Social Determinants of Justice

Participants expressed that anti-Black racism is pervasive and persistent in policies and practices across important social institutions in employment, education, mental health/health, child welfare, housing, and immigration. Some shared experiences that illustrate the attitudes, prejudice, and discrimination directed at them by individuals and through institutional outcomes. Anti-Black racism plays out through unconscious and conscious biases. These experiences are inextricably linked to becoming involved in the justice system and outcomes in the justice system itself. As one participant succinctly stated:

“These factors [social determinants] can intersect and amplify one another, leading to a complex web of circumstances that may bring someone into contact with law enforcement or the court system. It's important to acknowledge these systemic challenges and work towards solutions that promote fairness and equality.”

Overall, participants experienced multidimensional and layered social inequities that they felt prevented them from participating as active citizens in Canadian society.

Racism and criminalization in society

Respondents shared the sentiment that anti-Black racism across social life is a social determinant of justice. This section briefly portrays some of the insidious ways racism shapes the lives of Black people (outside of specific social sectors) in Canada through labelling, stereotypes, identity, a lack of positive role models and representation. This section closes by highlighting the feelings some of the participants had about continually confronting racism, exclusion, and criminalization in Canadian society.

The pervasive views of Black people as dangerous has an impact on how they are treated and can shape Black self-identities. A community partner in Québec shared:

“Several respondents, particularly men, expressed the fact that as a “Black man” society labels them. They are often seen as dangerous people. As a result, they disproportionately find themselves in situations of racial profiling and suffer the torments of over-policing. Furthermore, it results in an identity twist for these people.”

Black parents recounted experiencing fear about how their children would be viewed, especially that their young Black sons would be treated with the stereotype of Black men as “dangerous”. A Black aunt shared a story of her young nephew being treated poorly by the police, who thought he was an adult. In response, a Black mother in Québec shared:

“Your nephew was treated like an adult man, but still the treatment is not valid, right? Even as an adult man, I want to say that. I remember having my two sons go to the dépanneur, and for the first time, seeing them walking off without mommy going to the store. And I was like, oh great. And then I looked at the stride they took and the confidence and that male strut. And I immediately went to fear. My 13-year-old is almost my height, right? So that's fairly tall and he's not a slim child, he's more heavy set. And that fear is so, it's like gut wrenching, you know what I mean? And then there's conversations. I mean, I've spoken to them before, but I'm like, now we really, really, really have to have these conversations, right? And it's so sad because you’re addressing this stuff with them and you have to say, ‘this puts you in a different light, yes, you're a child, but please function as an adult, please function as an able-bodied, able-mind person that makes proper decisions.’ And it's such a hard conversation to have.”

This passage highlights that Black adults are often fearful about how Black children will be treated. This fear is warranted. In a report on Black youth and the justice system, the researchers cited many examples of Black youth in Canada being treated poorly across social institutions and being misperceived as adults (Owusu-Bempah & Jeffers, 2022). This finding is supported by ample research about adultification bias which leads Black youth to be perceived as less innocent, less emotionally expressive, and angrier than youth from other racial backgrounds and leads to poorer outcomes in schools and the justice system (Goff et al., 2014; Epstein et al., 2017; Halberstadt et al., 2020; Cooke & Halberstadt, 2021). Black parents in community engagements demonstrated a keen awareness of the adultification their children are subject to. This is one of many ways that Black youth and children are deprived of their childhoods. Participants also reflected on how racial barriers limits the amount of positive role models for Black children to look up to. This can set youth on a path to become involved in gangs for a sense of belonging:

“I'd like to share just from the perspective of my brother, I would say that in his situation, grief and trauma was the catalyst that got him involved with law enforcement and committing crimes. Not having a sense of belonging, falling into the gang lifestyle. There were no role models and a lack of supervision. That lack of belonging kind of led to a sense of loss, having lost a parental figure, family relationships, and these led to him searching for that in a number of ways that led to him being incarcerated.” (Black sister of an individual in the justice system, Québec)

Participants also discussed how the lack of racial representation across advocates for Black communities facilitates anti-Black racism:

“We don't have any Black MLAs here to speak and fight on behalf of the Black community. There are no Black parliamentary representatives from our community. And, to give you an idea, there are no Black school board trustees even.” (Black community member in British Columbia)

They felt that this underrepresentation lessens the level of care about issues facing the Black community and a lack of remedy for injustices experienced across social institutions. In community engagements in Québec, participants reflected on how their identity in Canada has been shaped by anti-Black racism. They felt that life in Canada was a constant struggle and a challenge to be treated equitably. They felt the need to be constantly resilient and a conflicted sense of identity. In their own words:

“Being Black in Canada is a constant protest just to be alive. The stress is in my whole body.”

