7 | W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,O ctober 1,2020 w aterloochronicle.ca Never miss a deal with your shopping list on Save.ca. Selected items are sorted by store, making your day-to-day shopping experience a real money saver. We made it easier than ever to find the deals you're looking for. Save.ca's bountiful search results let you comparison shop to get the best buy. Shopping locally is the best way to support our communities. And saving locally makes it even better! Find big deals close to home with save.ca. A lot of little things can add up to big things. Itall addsup. Start saving today at: That's the thinking behind the new save.ca. commonly used term," according to Sarah Shafiq with the Coalition of Muslim Women that's teamed up with Community Justice Ini- tiatives to facilitate dialogue deal- ing with incidents of Islamopho- bia, racism and xenophobia. Both groups say they couldn't have done it without the other. CJI has worked in the commu- nity for more than 40 years to help neighbours and families have dia- logue around conflict and harm, said Julie Friesen, director of pro- grams. However, she admits most trained mediators are white and until now weren't trained to deal directly with issues of Islamopho- bia. According to CMW's executive director, Fauzia Mazhar, address- ing Islamophobia and racism in the K-W community has been a mandate of the coalition since 2012. Sulah is a "first-of-its-kind initiative nationally." Though restorative justice isn't a new concept it is foreign to some and more widely applied in cultures that don't rely as much on punitive systems, Shafiq not- ed. For most people, their first point of resolving a conflict is call- ing their landlord, bylaw or po- lice. "Other punitive strategies are also there and in some cases they may work," she said. "In some cases the parties may choose to go that way, and that's fine. One ap- proach is not better than the other approach. "This is one strategy to handle certain cases." Of situations that come before CJI, those involved are ready to sit down about half the time, and there are lots of situations that don't even come to its attention, Friesen noted. It's not a process that can be thrown together quickly, she ex- plained. "We're very cautious and care- ful about how we approach these situations. We don't rush people into a conversation. We meet indi- vidually and ask questions about what would be appropriate and try to prepare people." Even if it doesn't come to dia- logue between parties, it may open people's eyes to informing themselves about others, she said. "To victims it says: 'We care about you' and 'We're not neutral to harm in this community' and 'It's not OK that it happens,'" Frie- sen said. Confronting a conflict or vola- tile situation can be difficult, es- pecially for those who might be new to Canada. Racism resides in community housing developments and resi- dential neighbourhoods, on buses and at shopping malls. "Fear of reprisal is absolutely there," said Shafiq. While Sulah can be used to deal with hate crimes and serious issues -- putting willing victims, perpetrators or their surrogates face-to-face to hash out feelings -- it can also be used to address ten- sions in the general community and more simply as a relation- ship-building tool that can aid in prevention. "We do hear about things be- yond just hate crimes -- things at the incident level where it's not a criminal case," Shafiq said. "In many cases, even if police are involved they aren't able to do anything." Several mediators will be trained for Sulah with the help of a $75,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation that was an- nounced this past summer. The program hopes to expand into the community by forming partner- ships as a community resource, if and when needed. Mediators are already working with referrals from police and lo- cal service organizations. Parties must agree and consent to come together to resolve a conflict. It isn't possible if someone fears re-victimization. "The person who perpetrated the harm, they have to be willing to take accountability for things and hear that other side," said Friesen. "So you can't have violent extremists in this because you're not going to get anywhere and you're going to perpetuate harm... "It's not appropriate for every situation, but it is when people are ready to hear from each other and figure out a way to move forward together." More about the program can be found on the cjiwr.com or by emailing sarah.shafiq@cmw- kw.org. STORY BEHIND THE STO- RY: A partnership between Com- munity Justice Initiatives and the Coalition of Muslim Women of Kitchener-Waterloo received $75,000 from the Ontario Trilli- um Foundation this past sum- mer for a restorative justice pro- gram dealing with incidents of Islamophobia, racism and xe- nophobia. Continued from page 1 'THIS IS ONE STRATEGY TO HANDLE CERTAIN CASES' NEWS