Recommendations

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The potential solutions our participants suggested across the various themes are captured below. As can be gleaned, overall, our participants agreed with all the recommendations that the Black Justice Strategy had presented.

Social determinants of justice

• Recognize and accept that most of the current institutions including policing, Justice, health, education have been built on racism and colonialism. Then, work to reform all of these institutions by meaningfully engaging Black, Indigenous and People of Colour in creating institutions that are just and equity-seeking.
• Reform education to promote equitable access and supports for Black people. Also, promote Black histories, innovations and cultures in Canadian school curricula at all levels.
• Invest in tailor-made mental health resources and supports for Black people that have the macro goal of helping people to thrive in a society where multiple factors oppress them.
  • Have Black-led mental health, career and life counseling service or support service inside and outside of schools tailored to suit the needs of Black students. Mental wellness groups based in the schools are easier for young people to access, as opposed to expecting a parent to take time off work and get their child to an assessor or specialist.
  • Use Black professionals to educate Black parents about mental health and how to support their children regarding mental and emotional wellbeing.
  • Where parenting challenges or risks identified with Black youth, provide the option where Black specialists can work with the parent and the child in the home. Welfare services must prioritize providing the support that the parent needs instead of the rigid approach of separating Black kids from their homes. Families being able to spend time together could be an antidote to lessen the possibility of gang affiliation and crime.
• Provide stable, adequate and sustainable financial resources to Black-led and Black-serving community-based groups and organizations. These organizations know their community members, have a relationship with them and can effectively be supporting Black people with various forms of support including connecting them to services and resources, and providing education. The funding needs to be, for example, a guaranteed, five-year or 10-year set of core funding so such organizations will not need to worry about whether or not there will be funding when designing and implementing medium to long-term programs that meet the needs of their community members.
• The government should support the creation of physical locations (in addition to an online presence) that serve as hubs for promoting Black cultures. These locations could provide Black people with places to connect and also serve as a space for non-Black people to come to learn about Black cultures, values and Blackness in general.
• Provincial and federal governments must ensure that educational certifications and credentials obtained outside of Canada can be recognized here without any serious conversion costs and delays. This will mean that Black immigrants can more quickly be integrated in the Canadian economy and in meaningful ways that ensure that economic destitution does not push community Black immigrants into risky positions and situations that could involve the criminal and justice systems. Pathways for economic integration should include dedicated scholarships and internships for Black students and graduates.

Policing

• Recruit a critical mass of Black people into the RCMP and other police forces. This must be treated as a priority with dedicated resources and included as part of the mandates of police leadership.
• Promote a hiring and training process that is equity and community inclined and informed.
  • Pre-course requirements required of people who are attempting to go into policing through the Justice Institute of British Columbia to take semester-long courses in anti-racism.
  • Involve Black communities in hiring processes. This includes actively using Black community leaders and organizations to encourage their community members to join the police, as well as sitting on interview panels.
  • Around the interview questions, there must be specific questions that would require applicants to understand some cultural competence pieces.
• Promote a shift to community policing both at the local and RCMP levels.
• Promote specific training for police and correctional officers on de-escalation of potentially confrontational situations with BIPOC.
• Implement clear and transparent standards, processes and consequences for racist behavior by police officers.
• Invest in community-based violence prevention programs such as youth mentoring and restorative justice initiatives.
• Invest in positive community engagement. Encourage positive police participation in formal and casual community events and socialization to build friendly relations with Black communities.
• The Greater Victoria Police Diversity Advisory Committee is a good model that brings a civilian committee together made up of representatives from diverse groups to provide advice to the police on issues of equity. This model must be scaled across the province and beyond.
• Fund the establishment of a Black policing association that any Black officer could be a part of, from around the province and country. Members would have a community to draw support from that understands the perils of working in an institution that tends to be racist. Also, the group can then be provided the needed resources to support the professional development of their members towards leadership roles.