“Being Black in Canada is activism because we always have to stand up for something. Its resistance. I feel like we're constantly resisting against a system that tries to ‘invisibilize’ our plight.”

“Being Black in Canada is a struggle. But I would prefer that being Black would just be rich and full of possibility.”

“Being Black is a bomb, nobody wants to deal with it. I also want to say that Black is light. Black is the thermometer that tells you how healthy your society is. If we're not healthy, your society is crazy sick.”

“Being Black in Canada is conflicting.”

“Being Black in Quebec, Canada is being part of a resilient people who continue to not be eliminated or... yes it's a struggle but we keep on standing up.”

“For me, being Black in Canada, it's being strong and being the best you can. But at the same time, it's being misunderstood. Displaced at times. And yeah, you use that strength and courage to fight and to exist.”

“Being Black in Canada is opposing. One is ignored while at the same time being stigmatized or stereotyped.”

“Being Black is limitations, imposed limitations. We need to take up more space. More space amongst our peers, more space in society, in our country, in this world. But Black is strength, and strengths throughout our generation and carried forth now and into the future, we still have strength and to just lean on that.”

Economic factors

Participants identified systemic inequalities in employment opportunities and wealth distribution. They emphasized that unemployment, underemployment, and a lack of diverse opportunities for Black communities increases the likelihood to become involved in criminal activity in various ways. They shared experiences of racism in recruitment, hiring, promotion, and retention, and noted experiencing race-based pay gaps, unstable or precarious employment, and de-skilling. For immigrants, having foreign education, skills, and experience recognized was difficult and derailed their adjustment to the Canadian social system. As a community member in Saskatchewan states:

“Black people are often the last to be hired and the first to be fired.”

This sentiment is supported by Statistics Canada data which finds that a higher proportion of Black women and a similar proportion of Black men have a post-secondary education as compared to the rest of the population. Nevertheless, Black adults and youth are about twice as likely to be in a low-income situation and are more likely to be unemployed when compared with the rest of the Canadian population (Do, 2020). Other research finds that as compared to white men, Black men (18-69) were overrepresented among those in jobs they were overqualified^{Footnote 1} for at a margin of 2.6 to 1. Black women were working jobs they were overqualified for 1.5 times more often as compared to white women (Pan-Canadian Health Inequalities Data Tool, 2017).

Furthermore, newcomers and immigrants consulted through the engagement sessions shared that they faced significant barriers finding a job and struggling with a lack of training and programs designed to bridge the credentials they have, and the credentials required to work in their fields within Canada:

“I am lucky that I'm from the United States, where it's a bit easier, but yet and still I can't be a clinical psychologist here, even though it takes more hours to be licensed in the state of California than it does in BC. I know people who were teachers for many years from the continent who are working at Tim Hortons. They like us coming into the country, but they don't want us to come in at the statuses that we have.” (Community member in British Columbia).

“Foreign diplomas are not recognized. More particularly in the case of Quebec, one of the participants told us that immigrant parents are exhausted by their migratory journey and all the administrative procedures that it involves, so they have neither the time nor the energy to return to school.” (Community partner in Québec).

Research has found that in addition to the barriers faced by immigrants noted above, anti-Black racism strongly impacts employment outcomes for immigrants, especially those who speak with accents (Augustine, 2012; Creese & Wiebe, 2012; Ng & Gagnon, 2020). This anti-Black racism impacts newcomers and Canadian-born Black people alike. Participants of the engagement sessions critiqued the underemployment they frequently experience. They claimed that underemployment creates a situation where Black parents need to work long hours to make ends meet, which lessens their ability to supervise their children and increases the likelihood that their children become involved with the justice system:

“[There’s] a lack of supervision because our parents were always working because they're always trying to work and provide. So, we take advantage of that. And a lot of the issues stem from that.” (Community partner in Québec).

This relationship between limited employment opportunities for Black parents, time constraints, and a lack of child/ youth supervision was also found in a recent report published by the DOJ (Owusu-Bempah and Jeffers, 2022). Importantly, Statistics Canada (2016) data shows that 33.0% of Black children (0-14) and 26.7% of Black youth (15-24) lived in a low-income household. Respectively, these proportions were 2.5 and 2.2 times greater than the proportion of white children and youth in low-income households. Research also shows that 28.9% of Black households in Canada are food insecure, this proportion is 2.6 times higher than the food insecurity rate for white households (Tarasuk & Mitchell, 2020). Given these findings, it is not surprising that respondents shared that economic constraints placed on parents often means that Black youth need to “grow up quicker” to earn money for their families alongside their parents:

“Several respondents told us that their parents were immigrants and that they worked at least two jobs to support themselves…. the children of immigrants had to take on responsibilities from a very young age and did not have the opportunity to be children or young adolescents. These circumstances meant that the latter were led to become very mature quickly, to find a solution to obtain money quickly.” (Community partner in Québec)

This finding indicates barriers placed on adults trickle down to their children and shapes their opportunities. Poverty creates a situation where the need to survive becomes the most important factor structuring youth trajectories. Yet the same employment limitations confronted by Black parents is also experienced by Black youth. Black men in custody shared that they became involved in crime to help their families:

“This same narrative is widely shared by the male prisoners we met. Many of them share difficult childhoods, with parents who worked two jobs. They have several responsibilities at a very young age. Poverty and the need for money seem to be the main reasons for their criminal acts and conflicts with the law.” (Community partner in Québec)

“If you don't have work where you live and you have to feed your family, you may need to find alternative ways.” (Community member in Québec)

Many respondents told us they had difficulty finding decently paid jobs. Others say that despite their diplomas and other certifications they have difficulty finding a job worthy of their skills. Some respondents told us they “dropped out of school” in order to find a job. However, after confronting significant barriers, they quickly abandoned the legal job market for more “lucrative” illegal activities. Participants felt that Black youth often experience a limited field of possibilities for careers because of the types of labour that are normalized for them and a lack of access to diverse opportunities, and training. Black community members in Québec shared:

“There is the lack of opportunities being exposed to Black youth. If you ask any Black youth ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ nine times out of ten it’s sports or entertainment. And that's because we don't really see ourselves in the media in a successful way in different positions. And they're not accessible and tangible.”

“Laws contribute to people going through the criminal justice system. For example, a law that forces people to speak French when they may be coming from other places, and then it goes through them not succeeding in a school system and then having to find alternative for work. So, I feel like, indirectly, that causes people to go into alternative paths.”

As this section demonstrates, inequities in employment and employment opportunities pushes Black youth and adults to become involved in crime in order to survive. Participants shared a range of recommendations on how to reduce inequities in the section of the “improving access to economic opportunities”.

Education

Black youth, community members, community partners, individuals in custody, and community Elders stressed the crucial role of education in determining the life paths of Black people. They recalled personal and observed accounts of the inequities impacting Black students at school such as racial discrimination, a lack of meaningful curriculum content about Black people in Canada, and a stark absence of Black role models in teaching and administrative roles. Incarcerated individuals often connected unfavorable experiences during their K-12 schooling and being in a correctional facility. One individual shared an experience of being taunted by white students with racial slurs, slurs that went unpunished by school authorities. Yet when he responded to these incidents, he was punished. These experiences left him feeling unsupported and isolated. For many Black students, being punished at school- and being discriminately punished especially- can later lead to being incarcerated because: a) it can decrease feelings of belonging, lead to school dropout, and subsequent criminal engagement through rebellion, b) it can decrease feelings of belonging, lead to school dropout, limit labour market opportunities, and increase criminal engagement for financial survival, and c) when police officers are called to handle situations involving Black youth at school, it increases the likelihood of further criminal justice involvement (Owusu-Bempah & Jeffers, 2022).

At the primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels, Canadian school curriculums lack comprehensive coverage of Black Canadian history, the contributions made by Black individuals in Canada, and the issue of anti-Black racism. This educational gap plays a role in perpetuating racial discrimination, as many Canadians graduate without Black cultural competency, Black cultural understanding, or the ability to recognize or address anti-Black biases they may have. This deficiency is particularly impactful among individuals in decision-making roles and those with significant power to shape outcomes for Black people- such as educators, employers, health and mental health professionals, and those working in housing and the justice system. Community members and community partners in British Columbia said:

“There isn't a place for Black people in the education system. The majority of learning institutes and education are based upon white/European history that leaves out the Black experience and historical accuracy.”

“Our participants indicated that the anti-Black racism and discrimination in the justice and criminal systems have been fostered by the absence of, or limited education about Black cultures, histories and peoples in schools as well as the harmful misrepresentation of Black people in popular media. School curricula and popular media have created and sustained negative anti-Black stereotypes that lead to needless suspicions and doubts.”

