General findings

According to the 2020 General Social Survey on Social Identity, one in five Black and Indigenous people have little or no confidence in the police, double the proportion among those who were neither Indigenous nor a visible minority.^{Footnote 4} Based on the engagement sessions conducted, a lack of confidence exists not only when interacting with the police but also when interacting with the courts, corrections officers and other agents of the justice system. Here is what we heard when participants were asked to describe their experiences or those of their family members when interacting with the justice system:

“Personally, I have dealt with racial profiling. For instance, I was driving a nice rental vehicle and was pulled over, and when I asked the officer what I had been pulled over for, it was for no apparent reason, and he let me go.”
Being wrongly convicted and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit due to faulty evidence, coerced confessions, or inadequate legal representation.
Cases in which victims of crime were treated insensitively or blamed for the crimes committed against them, discouraging them from reporting or participating in the legal process.
Failure to provide sufficient rehabilitation and support services to incarcerated individuals hinders their chances of successful reintegration into society upon release.
“Police harassing me because of the colour of my skin even though I'm not doing anything wrong.”
“Me or my family getting harassed by police due to the fact I live in low-income housing.”
“Most, if not all, our interactions with the police were negative”. The police humiliate us for no reason. The police hate us. Police are always rude and judgmental. My family and I were arrested for jaywalking.
Being pulled over for riding on the sidewalk. “I fear for my life when dealing with the police.”
“Wrongfully searched, they placed stuff in my car, dragged me out of my house in the winter for no reason, and being chased by the police dogs.”
They are always just around the neighbourhood, so they are being spoken to for no reason and feeling harassed as they abuse their power.
“I have been a victim of excessive use of force by police.”

When asked, “How have your experiences shaped your opinion of the justice system?” numerous participants described an erosion of trust towards the justice system.

“There is a lot of discrimination and injustice when it comes to Black people in the justice system.”
“I have very little faith in the system's responsiveness to the needs of black victims and its ability to be fair and just to accused black people.”
“I don't have a lot of faith in the criminal justice system due to the lack of punishment for crimes.”
“The system is racist. Most of the people in the system are white. White people don’t understand our culture and where we live, so they can’t relate. They must listen to young people. We have great ideas as well.”

Participants highlighted the lack of intercultural competence among justice system actors as a primary barrier to Black Canadians' access to justice. They also noted the disregard for socio-economic disparities and social determinants of justice when interacting with the system. Black youth and adults emphasized the importance of anti-racism training, intercultural communication, and other educational initiatives for police, judges, and probation officers to address biases within the justice system.

Additionally, some participants mentioned that preconceived notions about Black youth as threats hindered career opportunities in law enforcement, especially for Black and Muslim individuals.

Summary of emotional feelings experienced by Black Canadians when interacting with the justice system.

Validating the five pillars of the CBJS Framework

Despite the abundance of recommendations, a comprehensive understanding of how Black Canadians experience the justice system is absent due in part to a lack of disaggregated data and the underrepresentation of Black individuals as lawyers, judges and legal policymakers.

Jaku Konbit sought to capture directly from Black individuals their perspectives on existing recommendations under the five pillars to address the overrepresentation of Black people in the criminal justice system, including as victims of crime, and other solutions to improve the experiences of Black Canadians with the justice system. When asked if they supported the recommendations in the Framework, the vast majority responded positively. However, they questioned the government’s commitment to change, as many of the recommendations, as well as the issue itself, are decades old.

Others stressed that a systems approach is needed: improving policing does not happen without also addressing social determinants of justice.

For all five pillars, participants were asked to vote on how effective they perceived the Framework’s recommendations might be for addressing anti-Black racism in the justice system. Participants were then asked to provide recommendations for consideration. Those recommendations are summarized below.

Social determinants of justice

91.2% of respondents believe the Framework’s recommendations will help reduce the involvement of Black people in the justice system.

