8.0 BACKGROUND
The study of clients' legal problems with multicultural
services agencies in the Vancouver area shows that problems
with administrative bureaucracies are very common.<223>
Recent research by the Institute for Dispute Resolution at
the University of Victoria on dispute resolution in
ethnocultural communities focusses on the same kinds of
problems, called "individual-institution" problems in the
study. Using a combination of individual and key informant
interviews, focus group consultations, and interviews with
representatives of service agencies, the study showed that
individual-institution problems were more common than family
disputes among Polish, Latin American and Chinese
groups.<224> While family disputes were more common among
the Vietnamese and South Asian samples,<225> disputes
between individuals and institutions were more common
overall.
8.1 Little Injustices
"Little injustices" may be viewed as small and insignificant in the justice system, but may constitute major difficulties in people's daily lives. Typically, they are the types of disputes with authority figures that may not be resolved and may be a constant irritant in people's personal and family lives. The state does not usually intervene unless the problems escalate to the point where the police may be called.
The University of Victoria report describes one scenario
where frustration because of language difficulties led to anger and
shouting at administrative officials, and then the police were summoned.
The formal justice system, however, cannot and should
not intervene in every dispute. Moreover, the culturally
unique aspects of some communities make intervention by the justice
system difficult if not impossible.
8.2 ADR and Ethnocultural Communities
If the state becomes involved in a dispute, through either
the criminal or family courts, a familiar set of barriers to
accessibility comes into play. The justice system is widely
acknowledged to be complicated, expensive, and formalized.
These barriers to accessibility, which affect people
generally, are even more daunting for new Canadians with
cultural, psychological and language barriers. It might
appear on the surface that community-based alternative
dispute resolution strategies (ADR) are promising for
development in immigrant and ethnocultural minority
communities.
8.3 The Paradox of ADR in Some Ethnocultural Groups
While there seems to be a clear case emerging to promote ADR as a way for the justice system to accommodate the multicultural reality of Canada, the complexity that lies beneath the surface of most social issues is revealed in the University of Victoria study. The ADR and multiculturalism issue exemplifies a central paradox. ADR is not perceived as "the Canadian way" by people strongly oriented toward adapting to Canadian life.<226> It should not be surprising then, that given the preeminence of formal justice in Canada, newcomers as well as nativeborn Canadians and long- term residents, should recognize this situation as the normal approach to administering justice.
At the same time, however, there is a reluctance to involve outsiders, especially state officials, in disputes.<227> People from five ethnocultural groupings interviewed in the University of Victoria study did show a preference for informal means of dispute resolution within the community. This reflects a certain degree of cohesiveness within the five communities studied, and a propensity to prefer internal mechanisms for resolving disputes within each community. This may reflect a desire to safeguard the integrity of the group or family, to minimize risk, or to save face.<228>
With respect to dispute resolution style, respondents preferred to deal with intervenors familiar with the disputants and who were empowered to recommend solutions. For example, one Southeast Asian respondent commenting on a failed dispute resolution dispute process in which he was one of the parties said that, "the right people were not involved." Such results in the University of Victoria study suggest there may be considerable differences between the mainstream models of mediation and other dispute resolution techniques and those preferred by members of ethnocultural groups who retain close ties with elements in their traditional culture. Differences in preferences for different approaches to dispute resolution in terms of generations, length of residence, or measures of acculturation have not been studied. This is an area where there is a dearth of knowledge and where further research would be useful for policy and program development.
There are two main types of disputes that are common and
seem to require some attention. Family disputes and disputes
between individuals and institutions must be dealt with in
very different ways.
8.4 Family Disputes
Respondents in the University of Victoria study expressed considerable reluctance to involve outside agencies in family disputes.<229> The report concludes that "services in conflict resolution may be used more if targeted at conflicts between individuals rather than domestic disputes," and that "individual and institution-centred conflict thus emerged as the most likely focus for a dispute resolution pilot initiative."<230>
Research has shown that mediation can produce better settlements than those achieved through the litigation process in divorce and family matters.<231> Although some respondents in the University of Victoria study reacted unfavourably to the idea of ADR in family disputes, and while it is generally understood that traditional values about the family held by members of some ethnic groups can produce an insular orientation to outside intervention, the research generally suggests the issue should at least be explored further.
