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REGIONAL WRAP-UP CENTRAL 'Mediation has become for us our maple syrup' held in Montreal in mid-June first sprout- ed 15 years ago. Louise Otis, then a Quebec Court of Appeal judge, had the dogged feeling the judicial system was losing all of its legitimacy. "There were less and less proceedings before the court, Superior Court, and the appeal court," says Otis. She turned to Quebec sociologist Guy T Rocher, a nationally and internationally recognized pioneer in the sociology of law and education, for possible answers. "He said it takes so much time and the solu- tions are not always satisfactory because judges are bound by law," recalls Otis. "And the delays very often make people settle problems themselves, the danger being, as usual when you have no neutral third party, that the weaker party, the one with less power, will lose." Soon after, Otis hatched the idea of a voluntary judge-supervised media- tion service for family matters before the appeal court. The program was so successful that within a couple of years, Pierre A. Michaud, Quebec's former chief justice, successfully lobbied for changes to the Quebec Code of Civil Procedure to enshrine the mediation process in the Quebec court system. All civil courts and tribunals in the province have since devel- oped a judicial mediation program that is free for users. The success rate is at least 80 per cent. Fast-forward to the present and Otis is now working to promote the growth of judge-supervised mediation in Canada and the world. She is founding pres- ident of the non-profit CCJM, whose Montreal meeting united judges from across Canada to discuss the challenges and successes of different judge-led set- tlement programs; the expansion of judi- he seeds for the inaugural gen- eral assembly of the Canadian Conference of Judicial Mediation cial mediation in new areas such as class actions, youth crime, and administrative tribunals; and the exploration of ethical dilemmas, such as issues of representa- tion and personal autonomy. Otis is also president of the Inter- national Conference of Mediation for Justice, founded at an international con- ference on judicial mediation in Paris in 2009 and sponsored by the French justice minister and the European Commission, with support of the European Association of Judges for Mediation, or Gemme. "Our goal is to make the ICMJ a world orga- nization in mediation, providing help to emerging countries at no cost, regroup- ing judges and private mediators together in order to harmonize our practice and improve and share our traditions," says Otis, who resigned from the bench two years ago to work full-time in private medi- ation and international justice. She teaches mediation and consults on justice reform. Last year, the ICMJ partnered with the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law in California and the JAMS Foundation, an alternative dispute resolution promoter, to offer mediation skills training for 34 judges from around the world, includ- ing Rwanda (Otis made contact with judges there while accompanying former Canadian governor general Michaëlle Jean on a visit). This year, after plans for a similar workshop in Tunisia were disrupt- ed by the popular revolution there, the teaching program will take place in Fort- de-France, Martinique, in November. Otis believes the classical adversarial system of justice with litigators and judges is still necessary for some cases that need to be resolved formally, such as those involving fundamental Charter rights. But she believes encouraging the use of mediation alongside traditional systems 8 JULY 2011 www. CANADIAN Lawyermag.com Louise Otis is working to promote judge-supervised mediation in Canada and the world. can in fact boost legitimacy of the formal system. "I really think that 90 per cent of all conflicts should be resolved through a constructive dialogue well guided by a private mediator or a judge mediator." She points to a pilot project in Rwanda to resolve land disputes through media- tion and arbitration as a way to improve the judicial system. "It is a trend that is developing almost everywhere." For example, a 2008 European Union direc- tive requires all EU countries, except Denmark, provide mediation for cross- border civil disputes as of the spring. And in the United Kingdom, the ministry of justice is implementing a plan that would see financial and child custody disputes first go through mediation and then to the court system, if they are unresolved. Otis and the ICMJ are working with McGill University to develop a training centre in Montreal for judges from around the world, possibly by next year. "The pro- cess in Quebec is by far the most advanced in the world in terms of judicial mediation. I call it a living laboratory because it is the only place in the world where you have an integrated hybrid system of justice, where mediation and formal adversarial systems stand side by side." Judicial representatives from the Australian state of Victoria have visited many times and are following the Quebec model for an integrated system. Says Otis: "Mediation has become for us our maple syrup — it is a Canadian product!" — KATHRYN LEGER kathryn.leger@videotron.ca