Four crime and justice stories from 2025 that you might have missed

By Chris Houston

If you love the type of crime and justice stories where there is a clear conclusion and the bad guy goes to jail, you're not gonna like this column.

This week, I share four complex stories that caught my attention in 2025. They are not all satisfying, but they are informative.

The first story is about a sexual assault and includes the all-too-common problem where the justice system retraumatized the very person it should serve. But when restorative justice was introduced, things changed for the better. The second story is about the difference between perceptions of crime and reality. The third story is about the impacts of a 1950 river damming on the environment and two First Nations. The final story is also of an unresolved quest for environmental justice from youth in Ontario.

Restorative justice

On December 19, 20215, National Magazine published Dale Smith's article “Seeking restorative justice.” The article featured the use of restorative justice between a Marlee Liss and the man who raped her. Smith wrote that when “Liss was raped in 2016, she reported it to the police, which started a three-year process that only exacerbated her trauma.”

Smith wrote that Liss: “struggled with panic attacks and suicidal ideation in the aftermath of the attack and says when the preliminary hearing began 17 months later, every step of the process recreated the sense of powerlessness she'd experienced.”

After Liss requested restorative justice, she described it as “the first time since the assault that someone showed enough respect for my needs and boundaries to listen and act accordingly”.

Smith quoted Liss's commentary on the restorative justice process, which “saw her assailant undergo months of therapy and eventually face her in a restorative circle. He looked her in the eyes and apologized. In that moment, Liss says a knot untied in her stomach.”

Liss told Smith that: “Unlike the court process, this was trauma-informed and survivor-centred. I finally felt heard, and empowered, and reassured that my assailant would not do this again. It was healing in a way that I didn't know justice could be.”

In November, the Women's Legal, Education & Action Fund (LEAF) published the report: “Bridging Justices: A Critical Exploration of Moratoriums on Restorative and Transformative Justice for Sexual Harm in Ontario”

Dropping crime

On 7 Aug 2025, a blog by the John Howard Society noted that “nobody really wants to hear good news. We prefer intimations of disaster.” The blog was titled “Crime is down in Canada … but you'd never know it”, and was based on 2024 national statistics that showed “police-reported crime was down overall 4% after 3 straight years of increases.”

On Dec 26, the Toronto Star published Raju Mudhar's article “Toronto's set to hit a 50-year low in homicides. So why do many people think crime is getting worse?” Mudhar reported that Toronto was on “on track to hit a 50-year low for the number of homicides committed in a single year.”

Mudhar noted a recent survey that “indicated three quarters of respondents believe crime in Toronto is getting worse.” Yet, the Toronto Police Service data portal showed drops in many types of crime in the past year. Theft over $5,000 was one of the exceptions, which showed a steady increase over the past five years. The article noted that reducing homicide numbers is also “a trend across North America and the United Kingdom.”

Newspaper headlines throughout the year and the constant output of 24-hour news would have us believe that all types of crime is in a perpetual uptick. But the facts are quite different.

Nechako River and First Nations fight for justice

In May 2025, The Narwhal published Stephanie Wood's in-depth review of the 2025 documentary “Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again”. Wood's article notes the 1950 construction of the Kennedy Dam in northwestern B.C., which was constructed to power aluminium smelting and diverted 70 per cent of Nechako River. Wood reported that the dam destroyed the river, causing “a dramatic decline in salmon.”

Wood reports Stellat'en director Lyana Patrick's film “delves deep into how Saik'uz and Stellat'en First Nations battled mining company Rio Tinto Alcan” and the B.C. government, seeking the recognition of their fishing rights and justice for damage to the Nechako river.

Wood reported that in 2022, the Supreme Court of B.C. “recognized the nations' rights to fish in the Nechako, and that the dam had significantly harmed the river.” She also wrote that “The First Nations sought to hold Rio Tinto Alcan accountable for damage to the ecosystem and to demand water be restored to the Nechako…But the court decided responsibility lay with the province.”

The article quotes Rio Tinto: “After many decades of conflict, the Saik'uz First Nation and Stellat'en First Nation and Rio Tinto have embarked on a reconciliation journey, together with Nadleh Whut'en First Nation and the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, centred around our common goal of improving the health of the Nechako River.”

Wood wrote that the court's findings “ was a disappointment for some community members, though the appeal did put a greater duty on the Crown to consult with the nations in regulating the Nechako's flow and avoiding harm to their fishing rights.” She noted that “While they didn't get everything they hoped for, better consultation is important: Patrick argued Indigenous governance will be “the bulwark against the harms that are going to come and the harms that are here already, like drought and wildfire and changing weather patterns — all of these crises that are impacting everybody.”

Youth-led climate lawsuit in Ontario cleared a major hurdle

On 1 May, 2025, the Canadian Press reported that “Canada's top court has dismissed Ontario's request to weigh in on a major challenge to its climate plan brought by a group of young activists.”

Jordan Omstead's widely published article notes that in 2019, “at the height of a youth-led wave of climate activism, 12-year-old Sophia Mathur and six other young people joined together to challenge Ontario's watered-down emissions target.”

Omstead reported that “Lawyers for the group argued the province's 2018 decision to replace its climate target with a weaker one committed the province to dangerously high levels of planet-warming greenhouse gases.”

Omstead wrote that the young people asked the courts to “to set a science-based target consistent with what would be necessary to meet Canada's international climate commitments.” The lower court rejected the youth's request, but the Court of Appeal overruled the lower court. The Government of Ontario then asked the Supreme Court to weigh in. Onstead wrote that “The top court declined to do that, so the Appeal Court's decision stands and a fresh hearing will come next.”

On October 30, Sophia Mathur (then aged 18) spoke in the House of Commons and urged policymakers to “Make polluters pay.” Mathur said that fossil fuel companies make billions in profit each year and “must bear responsibility for the pollution they create.”

In November 26, Mitchel Beer reported in The Energy Mix that “The seven youth applicants behind a landmark climate rights lawsuit have agreed to delay a court hearing originally scheduled for next week but are certain they still have a case.”

It will be interesting to see what happens in the legal case, known as Mathur v. Ontario, in 2026.