Gender-Based Analysis Plus

Table of Contents

• Section 1: Institutional GBA Plus Capacity
• Section 2: Gender and Diversity Impacts, by Program
  • Core Responsibility: Legal Services
    • Advisory Services
    • Legislative Services
    • Litigation Services
  • Core Responsibility: Justice System Support
    • Contraventions Regime
    • Drug Treatment Court Funding Program
    • Family Justice
    • Indigenous Justice
    • Justice System Partnerships
    • Legal Policies, Laws and Governance
    • Legal Representation
    • Ombudsman for Victims of Crime
    • Victims of Crime
    • Youth Justice
    • Internal Services
  • Definitions

Section 1: Institutional GBA Plus Capacity

The Department of Justice Canada (“Justice Canada,” the “Department”) is dedicated to ensuring that its activities are aligned with the Government of Canada’s commitments to Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) to help ensure that federal legislation, policies, programs and other initiatives are responsive, inclusive and reflective of the diverse experiences and realities of individuals in order to address inequities and barriers.

In 2021-22, Justice Canada updated its Policy on Gender-Based Analysis Plus: Applying an Intersectional Approach to Foster Inclusion and Address Inequities (“GBA Plus Policy,” the “Policy”) in order to strengthen the methodological approach and promote the integration of intersectional considerations in all areas of work. The updated Policy addresses four key areas, including:

• An emphasis on an intersectional methodological approach;
• An increased focus on consideration of systemic barriers;
• Recognition of the need to deconstruct assumptions and bias; and,
• An emphasis on the importance of collecting disaggregated data and consulting with people with lived experience to inform GBA Plus assessments.

In addition, the Department aligned its work with the key principles and responsibilities outlined in the Policy by requiring that Justice Canada employees apply an intersectional GBA Plus approach in a systematic, evidence-based way in their work. For example, Assistant Deputy Ministers (“ADMs”) are responsible for ensuring their employees complete mandatory introductory GBA Plus training and that they integrate an intersectional GBA Plus lens to ensure that their work considers the needs of diverse groups of people.

In 2021-22, the Department continued building its GBA Plus capacity, with the GBA Plus Unit1 (“Unit”), consisting of three employees, playing a lead role. For example, a new GBA Plus Guide for Canada’s Legal Team was developed to provide recommendations on incorporating key GBA Plus considerations into advisory, legislation and litigation services provided to federal departments and agencies.

The Unit continued to support the Department’s GBA Plus Champion2 in their role to actively encourage Justice employees’ participation in capacity-building activities and promote new ways of improving GBA Plus in key areas of work. For example, for the annual celebration of the GBA Plus Awareness Week in May 2022, the Unit organized a panel discussion on the role of an intersectional GBA Plus lens in an equitable post-pandemic recovery - perspectives on opportunities in the legal context. The panel discussion explored the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic on individuals with intersecting identities and highlighted practical examples and approaches to follow in the justice context to achieve a more equitable post-pandemic recovery.

The GBA Plus Action Team3 continued to play an essential role in promoting the implementation of an intersectional GBA Plus lens into departmental policy, program and legislative initiatives by providing support and advice on an ad hoc basis, including on the development of internal guidelines, tools and resources to assist Justice employees to ensure that departmental initiatives are inclusive for all Canadians and help advance equity and diversity. For example, the GBA Plus Action Team supported the GBA Plus Unit with the development of the GBA Plus Guide for Canada’s Legal Team. In addition, the Action Team will contribute to the development of content for the departmental GBA Plus training targeting the needs of legal professionals. Members of the team will provide advice and help with the development of case studies grounded in legal services work specific to the Department of Justice.

Furthermore, the GBA Plus Unit provided advice and guidance on incorporating GBA Plus considerations into initiatives led by the Department, including, but not limited to, Memoranda to Cabinet, Budget Requests and Treasury Board Submissions. The Unit also provided advice on how to incorporate an intersectional lens into other Departmental priorities, such as the Accessibility Plan and the Medium Term Planning process.

Specifically, the Unit developed and updated resources and tools to ensure an intersectional GBA Plus approach that goes beyond gender and sex to include consideration of multiple identity factors such as age, disability, economic status, education, gender, sex and sexual orientation, geography, language, racialization and ethnicity and religion and spirituality, is well integrated throughout the development of the above-mentioned documents. For example, a series of new research briefs provided justice-specific data on the above listed identity factors to support evidence-based analysis. Furthermore, the GBA Plus Unit acted as a liaison across the Department and with other federal departments and agencies to foster consistent, coordinated and high-quality approaches to GBA Plus.

The Senior ADM of the Policy Sector, who is responsible for the GBA Plus Unit, provided leadership in the promotion, implementation and monitoring of GBA Plus in the Department. Senior governance bodies were regularly engaged in strategic discussions to strengthen and build GBA Plus capacity across the Department. For example, senior governance committees were engaged in discussions on the updated departmental Policy on GBA Plus; their feedback was incorporated before the Policy was approved and published.

The Department continued to assess progress on the application of GBA Plus through the annual Impact Assessment project, which measures and reports on the application of GBA Plus to department-led initiatives. The Impact Assessment report informs senior management of departmental progress in advancing GBA Plus priorities and helps identify gaps in existing knowledge and practices. The quality of the analysis is assessed using two indicators, which measure the timely and meaningful application of GBA Plus to initiatives.

Additionally, to strengthen the application of an intersectional GBA Plus approach to performance monitoring and reporting, the GBA Plus Unit was involved in the review and update of the Departmental Results Framework (DRF) and Performance Information Profiles (PIPs), led by the Corporate Planning, Reporting and Risk Division. Performance indicators included in the DRF and the PIPs support performance measurement, evaluation and reporting for Justice’s Program Inventory. Efforts continued to be made to incorporate gender and diversity considerations throughout departmental reporting, including increased efforts to collect disaggregated data and identify meaningful GBA Plus indicators, where relevant.

The Department continued to promote the importance of applying an intersectional GBA Plus lens at an early stage in an initiative’s development and continued to encourage the collection and use of disaggregated data to monitor and evaluate the impacts of the initiatives on diverse groups. Specific examples are provided below.

Section 2: Gender and Diversity Impacts, by Program

Core Responsibility: Legal Services

Program Name: Advisory Services

Target Population: Internal to Government of Canada (federal departments and agencies)

Distribution of Benefits4:

Key Program Impacts on Gender and diversity:

The Department of Justice Canada provides legal advisory services to federal departments and agencies and contributes to the advancement of the outcomes described in the Departmental Results Framework. Direct program impacts are measured through the Department of Justice Canada Legal Services Client Feedback Survey (CFS). This is a survey within the Government of Canada that is sent to client organizations that receive legal services from the Department. Run on a two-year cycle, its purpose is to measure client satisfaction with the delivery of legal services in order to identify strengths/weaknesses as well as areas where service improvements may be needed, and inform Canadians on the quality of justice legal services.

The table below reflects responses from clients surveyed in 2021-22.

In 2021-22, the overall satisfaction with advisory services scored an 8.6 mean rating on a 10-point scale based on clients surveyed in this year, successfully achieving the target of a mean rating of 8.0 or greater.