In cases of family violence, there is a growing appreciation of how victims of abuse are inhibited from accessing the protection of the justice system.<232> The same types of barriers to access_such as language barriers, fear of approaching the justice system because of negative experiences in countries of origin, absence of culturally appropriate support services, fears rooted in misinformation that leaving a husband will lead to deportation, or misinformation on custody and access to children_may operate with propensity to protect the integrity of the family to inhibit use of family dispute resolution services. Barriers to the use of family dispute resolution approaches should be more fully explored before abandoning the field.
The feasibility of family dispute resolution in ethnocultural communities remains an open question. An option would be to explore the feasibility of family dispute resolution processes, buttressed by a range of support services such as safe houses. In this area, where sensitivities to outside intervention are so high and where the etiology problem may be rooted in factors which are integral to the ethnic experience, the development of community-based mechanisms is essential to carefully account for those factors rooted in the culture and social order of particular communities. Pilot projects designed to deal with family disputes should be developed, with careful developmental research, monitoring, and evaluation. As power imbalances, particularly between domestic workers and employers and between women and their husbands, may present problems for the implementation of ADR techniques, these issues must be considered carefully so as not to consolidate abuse and victimization patterns in the very programs intended as solutions.
It is probably important to locate family dispute resolution
within a related system of support services. For that
reason, developing family dispute resolution services as a
component of an integrated service delivery model, similar
to existing multicultural services agencies might be
advisable. The value of integrated service delivery models
was underscored in both the "Clients Study"<233> report and
the University of Victoria ADR report.
8.5 Disputes between Individuals and Bureaucratic Organizations
As the University of Victoria report suggests, the development of ADR mechanisms to deal with disputes between individuals and institutions is important.<234> Here, as with family disputes, cultural sensitivity is a paramount issue<235> and the resources of the ethnic communities are essential to finding effective solutions. These disputes however, are not internal to ethnic groups or families. They are between bureaucracies, usually government agencies and departments, and/or individual members of ethnic communities.
This presents an excellent opportunity for governments to demonstrate their commitment to the objectives of multicultural policy_i.e., respect for diversity, fairness, inclusiveness and treatment of people with dignity, or in short, the foundations of access to justice. It also presents a challenge for bureaucratic organizations to develop flexible dispute resolution arrangements with a variety of ethnocultural communities, respecting the differences found both within and between groups.
The University of Victoria study indicates that problems with dispute resolution services for the general public or specific ethnocultural groups are limited in the Vancouver area.<236> Presumably such problems exist elsewhere as well, although there is no data to confirm this. Large organizations have their own "nuances and norms for behaviour," which may limit effective dispute resolution, especially involving people from cultural backgrounds other than those typical of well-educated, native-born, urban people.<237>
Large bureaucracies, both public and private, could be encouraged to put in place dispute resolution mechanisms which are developed in close consultation with ethnocultural communities and rely, to the extent possible and desired by communities, on the resources existent in those communities to resolve individualinstitutional disputes.
To deal with disputes between individuals and smaller
businesses where there may not be the resources to invest in
dispute resolution mechanisms, institutions providing dispute
resolution services to the public could be developed.
Existing bodies that provide dispute resolution services,
could be helped to expand their services so they could
provide more direct service or arrange it through
institutions in the community. Governments could facilitate
the process by promoting through "start-up" research and
development resources, the availability of culturally
sensitive ADR mechanisms in institutions which could provide
a central dispute resolution service to the public.
8.6 Concluding Observation
The attractiveness of alternative dispute resolution is that it brings justice closer to communities. ADR mechanisms, either court-annexed or communitybased, are able to draw more effectively upon the strengths and resources of communities than the formal justice system. The development of ADR mechanisms might be used to pursue the broader objective of forging linkages between the justice system and ethnocultural communities. In theory, greater linkages between the justice system and the community would diminish the extent of alienation from, and fear of, the justice system, and the reluctance to cooperate with, or seek the protection of, the justice system.
At present, there are no convincing data to demonstrate the effectiveness of alternative dispute resolution programs. Action-oriented evaluation research could be carried out to explore the effectiveness and impact of a range of alternative dispute resolution techniques in Canadian ethnocultural communities.
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