What we heard

As part of the broad review and reform of Canada’s criminal justice system, the Department of Justice has undertaken various initiatives to hear Canadians’ views of what a transformed criminal justice system could look like. These included:

Criminal justice system stakeholder roundtables

From May 2016 to November 2017, we held 23 consultations with stakeholders and Canadians in every jurisdiction across the country to discuss how the Government, together with provincial and territorial governments and stakeholders, can transform the criminal justice system. These events included participants from a variety of fields in the criminal justice system, such as:

There was broad consensus among stakeholders and Canadians on a number of items, including that the criminal justice system should:

A What We Heard report describes the findings from these discussions.

National Justice Survey

The National Justice Survey 2017 focused on the criminal justice system and sought the views of adults 18+ from across Canada. Specifically, this nationally representative research involved a traditional public opinion research survey, an informed-choice survey, and in-person and online focus groups. The purpose of this research was to explore Canadians’ views, perceptions and expectations for the criminal justice system, the values they want it to reflect, the objectives of the criminal justice system, and priorities and concerns with respect to criminal justice issues. This work was undertaken to support reforms and new initiatives. The full report was published in May 2018: National Justice Survey 2017: Issues in Canada’s Criminal Justice System Summary Report. If you would like to receive a copy of this report, please send an email to rsd-drs@justice.gc.ca

Youth engagement

To include youth voices in criminal justice reform, the ongoing Department of Justice youth engagement project, launched in 2016, strategically engages youth on specific aspects of the criminal justice system. This process is youth driven and includes a diverse group of youth from across Canada in the form of a 10-12 member Youth Action Committee.

Findings to date indicate that youth support judicial discretion in sentencing and taking an approach to the criminal justice system that includes a focus on individual circumstances (the person and the crime).

These youth want the criminal justice system to show empathy. They support restorative approaches to justice and using alternatives to incarceration, and they are concerned with the overrepresentation of Indigenous persons in the system.

Public consultations

The Department of Justice launched a public consultation from November 2017 to January 2018 to foster a national conversation on transforming the criminal justice system. Many Canadians shared their views on the criminal justice system through various platforms, including:

We also held community roundtables in four cities across Canada in November 2017. These roundtables brought together local community organizers, researchers, advocates, and family members of those who had first-hand experiences with the criminal justice system to explore challenges and work collaboratively to identify where change in the system is needed.

“Rethinking Criminal Justice in Canada” (Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP))

In April 2018, the Department of Justice partnered with the Institute for Research on Public Policy to hold roundtables in four cities and publish a feature series in their digital magazine, Policy Options. The roundtables engaged experts, practitioners and thought leaders on the interaction between the criminal justice system and other social systems. A report on the findings of these roundtables will be available later this year. As well, 17 articles and two podcasts were featured in Policy Options in a special feature called Widening the Lens on Criminal Justice Reform. These pieces were written by various Canadian academics and specialists and address the integration of social systems with the criminal justice system.

Stakeholder and community roundtables

From May 2016 to November 2017, we held the following roundtables across the country:

Location Date Theme

Provincial Territorial Stakeholder Roundtables

Toronto, ON

May 19-20, 2016

Initial experts roundtable – national

Charlottetown, PEI

August 8, 2016

Criminal justice system

Vancouver, BC

August 15, 2016

Mental health and the criminal justice system

Vancouver, BC

August 16, 2016

Lessons from the youth system

Edmonton, AB

September 8, 2016

Criminal justice system
Promising practices in Alberta

Moncton, NB

October 11, 2016

Community wellness courts
Bail and remand
Criminal justice system

Halifax, NS

October 14, 2016

Restorative justice

Yellowknife, NWT

December 5, 2016

Social responses to crime
Criminal justice system

Winnipeg, MB

December 6, 2016

Social responses to crime
Criminal justice system

Iqualuit, NU

January 25, 2017

Wellness approach to justice
Criminal justice system

Saskatoon, SK

March 16, 2017

Addressing gaps in services to Indigenous people in the criminal justice system

Whitehorse, YK

April 18, 2017

Collaborative justice
Criminal justice system

St. John’s, NL

April 26, 2017

Restorative justice
Criminal justice system

Toronto, ON

May 26, 2017

Criminal justice system

Ottawa, ON

June 1, 2017

Issues facing victims and survivors of crime

Gatineau, QC

November 9, 2017

Criminal justice system

Additional engagements

Halifax, NS

October 15, 2016

Mi’kmaq – Nova Scotia – Canada Tripartite Forum – Justice Committee roundtable

Toronto, ON

February 10, 2017

Wrongful convictions

Vancouver, BC

May 24, 2017

Sex trade laws

Community Roundtables

Vancouver, BC

November 21, 2017

Criminal justice system

Winnipeg, MB

November 23, 2017

Criminal justice system

Thunder Bay, ON

November 28, 2017

Criminal justice system

Montreal, QC

November 30, 2017

Criminal justice system

Institute for Research on Public Policy

Edmonton, AB

April 17, 2018

Social systems integration

Montreal, QC

April 20, 2018

Social systems integration

Toronto, ON

April 24, 2018

Social systems integration

Halifax, NS

April 25, 2018

Social systems integration