Law Times

Law Times • apriL 16, 2018 Page 7 www.lawtimesnews.com Time for mental health spring cleaning BY DORON GOLD I t's been a long winter, hasn't it? By April, the weather was supposed to have turned in our favour, wasn't it? We've spent long, cold, snowy months cooped up indoors, clutter spreading, iso- lation growing, dust accumulating, files piling up, friends unheard from for what seems like forever. But there's hope, my friends. There is a light at the end of this long, dark, chilly tun- nel and it's called spring. You remember spring. It's that time of warming tempera- tures and longer sun-filled days. It's that time of rebirth, renewal and promise. Seeds are being planted in anticipation of their fu- ture harvest. Vacations are being planned. And the spaces in which we live and work are calling out for a spring cleaning. Might I be so presumptuous as to suggest that that space in between your ears where all of that living and working really happens deserves some refreshment and renewal as well? That's right. While you turn your at- tention to dusting and decluttering your homes and offices in the spring spirit, why not also direct some of that optimis- tic, self-caring energy to mental renewal and rebirth? What does a mental health spring cleaning look like? Following are just a few suggestions. One of the ways in which our brains become cluttered with subterfuge is self- judgment and perfectionism. We accu- mulate disappointments and regrets and hold it against ourselves that things aren't going as well as they seemingly should be. I've heard it said that most pain is not caused by the event or situation but by the individual's resistance to that event or situation. Life is hard enough without com- pounding that difficulty with self-judgment and its atten- dant demoralizing effects. So, let spring be an occasion to clean out the self-judgment closet and replace it with self- compassion. It's that compas- sion that you would have for someone else going through similar travails. You'd sug- gest they give themselves a break or that they're good people, doing the best they can in their current circumstances, and they deserve the right to be imperfect and still see themselves as a success. Don't you deserve that, too? One way to get in touch with that compassion is to reconnect with others. Isolation is the enemy of mental health. Winter often has the effect of cocooning us and creating distance. The emergence of spring can be a good impetus to reach out to friends or family members to see how they're doing and set up a time to get together. It's about support and compas- sion, but it's also about fun and recreation. Generally speaking, the compassion isn't the reason to re-engage but the wonder- ful byproduct of feeling connected with other human beings. It's about feeling ac- cepted, appreciated and loved and about accepting, appreciating and loving others. The better weather is also conducive to moving our bod- ies more. As the f lowers start to sprout and the sun comes out and warms your skin again, a walk with your partner or friend can be just the thing to get your heart pumping, your muscles moving and your en- gagement with the outside world rekindled. Have dinner on a patio. Have a picnic in the park. Go to the zoo with your kids. Or just sit out in the backyard with people you care about, and appreciate how good life can be. This brings us to gratitude. A daily gratitude practice is a clinically validated tool for improved mental health, with corresponding reductions in depression and anxiety. It helps to regularly and sys- tematically remind yourself of some of the things that are going right in your life, when your lawyer brain usually defaults to what's not working and what needs to be fixed. Each morning, write down three things for which you're grateful, big or small. You'll be amazed by the impact such a small act can have on your mood. Doing some law practice spring cleaning can also have a profoundly positive effect on your mental wellness. Use the season of renewal to get your desk cleared, put away files that have piled up, which you're not go- ing to get to in the near term, catch up on your billing and take stock of your work- load and whether some changes need to be made. For those who can, one enormously effective self-care practice is to clean out the bad clients, too. It's hard for some to turn away work, but bad clients are a heavy bur- den and an unnecessary one. They're not worth the headaches. Sweep them out. Let go of grudges. I know that forgiving people whom you perceive have wronged you is hard and you don't want to let them off the hook. But in the end, forgiveness is not about the person being forgiven but about the person doing the forgiving. Holding on to anger is like drinking poi- son and expecting the other person to die. Let it go. It's for you, not them. Go on a news diet. Our brains are af- fected by the ongoing messages they re- ceive and if that messaging is negative and pessimistic, it can affect us that way. So, cut out those news notifications on your mo- bile phone. Let the messages coming at you be predominantly positive and affirming. The emergence of spring is an oppor- tune time to plant some proverbial seeds of mental and physical wellness. The po- tential harvest of mental health that may ensue will be a breath of fresh air. LT uDoron Gold is a registered social worker who is also a former practising lawyer. He works with lawyers and law students in his role as a staff clinician and presenter with the Member Assistance Program as well as with members of the general public in his private psychotherapy practice. He's available at dorongold.com. MMIWG inquiry process needs to improve BY KIM STANTON L ast month, the National Inquiry into Miss- ing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls requested a two-year extension and up to $50 million in order to complete its man- date. The federal government established the MMIWG inquiry in September 2016 after decades of activism by Indigenous women's organizations to raise the