Other Key Program impacts on gender and diversity:

Legal professionals provide high-quality bilingual and bijural legal services to federal government officials in support of the implementation of governmental priorities. One of the main objectives of the Advisory Services program is providing accessible legal learning opportunities for legal professionals to ensure they have a current understanding of new developments, modifications, and trends in their specialized legal field. In addition, accessible legal learning and materials are provided for client-departments to enable better understanding of how Justice Canada operates, the legal framework and processes and the legal risk. All training activities adhere to accessibility requirements, such as offering online training opportunities, as well as delivering training courses, materials and resources in both official languages.

To contribute to the integration of intersectional equity, diversity and inclusion principles into legal advice, the focus in the 2021-22 fiscal year was on building capacity and strengthening legal professionals’ knowledge about how to better integrate an intersectional GBA Plus lens into their work. Concrete steps to enable legal professionals to take effective actions included:

• Developing a GBA Plus Guide for Canada’s Legal Team with a specific section dedicated to advisory services, which included consultations with legal professionals across the Department. The Guide will be released in the fall of 2022; and,
• Exploring options for developing a departmental GBA Plus training plan tailored to the specific needs of legal professionals. The first training module is expected to be developed in the 2022-23 fiscal year.

In 2021-22, by providing timely and responsive advisory legal services, the program continued to support multiple Government priorities, including the ongoing commitment to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. This included providing legal advice to government departments and related agencies to introduce legislation to advance reconciliation, implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and address systemic inequities in the criminal justice system, among others.

Additional examples of where GBA Plus considerations were taken into account include files where professionals delivering legal advisory services continued to advance the Government’s commitment to support Canadians post-pandemic in relation to addressing the gaps in our social systems for diverse groups of individuals. Justice Canada also supported the Minister of Public Safety, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency in implementing the Government’s renewed commitments on firearms control. In May 2022, the Government tabled Bill C-21, An Act to amend certain Acts and to make certain consequential amendments (firearms) making significant progress towards addressing the role of handguns in intimate partner violence, gender-based violence and self-harm involving firearms by creating a new “red flag” law that would enable courts to require that individuals considered a danger to themselves or others surrender their firearms to law enforcement, while protecting the safety and identity of the individual applicants.

Additionally, in close collaboration with clients, work was undertaken to introduce amendments to the Public Service Employment Act aiming to increase diversity and inclusion in the federal public service and reduce bias and barriers experienced by equity-seeking groups during staffing processes.

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

The Advisory Services program supports their clients in the implementation of GBA Plus across the public service by integrating GBA Plus considerations, as relevant, into legal advice provided to government departments and agencies. Relevant data on impacts on gender and diversity is collected by the departments and agencies leading the development and implementation of the specific initiative. The Department as a whole continues to monitor the improvements in data collection by partner departments, such as Statistics Canada, which will contribute to better monitoring and reporting on GBA Plus implementation at Justice Canada, including as relevant and applicable to legal advisory services reporting.

To improve the quality of the data being collected, program officials working on the CFS are currently reviewing the survey questionnaire for Cycle V of the CFS, that is planned to begin in the spring of 2023.  A sub-committee of departmental officials, with input from Statistics Canada, will explore the possibility of including more definitive elements of diversity into the survey questionnaire, such as questions providing additional information on official languages and accessibility, as well as other diversity factors as relevant.

In addition, the GBA Plus Unit will explore the feasibility of collecting data or distributing a qualitative survey to assess the usefulness of the GBA Plus training for legal professionals. Additional opportunities to collect GBA Plus related data in the context of legal services will be explored beginning in 2022-23.

Program Name: Legislative Services

Target Population: Internal to Government of Canada (federal departments and agencies)

Distribution of Benefits:

Key Program Impacts on Gender and diversity:

The Department of Justice Canada provides legislative and regulatory drafting services to federal departments and agencies and impacts are measured by the indicators described in the Departmental Results Framework. Direct program impacts are measured through the Department of Justice Canada Legal Services Client Feedback Survey (CFS). This is a survey within the Government of Canada that is sent to client organizations that receive legal services from the Department.  Run on a two-year cycle, its purpose is to measure client satisfaction with the delivery of legal services in order to identify strengths/weaknesses as well as areas where service improvements may be needed, and inform Canadians on the quality of justice legal services.

The table below reflects responses from clients surveyed in 2021-22.

In 2021-22, the overall satisfaction with legislative services scored an 8.7 mean rating and the regulatory services scored an 8.6 mean rating on a 10-point scale based on clients surveyed in this year, successfully achieving the target of a mean rating of 8.0 or greater.

Other Key Program impacts on gender and diversity:

Legal professionals provide high-quality bilingual and bijural legislative services to the government, including the drafting of government bills, government motions to amend bills before Parliament and proposed regulations and other statutory instruments. The co-drafting and revision processes are intended to ensure the highest quality of language in both French and English, thereby meeting the requirements under the Official Languages Act.

The Minister of Justice is responsible for examining all government bills and regulations for inconsistency with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter), which is aligned with, yet distinct from intersectional GBA Plus assessments. The Minister of Justice is also responsible for ensuring that a Charter Statement is tabled in Parliament for every government bill. Charter Statements:

• ensure the rights and freedoms of Canadians are respected and considered throughout the law-making process;
• identify potential effects that a bill may have on rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms;
• explain considerations that support the constitutionality of a proposed bill; and
• increase awareness and understanding of the Charter.

It is important to note that the list of identity factors considered as part of a GBA Plus analysis is broader than the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination under both the Charter and the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) and the fact that a law, policy, or program has or may have a differential impact on a specific group of people based on their personal characteristics does not necessarily give rise to legal risks under either the Charter or the CHRA. Both the Charter and CHRA recognize, however, that, in order to achieve substantive equality, it is necessary to consider the differences in individual needs and circumstances and, if appropriate, take those differences into account in the design of laws, policies, and programs with a view to avoiding unequal benefits or burdens.

One of the main activities of the program is the consolidation and publication of federal acts and regulations, which is done in accordance with accessibility standards. For example, the Justice Laws Website provides a consolidation, or updated version, of the federal Acts and regulations maintained by the Department of Justice as a convenient way for the public to view the state of the law, without having to carry out research and put together the various amended provisions. In addition, all acts and regulations are published in both official languages.

Another main objective of the Legislative Services program is providing accessible legal learning opportunities for legal professionals to ensure they have a current understanding of new developments, modifications, and trends in their specialized legal field. Learning activities address specific legislative drafting needs and adhere to accessibility requirements, such as offering online training opportunities, as well as delivering training courses, materials and resources in both official languages.

To contribute to the integration of intersectional equity, diversity and inclusion principles into legislative and regulatory services, the focus in the 2021-22 fiscal year was on building capacity and strengthening legal professionals’ knowledge about how to better integrate an intersectional GBA Plus lens into their work. Concrete steps to enable legal professionals to take effective actions included:

• Developing a GBA Plus Guide for Canada’s Legal Team with specific section dedicated to legislative services, which included a consultations process with legal professionals across the Department. The Guide will be released in the fall of 2022; and,
• Exploring options for developing a departmental GBA Plus training tailored to the specific needs of legal professionals. The first training module is expected to be developed in the 2022-23 fiscal year.

