{"id":35,"date":"2026-06-23T18:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naacj.ca\/?page_id=35"},"modified":"2026-06-24T19:41:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:41:33","slug":"our-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/naacj.ca\/?page_id=35","title":{"rendered":"History of NAACJ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1969, the Ouimet Commission on Corrections,Toward Unity: Criminal Justice and Corrections, called for a rehabilitative, not punitive, approach to corrections in Canada. Not too long thereafter, the Sauv\u00e9 Report of the Task Force on the Role of the Private Sector in Criminal Justice, \u201cCommunity involvement in criminal justice\u201d published in 1977 further recommended the increased role of citizen involvement and formalized organizations within criminal justice and corrections across federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions. Under this backdrop, the Executive Director of the Canadian Criminal Justice Association (CCJA), William (Bill) T. McGrath, led the development of an \u201cexperiment\u201d in 1975 that would bring together private sector agencies working in social justice and corrections to share information and provide support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the auspices of CCJA, Mr. McGrath, who was aptly deemed the \u201cGodfather of criminal justice interest groups\u201d in Canada, co-ordinated what would become the NAACJ network: the National Associations Active in Criminal Justice. Now, approximately 50 years later, many of the following 21 founding agencies remain a member of the Association, although they may operate under a different name:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Association of Social Rehabilitation Agencies<br>Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Inc.<br>Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies<br>Canadian Association of Professional Criminologists<br>Canadian Association of Provincial Court Judges<br>Canadian Association of Social Workers<br>Canadian Correctional Chaplains\u2019 Association<br>Canadian Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges<br>Canadian Council on Social Development<br>Canadian Criminology and Corrections Association<br>Canadian Foundation on Alcohol and Drug Dependencies<br>Canadian Mental Health Association<br>Canadian Section, International Association of Penal Law<br>Canadian Psychiatric Association<br>Canadian Psychological Association<br>Church Council on Justice and Corrections<br>John Howard Society of Canada<br>National Association of Friendship Centres<br>National Institute on Mental Retardation<br>St. Leonard\u2019s Society of Canada<br>The Salvation Army<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NAACJ was born. Other \u201cvisionaries and reformers\u201d involved at the time included Bonnie Diamond, Pat Graham, Hans Mohr, Ken Hatt, Lucien Morin, Dr. Reverend David McCord, Brian Crane and Frank Miller. With instrumental support from community builder and mediator Dr. Ben Hoffman, and then Executive Director of the John Howard Society of Canada Jim McLatchie, NAACJ grew in members, partners and autonomy over the 1980s, thanks in part to the inception of the Solicitor General for Canada\u2019s sustaining funding grant for NVOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1990, NAACJ published a discussion paper Making Justice Real: A Socially Responsible Approach to Justice, which explored the philosophical elements of a social responsibility approach to justice; the principles of criminal justice; and, proposed guidelines for practice, all in an effort to stimulate more just and effective measures. This socially responsible approach to criminal justice inspired a vision for NAACJ for many years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2000, then President of NAACJ and Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) Kim Pate led NAACJ\u2019s incorporation by Letters Patent as a not-for-profit (NFP) corporation. By 2004, NAACJ\u2019s membership policy articulated membership criteria for member organizations based on the federal government\u2019s Voluntary Sector Accord (2001). Later in 2013, owing in part to the new Canada Corporations Act, then President Allen Benson led the continuance NAACJ as a federal NFP corporation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1969, the Ouimet Commission on Corrections,Toward Unity: Criminal Justice and Corrections, called for a rehabilitative, not punitive, approach to corrections in Canada. Not too long thereafter, the Sauv\u00e9 Report of the Task Force on the Role of the Private Sector in Criminal Justice, \u201cCommunity involvement in criminal justice\u201d published in 1977 further recommended the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":19,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-35","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naacj.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naacj.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naacj.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naacj.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naacj.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/naacj.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"https:\/\/naacj.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions\/36"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naacj.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naacj.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}