alarm about the disproportionate targeting of Indigenous women and girls for violent death and disappearance in Canada. Tragically, more than 1,200 Indigenous women and girls were killed or disappeared by the time the inquiry was created. Before the inquiry was established, I wrote that while I supported the call for a national inquiry, it would be critical to choose the right commissioners and en- sure a process with a good media strategy to engage the broader public. I recommended the inquiry hold public hearings that are not "lawyer-driven," welcome independent research, provide opportunities for civil society engagement and hold institutional, commu- nity and expert hearings. Otherwise, there was a risk that the inquiry could become a wasteful, frustrating, missed opportunity. As a scholar of public inquiries and as a feminist ad- vocate, I have been dismayed by the turmoil of the in- quiry: the resignation of one of the commissioners last summer, the ongoing litany of staff turnover (including two executive directors, chief commission counsel, re- search and communications directors and community relations managers), the cancellation of hearings and the lack of communication with the public and parties. The bewildering lack of clarity for participants to know what to expect from the inquiry in terms of schedule, content, procedure and overall plan has perplexed those who earnestly sought to support its work. The inquiry was to have held family, expert and institutional hearings. The extension request notes that only one expert hearing has been held and no in- stitutional hearings have been held. Further, it states that the inquiry has only recently begun to enter data and records into its electronic document management system. Advisory bodies involving Indigenous youth and LGBTQ2S people (groups particularly targeted for violence) have not yet been created, while a Métis advi- sory panel is only now being created. The stated need to engage contract research if an extension is granted indicates a critical lack of progress with the research program. The areas listed for research to be commis- sioned, as well as the original research yet to be con- ducted by the inquiry's research team, are all areas of research that should have been well underway. While the extension request describes ongoing meetings with different stakeholders across the country, it does not ac- knowledge or address the considerable dissatisfaction and concerns raised by stakeholders such as MMIWG families, coalitions, communities, activists and parties with standing. The extension request also notes that the inquiry anticipates a deficit for the next fiscal year. A good inquiry will educate the public throughout its work about a harmful situation in society and how to prevent its recurrence. An inquiry that is well run and well organized will engage the public so that, by the time it reports, there is political will for the implemen- tation of the recommendations. Unfortunately, this is an unlikely prognosis for this inquiry. The families that have chosen to engage with the inquiry should have their voices heard and respected. However, rather than relying on the inquiry to fulfil its promise of addressing the systemic issues that make Indigenous women and girls subject to heightened violence, MMIWG advo- cates must call for a government action plan to address the on-the-ground and systemic problems that already have been identified by MMIWG families, civil society organizations and activists. In 2014, the Legal Strategy Coalition on Violence Against Indigenous Women, an ad hoc coalition of feminist advocates, reviewed 58 reports that implicated violence against Indigenous women and determined that almost none of the approximately 700 recommen- dations had ever been implemented. The LSC identi- fied a number of necessary measures, including a national action plan to improve co-ordination of governments and agencies, Indigenous involve- ment in program development and delivery, public education, data collection and more. Going forward, these recommendations should inform government and civil society action. Mechanisms described by international bodies that have called for action in Canada on MMIWG (some of which are listed in the inquiry's terms of reference) should be prioritized. Given the disappointing progress of the inquiry to date, many who called for the inquiry are now turning (or returning) to exploring constructive ways to address violence against Indigenous women and girls. These include refocusing on developing or sup- porting community resources for reporting MMIWG and making submissions to international human rights monitoring bodies. The UN Special Rapporteur on Vio- lence against Women is visiting Canada from April 11 to April 23 to examine how the Canadian government is implementing its international human rights obligations relating to the elimination of violence against women. She will hear how far we still have to go before Canada and Canadians take seriously the enormity of the MMI- WG tragedy in our midst. As judicial processes related to the deaths of Cindy Gladue, Tina Fontaine and Col- ten Boushie illustrate, the Canadian justice system has manifestly failed Indigenous women and youth. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission called upon lawyers to do our part for reconciliation. Our profession can make a contribution by advocating for the implementation of known ways to prevent violence against Indigenous women and girls. We can — and should — do so by supporting and taking direction from Indigenous advocates in our communities who continue to do the heavy lifting in seeking justice for far too many mothers, sisters and daughters. LT uKim Stanton is a lawyer at Goldblatt Partners LLP. She completed her doctoral dissertation at the University of Toronto Law Faculty on the use of truth commissions in established democracies and the institutional design of public inquiries. u SPEAKER'S CORNER COMMENT The Lawyer Therapist Doron Gold

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