During 2021-22, the Department continued to support the implementation of many Government of Canada priorities through the delivery of high-quality, integrated legal services to the federal government and its departments and agencies. These services, which include legislative services, contributed to achieving increased access to justice and the improved accountability and responsiveness of the justice system pillars of the Gender Results Framework. For example, the Government of Canada introduced legislation in February 2022 to improve the operations of the criminal justice system and address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Proposed changes to the Criminal Code would give courts increased flexibility in how they hold criminal proceedings and issue orders that would support greater access to justice, including for people living in remote communities.

In addition, the Department supported the Minister of Public Safety with the development and implementation of Bill C-228, An Act to establish a Federal Framework for Reducing Recidivism, which came into force in June 2021. The bill aims to break the cycle of reoffending, support rehabilitation and make communities safer for everyone. According to Statistics Canada, the prevalence of re-contact with police is higher after correctional involvement, especially among Indigenous people and youth. For example, a study examining re-contact with the Saskatchewan criminal justice system showed that Indigenous adults had significantly higher prevalence of re-contact with police following their correctional involvement (80%) than non-Indigenous adults (57%). This was even more pronounced for Indigenous youth, with 90% having re-contact following their correctional involvement (compared to 79% of non-Indigenous youth)7. Bill C-228 supports the government’s broader commitment to reform the criminal justice system and address its disproportionate impact on certain communities, particularly Indigenous peoples and Black Canadians.

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

The Legislative Services program supports the implementation of GBA Plus across the public service by integrating GBA Plus considerations, as relevant, into legislative and regulatory services provided to the Government of Canada departments and agencies. For measuring and reporting on medium and long-term impacts on gender and diversity as well as increased access to justice, the program relies on relevant data collected by Statistics Canada and other partner organizations.

To improve the quality of the data collected through the CFS, program officials administrating the survey are currently reviewing the survey questionnaire for Cycle V, that is planned to begin in the spring of 2023.  A sub-committee of departmental officials, with input from Statistics Canada, will explore the possibility of including more definitive elements of diversity into the survey questionnaire, such as questions providing additional information on official languages and accessibility, as well as other diversity factors as relevant.

In addition, the GBA Plus Unit will explore the feasibility of collecting data or distributing a qualitative survey to assess the usefulness of the GBA Plus training for legal professionals. Additional opportunities to collect GBA Plus related data in the context of legal services will be explored beginning in 2022-23.

Program Name: Litigation Services

Target Population: Internal to Government of Canada (federal departments and agencies)

Distribution of Benefits:

Key Program Impacts on Gender and diversity:

The Department of Justice Canada provides litigation services to federal government departments and agencies and contributes to the advancement of the overall outcomes included in the Departmental Results Framework. Direct program impacts are measured through the Department of Justice Legal Service Client Feedback Survey (CFS). This is a survey within the Government of Canada that is sent to client organizations that receive legal services from the Department.  Run on a two-year cycle, its purpose is to measure client satisfaction with the delivery of legal services in order to identify strengths/weaknesses as well as areas where service improvements may be needed, and inform Canadians on the quality of justice legal services.

The table below reflects responses from clients surveyed in 2021-22.

In 2021-22, the overall satisfaction with litigation services scored an 8.6 mean rating on a 10-point scale based on clients surveyed in this fiscal year, successfully achieving the target of a mean rating of 8.0 or greater.

Other Key Program impacts on gender and diversity:

Under the Litigation Services program, legal professionals provide high-quality bilingual and bijural litigation services to the federal government. Litigation services assist the Government in achieving its objectives in accordance with the law and in ensuring that it meets its obligations under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and other constitutional and international obligations.

One of the main objectives of the Litigation Services program is providing accessible legal learning opportunities for legal professionals to ensure they have a current understanding of new developments, modifications, and trends in their specialized legal field. Learning activities address specific litigation needs and adhere to accessibility requirements, such as offering online training opportunities, as well as delivering training courses, materials and resources in both official languages.

To contribute to the integration of intersectional equity, diversity and inclusion principles into litigation services, the focus in the 2021-22 fiscal year was on building capacity and strengthening legal professional’s knowledge about how to better integrate an intersectional GBA Plus lens into their work. Concrete steps to enable legal professionals to take effective actions included:

• Developing a GBA Plus Guide for Canada’s Legal Team with specific section dedicated to litigation services, which included a consultations process with legal professionals across the Department. The Guide will be released in the fall of 2022; and,
• Exploring options for developing a departmental GBA Plus training plan tailored to the specific needs of legal professionals. The first training module is expected to be developed in the 2022-23 fiscal year.

During 2021-22, the Department continued to support the Government’s ongoing commitment to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. This support included providing litigation services delivered in accordance with the Attorney General of Canada’s Directive on Civil Litigation Involving Indigenous Peoples, Principles respecting the Government of Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples and the Principles Guiding the Attorney General of Canada in Charter Litigation. For example, in 2021-22 the Department provided litigation services resolving two significant class actions related to safe drinking water in First Nations communities. GBA Plus principles are also applied in the litigation context, as appropriate.  For instance, the Department ensured a consistent approach and management of high profile class actions related to sexual harassment, assault or misconduct, and harassment or discrimination in the workplace and provided support on the settlement of Indigenous childhood claims.

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

The Litigation Services program supports GBA Plus across the public service by integrating GBA Plus considerations, as relevant, into litigation services provided to federal departments and agencies. As a legal service provider instructing clients, advice is concentrated on legal risks (i.e. likelihood of adverse outcome) while other impacts on a litigation file, including GBA Plus analysis, fall under the responsibility of client departments. With respect to providing legal advice on a file, litigators may indicate that the client should take into account GBA Plus considerations. Examples of files where this may take place include Charter litigation, gender-based or diversity litigation (e.g. harassment, exclusion) and settlement discussion, as appropriate.

To improve the quality of the data collected through the CFS, program officials administrating the survey are currently reviewing the survey questionnaire for Cycle V, that is planned to begin in the spring of 2023.  A sub-committee of departmental officials, with input from Statistics Canada, will explore the possibility of including more definitive elements of diversity into the survey questionnaire, such as questions providing additional information on official languages and accessibility, as well as other diversity factors as relevant.

In addition, the GBA Plus Unit will explore the feasibility of collecting data or distributing a qualitative survey to assess the usefulness of the GBA Plus training for legal professionals. Additional opportunities to collect GBA Plus related data in the context of legal services will be explored beginning in 2022-23.

Core Responsibility: Justice System Support

Program Name: Contraventions Regime

Target Population: Canadians who have received a federal contraventions ticket

Distribution of Benefits:

Key Program Impacts on Gender and diversity:

Other Key Program impacts on gender and diversity:

The federal government established the Contraventions Act Fund to ensure the implementation of the Contraventions Act in a manner consistent with all applicable constitutional and legislative language rights and obligations. The Fund aims to provide provinces and territories with the ability to deliver judicial activities and extra-judicial services in both official languages. Those services are specifically related to the enforcement of federal offences designated as contraventions under the Contraventions Regulations.

In 2021-22, the provinces continued to fulfil official languages duties on behalf of the federal government by sustaining concrete measures meant to ensure that offender’s language rights are respected. The Department provided funding to six provinces and one municipality to support them in safeguarding the official language rights of the offenders.

