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
- The National Justice Survey
- Youth Engagement
- Public Consultations
- “Rethinking Criminal Justice in Canada” (Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP))
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:
- non-governmental organizations representing victims and offenders
- law enforcement professionals
- prosecutors
- defence lawyers
- members of professional legal associations
- judges
- academics
- mental health professionals
- Indigenous leaders and community members
There was broad consensus among stakeholders and Canadians on a number of items, including that the criminal justice system should:
- be fair, efficient, and compassionate
- foster evidence-based initiatives
- treat victims’ issues with compassion and fairness, including through victim-focused and trauma-informed approaches
- address the overrepresentation of Indigenous people and people with mental health and addictions issues, as well as other vulnerable or marginalized people
- use a collaborative approach to address the root causes of crime and create effective and targeted responses
- provide opportunities for collaboration between criminal justice system professionals and other social systems and the private sector
- address data gaps, linking data across justice sectors and social systems
- increase the use of restorative justice
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:
- In-person events
- Online discussion forums
- Twitter town hall
- Reddit discussion
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 |
Moncton, NB |
October 11, 2016 |
Community wellness courts |
Halifax, NS |
October 14, 2016 |
Restorative justice |
Yellowknife, NWT |
December 5, 2016 |
Social responses to crime |
Winnipeg, MB |
December 6, 2016 |
Social responses to crime |
Iqualuit, NU |
January 25, 2017 |
Wellness approach to justice |
Saskatoon, SK |
March 16, 2017 |
Addressing gaps in services to Indigenous people in the criminal justice system |
Whitehorse, YK |
April 18, 2017 |
Collaborative justice |
St. John’s, NL |
April 26, 2017 |
Restorative justice |
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 |
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