Victims Week 2026 - Virtual Events Agenda

Monday, May 11, 2026

11:00 am to 1:30 pm (EDT)

Official Launch and Opening Ceremony

Opening Remarks

Moment of Reflection

Presentation of Excellence Awards

Keynote Address

The Power of Collaboration: How Community-Based, Trauma-Informed Partnerships Transform the Justice Experience for Victims and Families

Families impacted by homicide and other criminal fatalities face some of the most complex, prolonged, and traumatic interactions with the criminal justice system. Navigating investigations, court proceedings, and systemic processes often unfolds over years and involves multiple justice and community actors. While important advances have been made within victim services, families affected by fatal violence continue to experience gaps in care, fragmented supports, and environments that can unintentionally retraumatize them.

This workshop introduces a practice-based, community-centered model specifically designed to support families impacted by homicide and criminal fatalities. Participants will learn how the model functions in practice, including using coordinated communication, shared care pathways, and survivor-centered meeting spaces before, during, and after court proceedings. This workshop illustrates how collaboration reduces re-traumatization, supports families’ capacity to engage in the justice process, and addresses gaps that formal systems alone cannot meet. The workshop also explores challenges and offers practical strategies for navigating them ethically and effectively. This workshop invites participants to reflect on their own contexts and identify concrete ways to strengthen collaborative responses for families impacted by the most serious forms of violent crime.

2:30 pm to 4:00 pm (EDT)

Workshop #1

Measuring What Matters: Research and the Federal Victims Strategy

The Department of Justice Canada has been undertaking research on victims of crime issues since the early 1980s whether assessing the implementation of new provisions in the Criminal Code such as victim impact statements, the federal victim surcharge, or evaluating different models of victim services that were emerging in the provinces and territories. Today, research remains an important pillar of the Federal Victims Strategy contributing to all facets of the policy cycle.

This workshop will provide an overview of victims research through the decades and will end with a discussion around the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Working Group on Victims of Crime Sub-Committee on National Victims Data. Participants will learn about the interesting work and the role research plays to support policy and programs. This workshop will share the value of collaboration across the country.

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

11:00 am to 12:30 pm (EDT)

Workshop #2

Tech-Enabled Collaboration for Survivor Support: Innovations, Risks, and a Roadmap for Trauma-Informed Digital Practice

As victims and survivors increasingly turn to digital spaces for crisis support, reporting, and recovery resources, technology has become a powerful yet unevenly understood tool within the victim services landscape. This workshop explores how innovation, when guided by trauma-informed principles and cross-sector collaboration, can strengthen Canada’s continuum of care and reduce barriers to support. Led by Nina Mistry, founder of Go Thrive Go and a survivor-advocate working at the intersection of gender-based violence and technology, this session introduces emerging digital tools that are transforming the way survivors access help. Examples include AI-assisted self-assessment tools, secure digital documentation, and anonymous reporting systems.

Participants will learn how these tools can enhance coordination among service providers, law enforcement, and mental health professionals, while also understanding the critical risks and ethical considerations these tools pose, including algorithmic bias, digital re-traumatization, and accessibility challenges. Participants will gain a clear understanding of how to evaluate technological solutions through a culturally safe, trauma-informed, and survivor-centered lens. Reflecting the theme “The Power of Collaboration,” the session offers a practical roadmap for building multidisciplinary partnerships when adopting technology, whether between victim services and developers, or between community organizations and academic institutions. The workshop emphasizes how collective expertise can close gaps in service delivery, reduce silos, and ensure victims receive consistent and meaningful support across systems.

1:30 pm to 3:00 pm (EDT)

Workshop #3

Discussing the Impacts of Community Engagement and Ceremony in Policing

In 2021, the Winnipeg Police Service created the Family Support and Resource Advocate role in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 94 Calls to Action and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit, and Gender Diverse People’s (MMIWG2S+) 231 Calls to Justice. This role supports investigators in the Missing Persons, Counter Exploitation, Homicide, and Historical Case Units, in addition to other divisions within the organization. The Family Support and Resource Advocate offers ongoing support to families of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) in Winnipeg and helps develop connections to community supports, Elders, and Knowledge-Keepers. While several community-based agencies in Manitoba support families of MMIWG2S+, this is the first municipal police-based role designed to connect impacted families to the appropriate investigative unit while providing ongoing support throughout the investigation.

This workshop will explore the impact of this role within the Winnipeg Police Service and the service delivery changes. Presenters will highlight the collaborations between Indigenous community organizations and the Winnipeg Police Service and how stronger, trust-based relationships with families have been built. Participants will learn how centering the needs of affected families, has helped create a safer atmosphere for families as they navigate the justice system. Presenters hope to demonstrate that meaningful change begins with building strong, trusting connections that create safer communities for all.

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

11:00 am to 12:30 pm (EDT)

Workshop #4

The Importance of Families

This workshop will discuss the broad impact of gender-based violence on victims and those who support them. A family's experience after a child or loved one has been harmed is broad and complex. Parents, partners, and siblings of victims may experience the aftermath of trauma in unique ways. This group is often unseen by formal service providers, as their primary focus is on the victim and the immediate trauma. As a result, access to resources may be limited for these individuals. This workshop encourages formal support providers (victim services, police, first responders, and therapists) to see families, not only as victims of secondary trauma, but also as a valuable support system for victims.

This workshop is a unique opportunity to understand the experiences and challenges that families may face, as well as the approaches that may best assist them as they struggle to support victims of gender-based violence.

1:30 pm to 3:00 pm (EDT)

Workshop #5

Victim Engagement in Forensic Psychiatry

Across countries like Canada, the Netherlands, and Australia, victims of mentally disordered offenders remain “the forgotten party,” neglected by the forensic mental health services responsible for the individuals who harmed them. This neglect affects family-member victims and stranger victims, each carrying a different form of psychological injury.