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

The GBA Plus data that is collected is focused on understanding how obligations to official language minority communities are being fulfilled. During 2021-22, the jurisdictions receiving funding continued to report on the following: total number of contraventions tickets issued; the number of trials requested in each official language; the number of trials held in the second official language of the jurisdiction; the number of trials requested in the second official language and scheduled but not held; and, the number of complaints, if any, concerning non-compliance with federal obligations under the Official Languages Act and Criminal Code. The Fund will continue to work in close collaboration with funding partners to improve data collection and to identify and address barriers to accessing services in both official languages.

Program Name: Drug Treatment Court Funding Program

Target Population: Non-violent offenders who committed a crime as a result of a substance use disorder

Distribution of Benefits:

Key Program Impacts on Gender and diversity:

Other Key Program impacts on gender and diversity:

Drug Treatment Court programs are available to all Canadians who meet the selection criteria. However, they have a greater beneficial impact for males between 20-49 years of age with a serious dependence on the illicit use of opiates as this demographic group forms the majority of participants. The general public and community members are expected to benefit indirectly as the program contributes to making communities healthier and safer by reducing drug dependency and, by extension, crimes committed related to drug dependency.

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

The Drug Treatment Court Funding Program uses the Drug Treatment Court Information System (DTCIS) to collect program client data. The program continued working with provincial and territorial partners to strengthen the quality of data collection and improve monitoring of impacts from a gender and diversity perspective. For example, in 2021-22, the program extended its reporting on diverse identity characteristics to include a new category collecting data on the ethnicity of the new participants, as well as reporting data on the percentage of transgender individuals who joined the program.

Program Name: Family Justice

Target Population: Canadian families experiencing separation and divorce.

Distribution of Benefits:

Key Program Impacts on Gender and diversity:

Other Key Program impacts on gender and diversity:

During 2021-22, the Canadian Family Justice Fund (CFJF) provided funding to ten projects that specifically extended the reach of family justice programs, services and information to meet the needs of diverse and underserved populations. For example, the Family Law Information & Presentations for Rural & Northern Manitoba project aims to provide information related to the changes to the Divorce Act, including a series of online presentations to agencies in rural and northern communities in Manitoba. Furthermore, in Nova Scotia, work has been done to develop an Atlantic Branch of the National Self Represented Litigants Project to help self-represented litigants involved in the family law system to understand how the Divorce Act amendments and the rollout of the Unified Family court across the province may affect them. Additionally, in Alberta a project was implemented to provide in-house mediation services and create an awareness campaign in print and podcasts in order to better support the Chinese-Canadian community.

The CFJF supported provincial and territorial efforts to expand the availability of government-funded supervision services in relation to the exercise of parenting time between a child and parent in cases of separation and divorce, particularly in cases where there may be concerns about the safety of a child or another family member due to family violence. For instance, in Quebec, funding supported expanding existing supervised parenting time services to improve the safety of vulnerable children and family members throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery phase. In Saskatchewan, Interpersonal Violence (IPV) training was provided for staff and contractors of the supervised access/exchange program on the latest research related to family violence, in particular violence resulting from COVID-19 restrictions. This training provided greater knowledge and skills for those working with vulnerable children and their families. In Prince Edward Island existing Supervised Parenting Time services and Exchange Programs were expanded to address increasing service requests, particularly in rural areas. The availability of safe parenting time and exchange space and programming ensures that the safety and well-being of vulnerable children are protected.

In 2021-22, the CFJF provided funding to seven provinces and territories under the CFJF to begin work towards implementation of the official language provision of the Divorce Act. This funding will support PTs to enhance their capacity to deliver family justice services in both official languages to ensure that Canadians can have their divorce proceedings in the official language of their choice.

Finally, the Family Law and Youth Justice Policy Section supported the Research and Statistics Division with the development of the “HELP Toolkit: Identifying and Responding to Family Violence for Family Law Legal Advisers”. For more details see the Legal Policies, Laws and Governance program below.

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

The Canadian Family Justice Fund (CFJF) continues to place a particular emphasis on extending the reach of family justice programs, services and information to meet the needs of diverse and underserved populations. Funded organizations continued to report on their activities, including training, services, public legal education and information products and materials provided to, and outcomes for, diverse groups including official language minority communities. Information was collected on population group(s) targeted by the projects, communities, number of individuals reached, and specific information on vulnerable populations reached through the project activities. Currently, program officials are in a process of reviewing the exit surveys to further disaggregate the data collected for parenting education programs as well as mediation services, aiming to have the updated surveys finalized by spring 2023.

Program Name: Indigenous Justice

Target Population: Indigenous individuals in contact with the criminal justice system, in particular accused persons and offenders

Distribution of Benefits:

Key Program Impacts on Gender and diversity:

Other Key Program impacts on gender and diversity:

Both the Indigenous Justice Program (IJP) and the Indigenous Courtwork Program (ICW) have a direct positive benefit on Indigenous accused and offenders, as well as victims. They contribute to improved access to justice for Indigenous peoples, increasing safety and security for Indigenous communities, and reducing the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system.

Indigenous Courtwork Program

In 2021-2022, the Department continued to support Indigenous people involved in the criminal justice system by improving Indigenous Courtwork services. For example, Justice Canada provided additional funding to a local Indigenous organization leading a national research project to identify the impact of COVID-19 on the work of Indigenous Courtworkers across Canada. The new funding will support Indigenous Courtworkers with the development of a training curriculum to meet the changing demands of courts, clients and communities in a post COVID-19 environment.

In 2021-22, ICW worked with provinces, territories and Indigenous organizations through its Tripartite Working Group to allocate funding to Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and Northwest Territories to support Indigenous peoples in family court/child protection proceedings.

Furthermore, ICW continued working with other regions and Indigenous organizations to develop region and/or community-specific frameworks that are responsive to the specific needs of the local Indigenous communities. This included engagement with a number of Indigenous organizations to support the development of GladueReports and Family Courtwork and Indigenous Courtwork services in areas that currently are not providing such services.

Indigenous Justice Program

In 2021-22, the Department continued to support Indigenous-led community-based justice programs across the country through the IJP. IJP supports Indigenous communities to design and lead culturally-competent programs that respond to local realities and priorities. In 2021-22, IJP finalized new 5-year funding agreements for its existing Indigenous community-based justice programs that included new program integrity funding. These budget increases will allow programs to continue to provide high-quality justice programming, enhance their stability as well as having beneficial impacts on Indigenous communities.

In 2021-22, IJP also made a funding opportunity available to existing IJP community programs focused on civil and family mediation services and 47 projects were approved. These projects will pilot, enhance, and/or evaluate community-determined mediation, dispute resolution, healing, and intervention programming for youth, families, intimate partners and/or community members. Funded projects are expected to contribute to healthier family relationships and reduce contact with child protection system for Indigenous families and children, as well as prevent crime.

IJP also launched and closed a National Open Call for Proposals in 2021-22 that focused on educating justice professionals and changing structures, policies, practices and institutions in the criminal justice system. The focus of this Call was to address systemic barriers faced by Indigenous people in the criminal justice system and ultimately contribute to reducing their overrepresentation in the system. Thirty one projects were approved under this initiative. Funded projects focused on education for justice system professionals that are required to include information on: 1) the impacts of colonization; 2) the barriers Indigenous people face in interacting with the criminal justice system; and 3) how to adapt criminal justice system responses and practices given systemic barriers. Projects focused more broadly on systemic change are required to use a GBA Plus lens in developing their interventions as a mandatory project activity and will be asked to report on the outcomes of that analysis in their project reporting.