Many participants shared deeply personal experiences about their own experiences and those of family members grappling with mental health issues and frequent interactions with the police. They spoke of the challenges in getting early access to mental health services and how police, as opposed to health professionals, are often called when they experience episodes of mental health crises.
Participants recommended that members of the justice system should routinely take mental health training to recognize better and manage interactions with Black individuals experiencing negative mental health.
Investments should be made to hire more Black mental health support workers who are trained in Afro-centric approaches to mental health and well-being. Increased Black representation would aid in facilitating communication, language interpretation, and introducing cultural understanding when interacting with the justice system.
The persistence of anti-Black racism in the education system leads to more Black children in child welfare services and police often being called into schools for incidents involving Black students.
Participants described that they have observed two distinct types of teachers: those who lower their expectations for Black students and those who adopt rigid approaches.
Anti-racism training and consequences for not applying anti-racism approaches should be mandatory in all schools starting from kindergarten and up.

Policing

85.3% of respondents think the Framework's recommendations will help to reduce negative interactions between Black people and police.

Police services should adopt anti-racist best practices from other police services (if they exist).
The organizational culture of policing needs to be improved. It is systemically anti-Black, and unless that changes, no reforms will work.
Police officers should have intercultural competence.
Increased accountability with consequential punishments to reduce incidents of police violence towards Black communities.
Address recruitment and retention barriers for Black police officers.
Root out the underlying factors that nurture and sustain anti-Black biases in police procedures and behaviours.
Reallocating police funding to invest in community-based violence prevention programs, such as youth mentoring and restorative justice initiatives.
Developing and expanding crisis intervention teams that include mental health professionals to respond to mental health-related calls.
More representation of the Black community in senior management positions within the police system.
Integrating anti-racism and cultural competency training into the police officer training curriculum is a crucial step in addressing racial disparities in law enforcement. This training can help officers interact with diverse communities more effectively. However, the effectiveness of such training may also depend on the quality, duration, and ongoing reinforcement of the curriculum, as well as broader systemic changes within law enforcement agencies.
Establishing policing teams that build relationships with residents and local organizations.
Implementing clear standards and consequences for racist behaviour by police officers.

Courts and legislation

85.3% of respondents think the Framework's recommendations will help to reduce the over-incarceration of Black people.

“My white lawyer wanted me to say I was guilty of a crime I didn’t commit. My case kept getting put off for no reason. No one in authority looks like us, and my lawyer seems to be working against my best interest. All, if not most, of the jurors are always white. So much for having a jury of your peers.”

Increase funding for legal aid services and, in particular, Black legal aid service providers.
Address existing service delivery gaps in legal aid to ensure service delivery organizations do not underfund services that meet the needs of Black individuals.
Expand the scope of eligible legal services offered to Black individuals requiring access to legal aid programs.
Amend criminal justice legislation to ensure Black inmates have access to Black culturally relevant and safe programming while incarcerated and upon release and reintegration into the community.
Set commitments, with target dates and measurable actions, to address the underrepresentation of Black judges, Black crown attorneys, and others working in the court system.
Co-develop legal policies and services with Black academics, Black legal professionals and Black communities.
Create external review and oversight bodies to ensure anti-racism analysis is applied to the development and drafting of all criminal and civil justice legislation.
Ensure judges, Crown attorneys, and others working in the court system take anti-racism and anti- bias training every 2 years.
Expand the use of and funding for the Impact of Race and Culture Assessments for Black individuals to help judges better understand the impacts of systemic racism on the accused's life when making sentencing decisions.
Increase the availability of conditional sentence orders (house arrest).
Implement restorative justice programs and alternatives to incarceration for Black youth and adult offenders.
Undertake research in sentencing to identify trends and differences between the use of conditional sentencing for Black accused versus white accused for the same crime.
Similar to the Gladue principle, judges should have to consider the impacts of systemic racism on the lives of Black persons and recognize this during sentencing.
Expand the application of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) to youth aged 12 - 24.

Corrections

88.2% of respondents think the Framework's recommendations will help reduce the overrepresentation of Black people in correctional institutions and anti-Black racism in correctional settings.

Address barriers to bail and release opportunities for Black accused individuals.
Mental health support and a better transition upon release for those in the justice system is critical. Transitioning from the YCJA to the adult justice system when they turn 18 is difficult.
“We see this [anti-Black racism] every day. They [corrections officers] take a long time to get our family members' visits approved, and all the people in power are white, way more white staff than Black staff.”
“I think that it is more important to work with young black males and encourage them to focus on their skills and abilities when they are young for them not to get caught up in the justice system. They need to understand the historical and political nature of racism.”