Family-member victims, including parents, spouses, and children of Not Criminally Responsible on account of Mental Disorder (NCR-MD) offenders remain bound to the patient by ties of kinship and love that the offence has ruptured. They carry internalized stigma, shame and grief that existing victim services are neither designed nor equipped to address. When these relationships remain unrepaired, both the victim and the patient are left in a state of frozen harm, with consequences including impoverished risk assessment, poorer treatment engagement, and higher reoffending rates.

Stranger victims experience a different but equally devastating injury - the shattering of fundamental assumptions about the world’s safety and their own worthiness of protection. The NCR finding removes the possibility of meaning of the crime - no criminal intent, no accountability, and no redress. Unlike family members, stranger victims typically have no ongoing contact with the forensic system, leaving them in an information vacuum characterized by hypervigilance, phobic avoidance, and a profound sense that the system has declared their suffering irrelevant.

This workshop will present a treatment model developed within a maximum security forensic psychiatric hospital that draws on narrative family therapy, psychodynamic principles, trauma-informed care, and restorative justice to facilitate the transition from victim to survivor. Participants will learn how victim engagement can be integrated into forensic practice and how it improves outcomes for patients, families, and communities.

Thursday, May 14, 2026

11:00 am to 12:30 pm (EDT)

Workshop #6

Keys to a Tailored Response and Efficient Collaboration between Practitioners Following a Major Event

Intervening in the immediate aftermath of a major event cannot be improvised. For professionals whose daily work involves individual and reactive approaches, as is the case for professionals in Belgian victim support services, a paradigm shift towards a collective and proactive approach is necessary. This is due to the fact that victims' needs remain psychosocial in nature, in the immediate aftermath of an event. Developing collective intervention systems adapted to the evolving psychosocial needs of victims, stepping outside the confines of daily work to intervene in the field alongside other services in the network, and integrating the workload generated by post-event intervention into the ongoing workload are all challenges that require practitioners to be flexible and constantly adapt their response. These challenges also highlight the importance of having a supportive structure at the institutional and team levels.

This workshop will outline what is at stake for a victim of a potentially traumatic event, such as a criminal act. The workshop will describe the organization of services for the care of victims in the various phases following the event and present the Belgian model.

1:30 pm to 3:00 pm (EDT)

Workshop #7

Combatting Fraud and Financial Abuse of Older Adults

Financial abuse of older adults is on the rise in Canada. The circumstances of abuse often involve complex family dynamics, overlapping family responsibilities, and vulnerabilities on the part of the older adult. This workshop will explore decision-making supports for older adults, the interplay of criminal and civil liability, and its impact on the assistance available to victims and families. Participants will examine promising practices from Nova Scotia that address the autonomy and security of older adults.

Friday, May 15, 2026

11:00 am to 12:30 pm (EDT)

Workshop #8

Putting Children at the Heart of Services at Services intégrés en abus et maltraitance (SIAM): Intersectoral Collaboration and a Trauma-Informed Approach

This workshop will be presented by representatives from Services intégrés en abus et maltraitance [integrated abuse services] (SIAM), a child and youth advocacy centre (CYAC) located in Quebec. The SIAM provides services to all children (ages 0-17) who are victims of abuse (sexual abuse, physical abuse, and serious neglect) in the Capitale-Nationale [Quebec City] and Chaudière-Appalaches regions. This CYAC brings together multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral services under one roof, including youth protection, medical assessment, and police investigation. The SIAM is a concrete response to calls for better coordination of services for victims of crime.

Presented with practical examples and avenues of reflection to encourage intersectoral collaboration from a trauma-informed perspective, this workshop will aim to meet three main objectives:

• Show how the child and youth support centre model makes it possible to place the child at the heart of services
• Present the Attachment, Regulation, Competency approach
• Highlight the benefits of an alliance between research and practice as an essential lever for equipping intersectoral partners

1:30 pm to 3:30 pm (EDT)

Workshop #9

What I Wish I’d Known: Using a Survivor’s Lived Experience to Inform Clear, Compassionate Expectations for Victims

This workshop explores how a survivor’s lived experience can illuminate gaps in understanding, communication, and expectation-setting within the criminal justice system. By sharing insights from her own journey, Kimberley Black (educator, trauma-informed facilitator, and public speaker) offers justice professionals and victim service providers practical, empathetic guidance for supporting victims throughout the justice process. While Canada has made strides over the past three decades to strengthen collaboration between victim services and the justice system, many victims still enter the process without clear knowledge of their roles, the limits of the system, or the supports available to them. This knowledge gap can lead to confusion, disappointment, and secondary trauma, even when professionals act with care. The session demystifies critical processes and roles, including differences between Victim/Witness Assistance Programs (VWAP) and community-based victim services, Crown Counsel responsibilities, and police involvement post-investigation. It also addresses common misconceptions around sexual assault terminology, trauma-informed practice, evidence disclosure, and communication constraints.

Participants will learn how to use survivor insights to inform clear and compassionate expectation-setting, which improves victim understanding and collaboration between services and the justice system. The session emphasizes practical strategies that respect both systemic limitations and victim agency, including alternative support pathways such as restorative justice and community-based resources. By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Identify gaps between victim expectations and system realities and understand how collaboration between victim services and justice professionals can reduce confusion and secondary trauma
• Apply survivor-informed approaches to communicating roles, responsibilities, and limitations to victims in a clear, compassionate, and trauma-informed manner
• Recognize opportunities for cross-sector collaboration and promising practices that support victims’ dignity, agency, and access to meaningful services throughout the justice process