Supplementary Information Sources:

• Evaluation of the Indigenous Justice Program (2021)
• Evaluation of the Indigenous Courtwork Program (2018)

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

In 2021-22, the IJP adapted its data collection forms and continued to provide training to improve the reporting of disaggregated data on a broader range of program activities. In addition, IJP is now piloting a new online data collection tool, with full roll-out expected by April 2023. It is expected to further improve the quality of the data collected.

The ICW worked through the Federal Provincial Territorial and the Tripartite Working Groups tables to update information gathered through ICW agreements, including recent funding for Family Courtwork and Gladue funding expansions, to improve reporting on the impacts of the initiatives on Indigenous people involved with the justice system. Information is disaggregated by different identity factors such as gender and age and published in the Evaluation report of the program.

Currently, disaggregated data on victims is not available; however, both IJP and ICW are working to improve and modernize data collection.

Program Name: Justice System Partnerships

Target Population: All Canadians

Distribution of Benefits:

Other Key Program impacts on gender and diversity:

Through the Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Fund, the Department  made available $12.7 million to organizations and funded a total of 78 projects in 2021-22 as part of the Government of Canada’s Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023: Investing in our Future. Funded projects raised awareness and supported public legal information activities, helped to enact Bill C-78 Official Language provisions, contributed to the development of linguistic tools, provided training to justice professionals, and supported translation of judgements, among others.

Six of the projects raising awareness and supporting public legal information activities were specifically designed to support racialized (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) members of official language communities. As a result of these projects, approximately 800 persons, the majority of which were women, benefited from a series of free legal information services.

The funding provided to 21 organizations/associations, five academic institutions, six provincial governments and one territorial government, helped increase the capacity of the justice system and its stakeholders to offer justice services in both official languages and increase the availability of legal information to official language minority communities.

The Department continued to encourage partner organizations to focus on underserved populations and improve access for diverse communities. For example, ten jurisdictions accessed funding for Independent Legal Advice/Representation for victims of intimate partner violence, with four of the projects specifically directing their services to low-income clients and two providing virtual clinics to serve rural and remote communities. In addition, 27 Indigenous Laws and Legal Traditions initiatives have been funded, 21 of them supporting First Nations, two supporting Métis and two supporting Inuit populations/communities, as well as three northern projects.

Projects funded to address workplace sexual harassment under the Justice Partnership and Innovation Program (JPIP) include a GBA Plus approach and consideration of relevant intersectional factors, such as race, class, sexuality, age, language, etc. To date, projects have reported reaching diverse population groups including Indigenous persons, racialized persons, LGBTQ2+12, disabled people and women. These projects are also working in both urban and rural communities as well as remote communities across Canada. Under this initiative, JPIP funded an additional 11 projects specifically targeting workplace sexual harassment in hospitality/service and male-dominated industries. These projects included, for example, addressing workplace sexual harassment for women working in precarious employment in the service industry, male-dominated industrial work camps in northern and rural Indigenous communities, and in hospitality/service workplaces in rural Saskatchewan.

The GBA Plus lens, and more precisely diversity and inclusion, is at the forefront of the relationships with partners. The Department is committed to maintaining the dialogue on this issue. It is a regular topic of discussion at the Advisory Committee on Access to Justice in Both Official Languages and the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Working Group on Access to Justice in Both Official Languages. For example, the entire agenda of 2021 annual meeting of the Advisory Committee on Access to Justice in Both Official Languages featured sessions on diversity and inclusion. It also included a presentation and workshop on access to justice for immigrants, which includes a vast array of ethno-cultural communities.

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

A GBA Plus lens was integrated into the development and implementation of initiatives to support victims of intimate partner violence under JPIP. All projects approved under these initiatives are required to report on the inclusion of GBA Plus approaches and their efforts to reach diverse groups in their interim and annual reporting. A GBA Plus lens has been incorporated into the development of reporting templates and data tools, including a client survey, to allow for the collection of data that can be disaggregated by target population, gender identity, sexual orientation and location.

A GBA Plus lens was integrated into the design and development of a new funding initiative under JPIP - Funding for Legal Services and Supports for Racialized Communities. A call for proposals was launched in November 2021, which included GBA Plus as a key activity to ensure projects would complete an analysis of the diverse and intersectional needs of target populations and the impact the project activities would have on these groups. The application form included specific questions on how the project would integrate GBA Plus and was an assessment criteria for all proposals received. GBA Plus will be incorporated into the reporting template for approved projects, including a client survey, to allow for the collection of data that can be disaggregated by age, gender, ethnicity, language and location. Disaggregated data will provide evidence for possible barriers and accessibility issues that certain groups might be experiencing. That will allow the program to develop targeted solutions as needed to dismantle any barriers and improve access to legal services and supports for the members of racialized communities.

Program Name: Legal Policies, Laws and Governance

Target Population: All Canadians

Distribution of Benefits:

Key Program Impacts on Gender and diversity:

The National Justice Survey is an annual public opinion research survey conducted to explore Canadians’ perceptions and knowledge of justice-related issues.

Other Key Program impacts on gender and diversity:

The Department continued to develop and coordinate all federal justice legislative reforms, policy options and initiatives to promote a fair, accessible and relevant justice system for the benefit of all Canadians. This included work in the areas of judicial affairs, criminal justice, victims of crime, youth justice, family justice, official languages, contraventions, bijuralism, Indigenous justice, human rights, privacy, access to information, security, and terrorism.

The development of high-quality legal policies and laws enabled the delivery of programs and services that advance Government of Canada priorities and contributed to achieving increased access to justice and improved accountability and responsiveness of the justice system.

In 2021-22, the Department continued to support the Government’s ongoing commitment to promoting and protecting human rights and the advancement of democratic values. The Department collaborated closely with Public Safety Canada, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, among others, to develop policies that help ensure the protection of the health and safety of all Canadians during the pandemic while respecting human rights and freedoms. The Department also led the policy work on the Privacy Act modernization initiative with the goal of tabling further legislation to help ensure that the Privacy Act reflects Canadians’ modern expectations of privacy, while supporting horizontal and innovative initiatives within the government. For example, the Department of Justice held an online public consultation to obtain a broad variety of perspectives on ideas for modernizing the Privacy Act. Feedback received as part of the consultations was summarized and published in a ‘What We Heard’ Report, and will help inform potential amendments to the Privacy Act. In addition, Justice Canada also engaged with governments and organizations representing the distinct perspectives of First Nations, Inuit and Métis in the context of modernizing the Privacy Act. A ‘What We Have Learned’ Report summarizing the input received from Indigenous partners who participated in engagement sessions with Justice Canada has been prepared and published online.

