Nova Scotia shouldn’t be a friendly place for domestic abusers. But it is, thanks to a judiciary that continuously puts rehabilitation attempts before community safety.

A man named Arthur Cope is a recent beneficiary of this. In the midst of serving a five-year jail sentence for beating his girlfriend to the point of fracturing her eye socket in 2021, Cope’s lawyers successfully convinced a majority of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal to shave two years off. He will soon be on probation. The reasons? A confidential Indigenous sentencing circle, the impact of colonialism on Cope’s Mi’kmaq identity and his drug-addicted state.