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Where have all the Quebec mediators gone?

Last night on television’s Saturday Night Live, Montreal-based rock band Arcade Fire wore the Quebec student movement’s emblematic red squares and, in doing so, focused attention on the unrest that has been taking place in the province over the last 14 … Continue reading

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French-language video clip of transformative mediation opening

Here’s a clip of the opening statement in French of a bilingual transformative mediator, John Peter Weldon. It’s a case of alleged harassment made by an elementary school student against the school principal.  Judging from the ages of the participants, … Continue reading

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When worlds collide, or seeing conflict as a crisis in human interaction

The starting point for the transformative model of mediation is an understanding of the nature of conflict as a crisis in human interaction. In this view, the crisis is characterized by two kinds of adverse impacts. First, in conflict each individual … Continue reading

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Mediation & Litigation Have Different Objectives

One of the strong arguments that advocate the use of mediation is tied to the public policy issue of access to justice.  Simply stated, many cases on the court docket can be dealt with more efficiently in mediation, thereby freeing … Continue reading

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How Mediation can Help

 Mediation is one of a number of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) processes that, despite its introduction in North America some 40 years ago, is still not widely understood.  It offers a number of alternatives to the legal adjudication of disputes … Continue reading

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H. H. The Dalai Lama awarded Templeton Prize 2012

The Templeton Prize 2012 has been awarded to His Holiness The Dalai Lama.  The prize has a monetary value of ₤1.1 million and, as such, is the largest monetary award given to one person.  It honours “a living person who … Continue reading

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Transformative Dialogue Highly-Effective in Ethno-Political Conflicts

In this post yesterday on his blog, Dan Simon draws from a White Paper by Erik Cleven published by the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation to review the three basic reasons transformative practice is highly-effective when applied to … Continue reading

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Seeing sometimes really is believing

The McGurk Effect: “The visual information a person gets from seeing a person speak changes the way they hear the sound.”  The video below demonstrates this illusion with the sound  ’ba’ that becomes heard as ‘fa’ when the movement of … Continue reading

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H.H. The Dalai Lama and Transformative Practice

A couple of weeks back, Dan Simon drew a comparison on his new transformative mediation blog between the thinking of Carl Rogers, the founder of humanistic psychology, and the premises and principles of transformative practice. Now, this week, he looks to the … Continue reading

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Transformative Mediation Training and Spiritual Communities

I’m just back from taking part as a role play coach in the three-day “Basic  Mediation Training – The Transformative Approach to Mediation”. The training was co-led by Winnie Backlund and Basia Solarz, and was held with hand-picked leaders of … Continue reading

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