Furthermore, the Department’s Research and Statistics Division (RSD), in collaboration with the Family Law and Youth Justice Policy Section, led a project to develop the “HELP Toolkit: Identifying and Responding to Family Violence for Family Law Legal Advisers”. This project aimed to incorporate intersectional perspectives by reflecting guidance on cultural safety and competence for legal advisers and by incorporating information about identifying and responding to family violence with diverse identity groups. In collaboration with the Department for Women and Gender Equality, RSD undertook nine contracts for evidence-based thought papers on how to identify and respond to family violence for a particular identity group, along with resources required for the particular group and gaps in knowledge surrounding family violence related to that group. Where possible, the contractors considered intersectional factors within their particular identity group, such as gender and age.

In 2021-22, the Department continued to incorporate an intersectional GBA Plus approach in many areas of policy development. For example, the Consultation and Engagement Unit in the Policy Sector supported Justice officials in policy and program areas to plan and design consultation and engagement activities that are meaningful, human-centered, innovative, inclusive and accessible to all. This was achieved through the provision of strategic advice, support services and tools such as guides, templates and targeted micro-learning sessions. Themes explored through these micro-learning sessions included taking a trauma-informed and anti-oppressive approach to consultation and engagement. These inclusive-by-design tools and approaches integrated a GBA Plus lens and yielded stronger results to be used as cornerstones in decision-making.

Furthermore, an intersectional approach was integrated into the revamped medium-term planning (MTP) process from the very outset to benefit from more diverse and inclusive networks and thus improve the analysis. For example, intersectionality was singled out as one of four guiding principles underpinning the MTP process and was used in contracting to select academic experts from diverse backgrounds, bringing a variety of perspectives and lived experience. This resulted in MTP findings that included clear intersectional GBA Plus insights and recommendations including thoughts around addressing systemic and structural barriers, such as decolonization of Canada’s justice system and changing power sharing dynamics between diverse groups in the society.

The Department continued its ongoing efforts to include the perspectives of diverse groups of First Nations, Inuit and Métis, including traditionally underrepresented groups, in consultation and engagement sessions to ensure that their voices are heard and their concerns are considered. In addition, efforts were made to attract diverse employees or consultants who brought their lived experiences to the table by integrating diverse perspectives when planning and designing consultation and engagement projects.

On June 21, 2021, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act received Royal Assent and came into force. The UN Declaration Act provides a roadmap for the Government of Canada and Indigenous peoples to work together to implement the Declaration based on lasting reconciliation, healing, and cooperative relations. On December 10, 2021, Justice Canada launched a broad and inclusive engagement process with Indigenous peoples, governing bodies, representative organizations and groups to advance the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UN Declaration Act). This initiative supports distinctions-based and Indigenous-led measures and its design and delivery integrated an intersectional GBA Plus approach. For instance, an intersectional GBA Plus lens was incorporated at the planning stage to ensure that engagement sessions were designed to be meaningful, inclusive and accessible for diverse participants, as well as culturally safe and respectful of key Indigenous protocols, principles and traditions. The engagement process was focused on seeking input from Indigenous peoples, including Indigenous women, Two-spirit and gender-diverse individuals, and Elders and youth, on priority areas for the development of the action plan and potential measures to ensure consistency of federal laws with the UN Declaration Act. In addition, suggestions were requested on the preparation of annual reports on progress; the first of which was tabled on June 21, 2022 (Annual Progress Report on the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights on Indigenous Peoples Act).

In 2021-22, the Department continued to bring a GBA Plus lens to the response to the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls. The Federal Pathway was released on June 3, 2021, and includes commitments from the justice sector as they pertain to Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+17 people. The Pathway reflects concrete activities to help counter the barriers that these groups face. It is the federal chapter of the National Action Plan, which reflects input from all of the key partners (Provincial and Territorial governments, Indigenous leaders, and families and survivors). The Pathway also incudes a commitment to regularly report on progress in implementing initiatives.

The Department continued to incorporate a GBA Plus lens into the response to the implementation of the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Diverse voices within Indigenous and other communities continued to be engaged in responding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) Calls to Action. The Department strived to develop innovative approaches to Indigenous justice systems, guided by the recommendations of the TRC. For example, in January 2021, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada was mandated with developing an Indigenous Justice Strategy to address systemic discrimination and the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in the Justice system in consultation and cooperation with Indigenous partners, provinces and territories. The Department launched an open Call for Proposal process to support Indigenous-led engagement on December 13, 2021 (closed on January 24, 2022). Several Indigenous partners have now received funds to support respective engagements. The development of an Indigenous Justice Strategy will include consideration of a diverse representation of distinct Indigenous voices and perspectives at each stage of the initiative. The process will ensure that the diverse perspectives and voices of Indigenous peoples, including Indigenous women, Elders, youth, gender-diverse and 2SLGBTQQIA+ individuals and urban as well as rural Indigenous peoples are considered. As such, the application of intersectional Indigenous perspectives will help reflect, as much as possible, a more robust contribution to shared Indigenous-specific justice priorities.

Supplementary Information Sources:

• National Justice Survey 2021
• Modernizing Canada’s Privacy Act – Engaging with Canadians

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

The Department’s legal policies are developed to support departmental programs and services. The impacts are measured by indicators included in the Departmental Results Framework, as well as other program indicators included in individual Performance Information Profiles (PIPs). The programs collect relevant data related to grants and contributions, including on gender and diversity, and report on impacts. For measuring and reporting on medium and long-term impacts related to increased access to justice, the programs rely on relevant data collected by Statistics Canada and other partner organizations.

Furthermore, the National Justice Survey (NJS) conducted by the Department is a national public opinion survey used to inform policy development, departmental reporting, communications and public engagement on a variety of justice-related issues. In addition to collecting information on the gender and age of respondents, the 2022 NJS included questions about Indigenous identity, ethnocultural group, income and education to support an intersectional analysis and evidence-based policy development.

Finally, in 2021-22, the Department continued its work on the Qualitative Look at Serious Legal Problems Study Series, developed to complement the traditional quantitative methods of the Canadian Legal Problems Survey. For the purpose of the survey, community-based researchers were contracted to conduct a series of qualitative studies to explore and report on the experiences of specific populations in different parts of Canada who have experienced a serious legal problem. A number of reports providing an in-depth qualitative look at these problems and how the members of these groups dealt with them were published, including: Serious Legal Problems faced by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Other Sexual-Minority People in Western Canada: A Qualitative Study and Voices matter: the impact of serious legal problems on 16- to 30-year-olds in the Black community. The findings will provide evidence to support policy and program work, including exploring the development of specific initiatives targeting diverse groups disproportionately impacted. To see all the reports visit The Canadian Legal Problems Survey website.

Program Name: Legal Representation

Target Population:

Criminal legal aid: economically-disadvantaged adults and youth, including vulnerable populations (males 12 to 34, Indigenous peoples, individuals from Black and other racialized communities, and individuals suffering from mental health and addiction issues).

Immigration and Refugee Legal Aid: economically-disadvantaged immigrants and refugees (non-official language speakers, members of racialized communities, LGBTQ2+).

Impact of Race and Culture Assessments (IRCAs): economically-disadvantaged adults and youth from Black and other racialized communities eligible for criminal legal aid.

Workplace sexual harassment: women, Indigenous women, racialized women, youth, LGBTQ2+, workers in low-wage or casual employment.

