Titled A Roadmap for Transformative Change: Canada’s Black Justice Strategy, the report was prepared for the government by a steering group made up of nine experts and leaders from Black communities across Canada and released on June 27. It is co-authored by Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, and Winnipeg lawyer Zilla Jones. The steering group was established in February 2023.
The report’s 114 recommendations include eight overarching accountability measures, such as launching the Black justice portfolio, and 106 short-, medium- and long-term actions in the areas of policing, corrections, courts and legislation, parole, re-entry and reintegration, and social determinants of justice, such as employment and income, housing, education, mental health and child welfare.
The overarching recommendations also include creating a Black community well-being and safety division within Public Safety Canada to concentrate on crime prevention and enhancing the safety of Black communities in Canada.
The steering group also calls for the endowment and establishment of a National Institute for People of African Descent, an independent organization dedicated to research, policy development and advocacy. In addition, the report recommends launching a unit within Statistics Canada’s Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics that would be responsible for co-ordinating and implementing a “whole of justice system race and identity-based data program.”
The report states that Canada must commit by 2034 to cutting the current rate of Black and Indigenous people who are incarcerated by 50 per cent, relative to their proportion of the population, and reducing by 30 per cent the overall rate of persons incarcerated relative to the population. In 2020-21, Black people accounted for nine per cent of the total offender population in federal corrections facilities, despite representing about four per cent of adults in Canada.
In its seventh of eight overarching recommendations, the report urges the government to introduce legislation that formally recognizes Black people as a distinct group within Canada — a step it argues is essential for developing targeted policies and programs that effectively address the “unique experiences, challenges and contributions of Black people.”
The report also points to a continuing, critical need for comprehensive education and training on anti-Black racism and cultural competency for criminal justice actors and representatives of adjacent organizations. The government should make it a priority to provide such training to federal employees and should support the provinces and territories in doing the same, says the report.
In a June 27 news release, Minister of Justice and Attorney General Arif Virani called the report “history-making,” adding that it will lay the groundwork for “policies, programs and legislation that will help build a fairer, more effective justice system, confront systemic anti-Black racism, and address the disparities that limit opportunities and increase marginalization and overrepresentation for Black people in our justice system.”
Co-author Zilla Jones said the steering group wanted the report to be based on the voices and experiences of Canada’s Black communities.
In consultations with those communities last fall, she said, “What came through most to me was not only the terrible injustices our people still live with as a legacy of enslavement and colonialism but the great resilience of Black Canadians.”
Next steps in the process of adopting the report's recommendations are outlined on the Canada's Black Justice Strategy website.
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