New directions in Canadian justice: from state workers to community 'representatives'

the justice process or against stigmatisation of their members. From the 1970s onwards, however, a striking parallel can be observed in Canada and in the United States, as justice agencies and bodies increasingly withdrew from the arena. Justice and government officials seemed to progressively value community input and to some extent even restore communities' own decision-making power. Clearly, the state was beginning to realise that it could not deal with all justice matters by itself: individuals and communities could and would be of tremendous help. The issue of empowering communities became therefore strongly embedded in the ethos of the Canadian justice system.In this paper, we shall consider first what the idea of community means and its involvement in today's justice in Canada, mapping the contribution communities have made to the Canadian justice system. We will also consider the evolution of community-based ideas and initiatives (defined as the involvement of communities in justice issues) from the 1970s onwards, while differentiating the community justice models (seen as a transfer of justice matters into the hands of communities) that have been developed at the same time. After developing a typology of community and state collaboration in justice matters, we shall conclude by looking at the contested assumptions in what seems to be a 'communitarianism' of justice in Canada and particularly in Quebec.