Distribution of Benefits:

Key Program Impacts on Gender and diversity:

Other Key Program impacts on gender and diversity:

In 2021-22, the Department continued to provide free legal aid to ensure that federal workplaces are free from harassment and sexual violence. For example, funding has been provided to 20 projects aiming to address workplace sexual harassment (WSH) by developing public legal education and information resources for employers and employees. Funded projects are required to apply a GBA Plus approach and take into account relevant intersecting factors, such as race, class, sexuality, age, disability, language, and/or immigration status, etc., to address the experiences of complainants of sexual harassment in the workplace. A voluntary client satisfaction survey targeting WSH clients who received legal advice services from funding recipients was administered annually. In addition to assessing services, the respondents were asked to self-identify their gender, race/ethnicity, level of education and yearly income. The number of respondents to the 2020-21 survey was relatively low, and the 2021-22 data has not yet been compiled. Preliminary results indicate that women, especially those in male-dominated industries or low-wage and precarious jobs, are most often directly affected by sexual harassment, as are LGBTQ2+ persons and youth. Sexual harassment rates are reportedly higher in certain industries that employ newcomer women and Indigenous women.

Supplementary Information Sources:

• The Legal Aid in Canada 2020-21

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

Criminal Legal Aid and Immigration and Refugee Legal Aid: During 2021-22, improvements were made to the annual final reporting package, aimed at improving the Department’s ability to better measure and report on GBA Plus impacts and outcomes. These efforts are ongoing and departmental officials continue to work with provinces, territories and legal aid service providers to promote better data collection efforts that include the collection of data disaggregated by gender and other demographic characteristics. This includes encouraging those jurisdictions that currently do not collect legal aid data on over-represented populations, i.e., Indigenous peoples, individuals from Black and other racialized communities, and vulnerable persons such as those with mental health and/or substance abuse issues, to take concrete steps to address those gaps.

The Legal Aid Directorate representatives meet annually to review and update the annual final reporting package, which provides an opportunity to identify and report on data collection barriers and make improvements to ensure consistent data collection across all jurisdictions. Through the publication of the annual Legal Aid in Canada report, data gaps are also identified and addressed with provincial and territorial partners.

Impact of Race and Culture Assessments (IRCA): The Legal Aid Program’s IRCA initiative began in 2021-22 and data will be available during the 2022-23 reporting cycle. The Legal Aid Directorate is collecting GBA plus data including age, gender, official language, and ethnicity of legal aid clients who received an IRCA, as part of funding recipients’ annual reporting requirements.

Workplace Sexual Harassment: A client satisfaction survey was developed for clients receiving legal advice and continues to be promoted under the workplace sexual harassment initiative. This survey collects disaggregated data (geographic area, gender, race/ethnicity, level of education and income), compiled and provided to funded organizations on a yearly basis to help them identify and address possible barriers to accessing services for diverse underserved groups.

Program Name: Ombudsman for Victims of Crime

Target Population: All Canadians, with a specific focus on victims of crime

Distribution of Benefits:

Key Program Impacts on Gender and diversity:

The Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime (OFOVC) serves those who have suffered physical or emotional harm, or financial loss as a result of a criminal offence as well as their spouses, relatives or dependents. For measuring and reporting on medium and long-term impacts related to access to justice and other victims’ services, the OFOVC relies on relevant data collected by Statistics Canada and other partner organizations working in the areas of criminal justice and victims’ services.

In 2021-22, OFOVC continued working with stakeholders and clients to inform its recommendations to the federal government on steps to reduce intimate-partner and domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and femicide. Notable examples include:

Promoting awareness of victims’ needs and making recommendations on subjects including proposed firearms legislation and considerations regarding its impact on violence against women;

Contributing to the Study of the impact of COVID-19 on the Judicial System. Highlighting the impacts of the pandemic increasing the risk of violence and victimization among diverse groups – specifically among Indigenous, racialized, disabled, and newcomer women, children, and people who identify as 2SLGBTQ+;

Reiterating recommendations that coercive and controlling behaviours in intimate-partner relationships be criminalized in Canada;

Reemphasizing the need for a legislative review of the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights during its during its Study of the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights;

Commissioning external subject-matter experts to explore topics relating to gender-based violence, specifically publishing papers such as Femicide of Older Women in Canada, and;

Hosting a virtual Sharing Circle to hear from Yukon residents, and learn from their experiences with the criminal justice system.

Supplementary Information Sources:

• Statistics Canada data tables on victimization

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

The OFOVC is working to identify a new client management system and online complaint form that will take into consideration the capacity to report on impacts by gender and diversity. The online complaint form and the new system are expected to be launched by March 2024.

Program Name: Victims of Crime

Target Population: Victims of crime and more broadly all Canadians

Distribution of Benefits:

Key Program Impacts on Gender and diversity:

Other Key Program impacts on gender and diversity:

Through its funding, this program supports provinces, territories and non-governmental organizations to design and deliver specialized services as well as support activities related to specific communities of victims. These communities include human trafficking victims, victims of sexual offences, child victims of crime, Indigenous victims and families, senior victims, victims with disabilities and victims of conversion therapy.

In particular, victims of conversion therapy were supported through funding to public legal education and information (PLEI) organizations and other non-governmental organizations to develop resources to raise awareness about the new Criminal Code offences related to conversion therapy.

Additionally, in alignment with the Gender-Based Violence National Action Plan, victims of sexual assault were supported by the Department through funding for 24 projects providing independent legal advice/representation for victims of sexual assault and intimate partner violence.

In 2021-22, the Justice Partnership and Innovation Program (JPIP) and Victims Fund launched and completed an invitational call for proposals for projects focused on developing/adapting models for independent legal advice/representation for survivors of sexual assault and for victims of intimate partner violence. In the same year, JPIP also launched two calls for proposals to provide additional supports for victims of intimate partner violence involved in the family justice system. A GBA Plus lens was integrated into the development and implementation of both initiatives.

Furthermore, the Victims Fund was able to support 12 jurisdictions and six non-governmental organizations to provide free independent legal advice and representation to victims of sexual assault, including two projects serving official language minority groups in Ontario. Free independent legal advice and representation is currently available in 12 of Canada’s 13 jurisdictions for victims of sexual assault and intimate partner violence through federal funding. In Quebec that service is available through a similar program with provincial funding.

Supplementary Information Sources:

• Statistics Canada data tables on victimization

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

Funded organizations are required to report on their activities on an annual basis. Activities under the Victims Fund can include the following: training, direct service delivery, resources and materials provided to, and outcomes for, diverse groups/official language minority communities. Information is collected on the population group(s) targeted by the projects, communities, number of individuals reached, and specific information on vulnerable populations reached through the project activities.

A recent evaluation of the Justice Canada Federal Victims Strategy (FVS) included a recommendation to “improve reporting templates and tools to allow for more consistent and strategic data collection of Victims Fund projects”. Program officials have been working to implement this recommendation to improve data collection to ensure it is more consistent and collects a broad selection of disaggregated data to support intersectional analysis that allows better measuring the impact of the program on diverse population groups. In relation with this, new annual reporting templates as well as victims impact surveys have been developed and shared with funding recipients.  The first collection of data using these new tools will be available summer 2023.

