
