PRINCIPAL ADVISOR

Natalie Hodgson has connections to the historical Black communities in Nova Scotia of Digby and Yarmouth, and is from North End Dartmouth. Natalie Hodgson is an Impact of Race and Culture Assessor and served as the Director for the National IRCA Training Project. She has been completing IRCAs for the past seven years, and has conducted several, notable assessments including the landmark IRCA for R v. Anderson, 2020 NSPC 10; 2021 NSCA 62. In addition, she has completed the first IRCA for a matter before the Criminal Code Review Board, and co-authored the first IRCAs in British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Yukon and Quebec through her national IRCA work. Natalie is noted as a leader in IRCAs in Canada, and provides continuous consultation, mentorship and/or supervision to new assessors in various jurisdictions. She has developed a national IRCA training manual for new assessors, and co-taught the course entitled ANSJI Impact of Race and Culture Assessment Training as a microcredential through Dalhousie University. Natalie is currently the Principal Advisor to the Viola Desmond Justice Institute (VDJI), a national nonprofit organization with a similar focus on IRCA expansion. 

Natalie holds a B.A. in Criminology and Sociology, B.Ed. in Elementary Education, M.Ed. in Lifelong Learning, and a M.Ed. in Counselling. She is a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC), and has an extensive background in forensic cultural assessments, counselling and teaching. Natalie is also a published author of several curriculum books as well as a children’s picture book. Additionally, she has various publications in the works, including research projects on IRCAs.

STRATEGIC ADVISOR

Heather is a Registered Social Worker, psychotherapist, consultant, and entrepreneur whose work is informed by her international, national and local professional experiences. As a Toronto native and tri-citizen of Canada, Cameroon and Jamaica, with connections to a historically Black community in Nova Scotia, Heather maintains a strong personal and professional equity and anti-Black racist lens.

Heather’s social work career spans over 15 years, and within that time she has worked at the senior level in the areas of mental health, program and policy development, research and governance across the justice, education and social service sectors. Notably, as a Manager she provided operational advice to the Director of Education for the third largest school district in Ontario on policy, legislative and governance-related matters. As a senior public servant, Heather led the implementation of several programs under the original Black Youth Action Plan, a $47 million commitment from the government of Ontario to help reduce disparities for Black children, youth, and families. 

Currently, Heather works at the Ontario Anti-Racism Directorate where she designed and implemented the department's inaugural grant programs and continues to work to deliver province-wide anti-racist policy initiatives. 

Heather has contributed to various publications such as the book Africentric Social Work and other academic articles on anti-Black racism. She is also the recipient of several awards, including the Ontario-wide Lincoln Alexander Award for Eliminating Racial Discrimination.

Heather is also the Owner and Clinical Director for Pattern Therapy Group, a psychotherapy and consulting practice that centers the experiences of Black and racialized people. 

LEGAL ADVISOR

Valérie Black St-Laurent is a member of the Barreau du Québec and Law Society of Ontario, committed to the defense of fundamental rights and access to justice, with a particular expertise in fairness in the judicial process.

Her commitment to more equitable justice has a particular focus on the recognition and application of Impact of Race and Cultural Assessments (IRCAs) in Canada. As co-coordinator of the first two French-speaking cohorts of the national training program for IRCA writers, she has contributed to the training of a new generation of French-speaking IRCA writers, enabling courts to better contextualize the systemic factors influencing sentencing.

For several years, Me Black St-Laurent has been a regular speaker and advocate, raising awareness among justice system players of systemic biases and the tools available to remedy them. From 2019-2022 she organized and presented at various conferences on the subject of racial profiling, wrongful convictions and the consideration of trauma in the practice of law. These presentations were given at McGill University, Université de Montréal, Ontario and Quebec bar associations, as well as at the Quebec Centers for Forensic Science.

From 2015-2016, Me Black St-Laurent also acted as a volunteer researcher with the Light of Justice Project in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she analyzed racial disparities in sentences imposed by the 9th Circuit Court in order to bring cases to appeal.

She currently sits on the Board of Directors of the McGill Innocence Clinic since 2021, where she acts as supervising attorney. In this capacity, she accompanies student teams in the in-depth examination of files of potentially wrongfully convicted persons, overseeing their legal research and strategies to prepare applications for review under section 696.1 of the Criminal Code. She has been involved with the clinic since 2018.

LEGAL ADVISOR

Montreal-born Sharon Sandiford originally graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, specializing in criminology and social problems. In 1997, she completed an integrated Bachelor of Civil and Common Law degree at McGill University. In 1999, Ms. Sandiford was called to the Montreal Bar, and practices as a criminal defence lawyer. She is the managing partner of the law firm Silver, Sandiford, Avocats - a group of independent and autonomous lawyers. She has been a training supervisor for articling students at the École du barreau since 2005, and has been a member of the Comité des Droits de la Personne du barreau du Québec since 2016. Since 2013, Maitre Sandiford has been a lecturer on delinquency prevention in Montreal. She has been on the Board of Directors of the Montreal community care organization since 2023. In 2024, she teaches at McGill University's Faculty of Law, for the winter session of the “focus week workshop course” on Sentencing Representations. And finally, in January 2025, Maitre Sandiford was lecturer for the Fédération des associations de juristes d'expression Française de common law inc - training in Montreal. She developed training materials of a legal nature related to the Impact of Race and Culture Assessments (IRCA).