All projects approved under JPIP and the Victims Fund are required to report on the inclusion of GBA Plus approaches and the efforts to reach diverse groups. A GBA Plus lens has been incorporated into the development of reporting templates and data tools for the initiatives to allow for the collection of data that can be disaggregated by target population, gender identity, and rural vs. urban areas.

Program Name: Youth Justice

Target Population: The general youth justice population, aged 12 to 17 at the time of the offence, is the primary target for this programming. However, the youth justice subpopulations that benefit the most from the programming are the subpopulations that are most overrepresented in the criminal justice system, i.e. males, Indigenous youth males and females and other racialized youth populations such as Black youth.

Distribution of Benefits:

Key Program Impacts on Gender and diversity:

Other Key Program impacts on gender and diversity:

There are expectations set out in both the Youth Criminal Justice Act and funding agreements with the provinces and territories that youth justice services and programs address gender, ethnic and cultural differences, as well as respond to the needs of Indigenous young persons and young persons with special requirements.

Budget 2021 provided $216.4 million over five years, starting in 2021-22, and $43.3 million ongoing for the Youth Justice Services Funding Program to increase funding to the provinces and territories in support of diversion programming and to help reduce the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples, Black Canadians, and other racialized groups in the youth justice system.

In 2021-22, the Department continued to provide funding to projects supporting vulnerable youth, including innovative work promoting close partnerships with communities and families to prevent youth crime and to ensure a fair and effective youth justice system. For example, in March 2022, through the Youth Justice Fund, the Department provided $637,000 over four years, from 2021 to 2024 to the Chantier d’Afrique du Canada for their project Jeunes en actions positives (JENAP). The project will provide rehabilitation and reintegration services to visible minority youth, aged 12 to 17, who are involved in the criminal justice system and who are at risk of being recruited by a street gang. In addition, efforts will be made to involve family members, school, police, peers and other community partners to enhance community collaboration. The JENAP project will also contribute to raising awareness among youth who do not yet have citizenship to help them understand the consequences of their actions on their individual and family immigration files.

Supplementary Information Sources:

• Statistics Canada data tables for youth corrections
• Admissions to youth corrections, by visible minority group and sex
• Family-Based Risk and Protective Factors and their Effects on Juvenile Delinquency: What Do We Know?

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

Youth Justice Program officials work with provinces and territories and community based organizations to collect client data with respect to the Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision Program and Youth Justice Fund projects, including GBA Plus data such as gender, age and Indigenous identity of youth participants. This information is submitted to the Department as part of the program’s annual reporting requirements. For the Youth Justice Services Funding Program, the Department works with the provinces and territories through their annual reporting, as well as uses Statistics Canada aggregate data, to assess GBA Plus considerations for youth who are admitted to youth correctional services.

Program Name: Internal Services

Target Population: Department of Justice Canada employees

Distribution of Benefits:

Other Key Program impacts on gender and diversity:

In 2021-22, the Department’s division responsible for the learning and professional development programs for legal professionals, continued its work to ensure that an intersectional GBA Plus approach is applied as relevant with respect to the learning and development programs for legal and other professional fields and occupations. Some examples include:

Accommodation is offered as part of every learning activity and efforts are made to meet accessibility requests on a case-by-case basis.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) requirements of law societies are taken into account when planning the annual curriculum and to facilitate reporting, the number of hours, which meet EDI requirements, can be tracked against individual courses.

Accessibility requirements are taken into account in the development of Justipedia, Justice Canada’s legal knowledge management platform. For example, a simplified interface accessible to legal professionals with visual impairment has been created for Justipedia users.

Furthermore, the Analytics and Systems Division (ASD) in collaboration with the Employment Equity team assessed over 1,000 LEX reporting templates to ensure they use gender-neutral language. Templates in the timekeeping application LEX are used on a daily basis by Justice employees to draft legal documents. In addition, ASD provided a wide variety of training, where individual accessibility needs of the participants are addressed on a case-by-case basis, including securing trainers experienced in the use of accessibility software, such as Job Access With Speech (JAWS), which is one of the most popular screen readers developed for users with vision impairment.

The Change Management and Business Transformation Division (CMBT) provided support and guidance in the design and implementation of disability-friendly programs and services by including people with disabilities in the validation and assessment of needs during the design phase, seeking their input during implementation and soliciting their participation in service evaluation activities. In addition, to better respond to the needs of employees, CMBT has applied an accessibility, gender and diversity lens to all change initiatives and activities related to business transformation, which includes communication products, training sessions, consultations and service management initiatives.

In 2021-22, the Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination Secretariat (ARADS) continued its work on the Results Framework in close collaboration with stakeholders throughout Justice Canada, including Human Resources. The Results Framework is a comprehensive action plan established to address systemic racism and discrimination, help the Department meet departmental and government-wide anti-racism, equity, diversity and inclusion priorities and support equitable access to justice for all Canadians.

The Results Framework focuses on four pillars: representation, career development, anti-racism training and culture and measurement, and leadership accountability. Each pillar has specific expected results, initiatives and timelines intended to drive progress and facilitate reporting on results. The Results Framework prioritizes work in the areas of disaggregated data and targeted recruitment, mentorship and sponsorship of Indigenous communities, Black and other racialized groups, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ2+ communities. Additionally, the Department required employees to take mandatory training on unconscious bias and the Canada School of Public Service Indigenous Learning Series and included specific targeted actions in the Executive Group and the Law Management performance management agreements.

GBA Plus Data Collection Plan:

The Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination Secretariat, in partnership with the Corporate Planning, Reporting and Risk team and the Internal Audit and Evaluation Sector, began work on a results map and indicators list that will support the monitoring and evaluation of initiatives within the Results Framework. Work is underway to identify indicators and create data collection plans, including for disaggregated data that will facilitate reporting on impacts on diverse groups of employees at the Department.

To assist hiring managers in obtaining up-to-date employee data, the Human Resources Analytics and Reporting unit, in collaboration with the Business Analytics Centre, is making employment equity (EE) data easily accessible through Explore, a departmental integrated platform bringing together various data sources to support business and people analytics.

Additionally, through self-service dashboards in Explore, managers and planners will have access to annual EE data updated daily, rather than through semi-annual reports. In the context of the Clerk of the Privy Council’s Call to Action on Anti-Racism, Equity and Inclusion in the Federal Public Service Explore can be used to provide disaggregated data on the number of hires, terminations, and appointments, including the executive cadre.

Definitions

Target Population: See Finance Canada definition of Target Group in the User Instructions for the GBA Plus Departmental Summary)

Gender Scale:

• First group: Predominantly men (e.g. 80 per cent or more men)
• Second group: 60 per cent - 79 per cent men
• Third group: Broadly gender-balanced
• Fourth group: 60 per cent - 79 per cent women
• Fifth group: Predominantly women (e.g. 80 per cent or more women)

Income Level Scale:

• First group: Strongly benefits low income individuals (Strongly progressive)
• Second group: Somewhat benefits low income individuals (Somewhat progressive)
• Third group: No significant distributional impacts
• Forth group: Somewhat benefits high income individuals (Somewhat regressive)
• Fifth group: Strongly benefits high income individuals (Strongly regressive)

Age Group Scale:

• First group: Primarily benefits youth, children and/or future generations
• Second group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts generation between youth and seniors
• Third group: Primarily benefits seniors or the baby boom generation

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