Courts and legislation

• Invest in dedicated programs to increase the number of Black lawyers, and judges in the short to medium term. This could be through dedicated scholarships for Black law students as has been created recently in UBC. Also, there must be intentional targeting, development and selection of Black lawyers and others with related qualifying experience to serve as judges.
• Fund the establishment and running of programs that promote access to effective supports in the justice system for Black people who need it. There needs to be more awareness created in partnership with Black-led organizations and even the universities (many Black people come to BC as students). Here, emphasis must also be on providing insights to help appreciate rights, responsibilities, and avenues for seeking justice.
• Black communities in BC need their own tailor-made legal clinics, which would also have a trauma and mental health team attached. This must be run by Black lawyers, law students and mental health specialists as they know their communities better. The African-Canadian Legal Clinic in Ontario was one such service and model.
• Access to justice supports and legal aid needs to be extended beyond folks who meet poverty “standards.” Black people must always be given the option of accessing some tailor-made and culturally-sensitive support once they are involved with the courts and law enforcement.
• There are existing policies to guide racism and racism complaints in the government and private work sector as well as the community. Enforce penalties for harm and racist violence, be it physical, psychology, emotional or mental.
• Support and fund Black community organizations to set up a program that provides or helps to find surety for bail for Black people who need that. For those who are unable to provide surety, the community organization would be able to provide a release for them. The person would then report to, and be supervised by the community. This ensures that such persons do not linger unnecessarily in custody until their trial.
• Promote the K-12 Anti-Racism Action Plan amongst all relevant stakeholders and implement its provisions in all K-12 schools.
• The provincial government and legislators must ensure that the proposed Anti-Racism bill is passed into law promptly. They must ensure that the Act provides an unequivocal stance against racism and enshrines adequate punishment for racism as well as transparent accountability processes.
• The province must provide dedicated resources to recruit and support Black professionals to get into policy and law-making roles, as well as governance and oversight roles.

Corrections

• Intensify anti-Black racism and cultural sensitivity training for correctional officers and other staff in correctional facilities.
• Institute internal programs that provide dedicated mental health supports to Black persons in correctional facilities. The development and operation of such programs must involve Black specialists.
• Fund programs by Black organizations that provide visitation and other connection supports to Black people in correctional facilities.
• Fund programs by Black organizations that provide continuous and periodic mental health and legal supports to Black people in correctional facilities.
• Dedicate specific resources to recruiting Black persons in a critical mass to work in officer and other staff roles in correctional facilities.
• Training on the use of force in BC for all officers must emphasize the dimensions of cultural sensitivity and empathy.

Reintegration and re-entry

• Eliminate the cost of expunging criminal records when a person has been acquitted and where offense is not serious.
• Create economic and education opportunities for Black youth exiting the justice system to support their successful reintegration into society and reduce recidivism rates.
• Provide guidance to young persons who can get their records cleaned.
• Provide or support the provision of dedicated mental health support for Black people re-entering the society. Such support must be designed and implemented by Black mental health specialists.
• Support Black-led and Black-serving community organizations to engage their community members on removing stigma and stereotypes directed at persons who have been previously incarcerated.
• Fund Black specialists and community organizations to provide dedicated supports to help persons with substance use and alcohol addictions when they re-enter society.

Victims and survivors of crime

• Ensure closure for Black victims and survivors by enforcing accountability and punishment for offenders.
• Broaden the concept of justice beyond punishment for offenders by additionally providing mental and emotional health support for Black victims and survivors during proceedings and after judgment.
• The concept of justice for victims.
• Fund a Black liaison akin to Victim Services that works with the police and crown to help victims navigate the criminal Justice landscape.
• Deepen the cultural sensitivity of Victim Services including providing the option of speaking to a Black person in a Black language if preferred.
• Guarantee the safety for callers, especially when reporting education, medical, and police incidents.

Immigration consequences for non-citizens convicted of a crime (deportation)

• Design justice education programmes targeted at Black immigrants. This would include education primarily about rights and due process.
• Fund and engage community organizations to connect Black immigrants to preliminary legal advice at no charge.

Data collection

• Use the Anti-Racism Data Legislation to collect data on race differentials relating:
  • Police and corrections staffing (and also for management and boards)
  • Judges and lawyers staffing
  • Targets of police stops, carding, arrests and detentions
  • Distribution of prisoners and recidivists
  • Racist abusers and targets of racism
• Make databases easily accessible by all community members.
• Ensure that published data come with narratives that highlight the structural causes or sources of observed trends.
• Make proceedings and accountability mechanisms on racism complaints against police and correctional officers transparent, as well as the data on which officers have been penalized.

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