John Haynes Memorial Award - Alberta Family Mediation Society

Dr. John Haynes was a pioneer of family mediation in the US and was the Founding President of the Academy of Family Mediators there. He came up to Canada in the 80s to do some training of some pioneers in their own right, here, including Larry Fong, Deborah Prowse, Kent Taylor, Nancy Flatters, Mike Porter and Joanne Goss, to name a few. He came back periodically to give training sessions and/or attend conferences.

John used to say that mediation is good work and is therefore only one letter away from "God's work". Also, that a mediator must love his/her clients: "There is good in everybody and if you want mediation to work, you must find the good in people".

When John died prematurely in 1999, Judge Michael Porter, Ret'd, wrote to John's wife, Gretchen, to ask if the Alberta Family Mediation Society could establish an award in his name to be presented annually to one or more persons who have contributed significantly to the field of Family Mediation in the Province of Alberta.

Past winners:

2000: Dr. Larry S. Fong
2001: Louis Faber, B.A., LL.B., RFM
2002: The Honourable Judge Nancy A. Flatters
2003: The Honourable Madam Justice M.J. Trussler
2004: Dr. Kent Taylor
2005: Ms. Diane Shearer
2006: Ms. Patricia Blocksom, QC and Ms. Mary Jane Klein
2007: Alberta Justice
2008: Ms. Janis Pritchard
2009: Judge Michael Porter, Ret’d
2010: Ms. Lorri Yasenik, MSW, RSW, CPT-P, RFM, RPCA and Dispute Resolution Officer Project (The Honourable Madam Justice Colleen Kenny, The Honourable Judge Victor Tousignant, Lonny Balbi, QC, Douglas Moe, QC and Blair Laven)
2011: no recipient
2012: Ms. Geeta Bharadia, QC
2013: Judge Todd LaRochelle
2014: Associate Chief Justice John Rooke
2015: The Honourable Justice Joanne Goss (pictured below)
2016: AFMS Board of Directors in 1994-1995 and 1995-1996 (see below)
2017: no recipient
2018: Doug Moe, QC (pictured below)
2019: The Honourable Justice Andrea B. Moen (pictured below)
2020: Kevin Hannah, QC

2016 John Haynes Memorial Award Recipients

The AFMS is proud to present the Dr. John Haynes Memorial Award to the group of individuals who sat on the AFMS Board of Directors in 1994-1995 and 1995-1996, and were instrumental in ensuring the continued use of the AFMS Registered Family Mediator (RFM) designation in Alberta. Our thanks and appreciation also goes out to the other AFMS members who worked in the mid-90s toward the continued use of the RFM designation, but were impossible to identify from the archived Board minutes.

By way of background, 1995 was the year in which the AFMS was seriously engaged in debate over designations and certifications with Family Mediation Canada (FMC) and the Arbitration and Mediation Institute of Canada (then AMIC, and now the ADR Institute of Canada, ADRIC). The availability and public acceptance of mediation was at the heart of the debate.

Largely due to the efforts of AFMS board members in 1995, the FMC recognized and agreed that national standards for mediators must be commensurate with opportunities in each province for training, supervision, and experience. This applied specifically to the RFM requirements that the AFMS had already established. In the Winter 1995 newsletter, then-AFMS-President Richard Harding described how important FMC Canada was at the time, and how Alberta’s voice was instrumental in having the FMC recognize the reality of mediation practice in our province at the time. His newsletter article is attached for your reference.

The mid-90s was also the time when the Arbitration and Mediation Institute of Canada trademarked their designations of Chartered Mediator (C.Med), and Qualified Mediator (Q.Med). In response, the AFMS attempted to trademark the RFM designation, but later abandoned that trademark application.

The recipients of the John Haynes Memorial Award for 2016 are:

Richard Harding
Linda Long
Diane Shearer
Lori Andreachuk
Eileen Baril
Margaret Borders
Mark Dimirsky
Lou Faber (deceased)
Yogesh Gupta
Elizabeth Henderson
Janis Magnuson
Joanne McKay
Beatrice Norrie
Robert R. Rayne
Marti Ryan
Yuen Fan Tang
Harry Zuurbier (deceased)

Richard, Linda and Diane were on hand April 7, 2016 at the AFMS conference to accept the award on behalf of all seventeen recipients, and generously shared their recollections about mediation and ADR in the mid-90s.