Reintegration and re-entry

88.2% of respondents agreed that the Framework’s recommendations would help Black inmates successfully reintegrate into society.

Prepare Black offenders for successful community reentry by ensuring those eligible for parole have regular access to education (high school, college and university), life skills development, mentorship, mental health and other counselling services (for example, financial literacy, anger management, spirituality, etc.)
Address anti-Black racism and other systemic barriers in parole and release phases of the criminal justice system and lead to Black offenders receiving early release less often than other offenders.

Victims and survivors of crime

During the engagement sessions, we were told that when Black individuals report being a victim of crimes, they were less likely to be believed when reporting the incident to the police. Others told us that despite increased police presence in their neighbourhoods, they still felt unsafe.

Black victims and witnesses are often treated like the accused or convicted rather than someone who has been harmed.
Historical and contemporary instances of police brutality and racial profiling have eroded trust between the Black community and law enforcement. This lack of trust deters Black individuals from reporting crimes, cooperating as witnesses, or seeking help from the criminal justice system.
Several Black youths described being disregarded when they interacted with police. Many described how preconceived racial biases and stereotypes were behind negative interactions.
Not knowing where to turn for assistance: Black seniors, recent immigrants and refugees may be unaware of how to access victim services or not meet the eligibility criteria.
Due to systemic inequalities, socioeconomic factors intertwined with race can further marginalize Black victims and witnesses. Limited access to legal representation or legal assistance and a lack of resources for navigating the legal system hinder their ability to seek justice.
Anti-Black bias can manifest in policing practices, arrest rates, charging decisions, plea bargains, sentencing, and interactions with law enforcement and other justice system stakeholders.
Black individuals often experience discrimination based on multiple intersecting identities, such as sexual orientation. These compounded forms of discrimination exacerbate their challenges within the criminal justice system.

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

Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, SC 2001, c 27 renders foreign nationals and permanent residents inadmissible and subject to a removal order under certain criminal convictions. Anti- Black racism within the criminal justice system has led to the overrepresentation of Black individuals in the criminal justice system. As a result, the removal of racialized foreign nations and permanent residents is often higher amongst Black individuals compared to other racialized individuals.

During the engagements with community members, we were told:

Often, Black offenders and in particular Black youth, are deported to Caribbean and African countries despite having never lived there and having minimal ties other than their parents being born there or having left there as a child.
Consider amendments to Canada’s immigration and refugee laws that would make it easier for Black immigrants and refugees to remain in Canada even if they have been convicted of a crime as long as there is a history of community leadership and involvement.
Reducing the number of offences that lead to removal/deportation would be an effective way to address the disproportionate anti-Blackness in law enforcement and sentencing that contributes to higher removal rates for Black individuals.

Data collection

Participants supported expanding data collection on the experiences of Black individuals with the justice system. 79.4% of survey respondents expressed concerns about the potential misuse of data due to historical over-surveillance of Black communities. This concern is justified, given the persistent issue of overrepresentation of Black people as victims and accused individuals with no substantial action to address its root causes. Participants also emphasized the need for performance audits and evaluations of legal service providers to measure efforts in reducing anti-Black racism and assess the effectiveness of actions post-CBJS release.

It is worth noting that the funding and timelines provided for conducting the community engagement sessions to inform the CBJS were woefully inadequate, which hindered the comprehensive execution of these data collection efforts. Jaku Konbit, and others, raised our concerns and expressed frustrations with having less than 70 days to undertake this important work. Moreover, the low level of funding provided to do the work meant that the research and engagement teams were significantly constrained, and the extent of community outreach limited. Put simply, it served as a reminder of how little respect and attention is given to Black issues.

As a community, we are all too familiar with being an afterthought and being underfunded compared to other groups racialized and non-racialized even when we experience similar issues. This is another example of anti-Black racism and the way it permeates organizational culture and structures resulting in well-intentioned individuals, including Black individuals in positions of influence, being hindered from doing what is right. Looking towards the future, it is imperative that the CBJS invest significant funding and dedicate appropriate resources and time for the recommendations to be successfully and efficiently implemented. If not, we fear that a strategy aimed at dismantling anti-Black racism may actually perpetuate it.

Date modified:: 2025-04-08

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