The lack of Black Canadian history in curriculums and discriminatory portrayals of Black people in history can also decrease the belongingness Black students feel in Canadian schools and society:

“It's great that we have Black History Month, that's great. But we need to step it forward. It's just been too long. I'm personally really looking for what action there is towards lobbying and working with the Ministry of Education to finally have curriculum reflective of the contributions that Black Canadians have made so that our kids that are in the schools get the full story, and they're able to really see themselves. I think it really starts with the kids from pre-K, that's where they're subjected to the narratives. And they're very negative when it comes to our community. (Community member in Québec)

The engagement session revealed that Black parents and their children generally feel underwhelmed or frustrated about the relationships that many teachers have with Black students. Bias comes out in disciplinary practices, lowered expectations, and exclusion. A Black community partner in Ontario notes that there are “two distinct types of teachers: those who lower their expectations for Black students and those who adopt rigid approaches.” A Black youth in Québec shared:

“When we went to high school, they told us 70 to 75% the kids that do go to that school. They drop out of high school. Yeah, that's what they tell you. You go with your parents, you register, that's what they tell you.”

Others shared specific cases where teachers even underestimated Black students who showed special academic promise:

“School had an impact because I was left feeling less intelligent due to my social status, even though I was helping other kids. I was the one who was left with lower marks as if I were cheating off them.” (Community member in Ontario)

“A Black student was singled out to confess to a missing $5 in class, despite having just won $40,000 for her school in a reading competition.” (Community partner in Saskatchewan)

This particular kind of racial bias held by teachers leads directly to Black students being placed on the school-to-prison pipeline. Research shows that students are less likely to graduate high school if they dislike school, do not feel like they belong at school, and are not connected to any teachers (Eckstrom et al., 1985; Jordan, 1994; Dei, 1997, James & Turner, 2017). In addition to examples of teachers treating Black students differently academically, many participants shared examples of differential disciplinary practices in schools. These practices served to further marginalize Black youth and “push” them out of schools (Dei, 1997). In their own words:

“I was put in a behavior class automatically when I disagreed with something. I was seen as rebellious.” (Community member in Ontario)

“If two students get in a fight, the Black student will face more injustices and all the blame is put on them. This is where the adversity starts.” (Community member in Ontario)

“The education system is failing Black youth and boys. So many suspensions and severe punishments for minor issues. This is racially biased. There also needs to be better neighborhood investments in places where Black people live.” (Community member in Alberta)

“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.” (Community member in Ontario)

“I worked in the school system, and often in the lunchroom in the teacher's lounge, I would hear a teacher describe a big, Black kid, usually a boy. And even when the physical being is not big. It could be a little boy short as I am. But they were always described as this ‘big, Black kid’. And of course, to them it sounds scary. It's embedded in the mentality.” (Community member in Québec)

Black parents, students, and community partners claimed that teachers are rarely penalized when racist behaviour is reported to school authorities, even in extreme instances where derogatory language is used. To address some of these issues in schooling, participants advocated for holding educators and accountable. They also asserted the need for more accessible recreational activities in schools and outside of schools for Black youth as a tool to decrease the dropout rate:

“One of the things that anchors our young Black men to their communities and schools is recreational activities, social activities, and sports. From a cultural lens, these activities help to provide the young men with “street cred”, socialization, and a positive prosocial outlet. However, as a punitive method in schools, participants mentioned that this is one of the first things to be taken away from them if they misbehave, or their academics slip.” (Community partner in Nova Scotia)

Support for this belief has been found in academic research, Chang and colleagues (2021) found that Black student who participated in sports at school had a lower dropout rate than their non- sport participating counterparts. Students also tend to be disengaged from the schooling experience if there is a lack of involvement in sports, arts, and clubs (Cairns, Cairns, & Neckerman, 1989).

In summation, schooling institutions play a significant role in whether Black youth become involved in crime. The lack of representation across educators, the mistreatment of Black students, and a paucity in recreational activities impacts whether students finish their schooling and the opportunities available for them. Participants suggested important changes be made, that are highlighted in the “recommendations for addressing inequities in education” section. In addition to what has already been shared here, participants also felt that Black children are often misdiagnosed as having learning disabilities, mental disabilities, depression, and ADHD because of anti-Black stigma at school. This suggests that need for interventions in mental health, which will be discussed next.

Mental and physical health

Black community members highlighted that the pervasive experience of racism within social institutions and across interactions with people outside of institutions contributes to mental health issues and poor mental well-being among Black people. Furthermore, respondents note that people within the Black community can also stigmatize those with mental health issues which means many Black people experiencing poor mental health continue to be undiagnosed. Prevailing anti-Black sentiments among mental health professionals and a lack of knowledge about the impact of racism on Black people has resulted in many Black people being misdiagnosed or treated in a manner that is not sensitive to their racial and cultural backgrounds. Participants also noted the impact that adverse childhood experiences and untreated trauma had on the life course of Black people. Black clinicians in Nova Scotia said:

“If we look at Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) for our children, we are then repeating those behaviors and the cycle allows for those disrupted family styles to continue. Our community has romanticized our past. If we look at ACEs and those who have lived in poverty or witnessed partner violence, sexually abuse, inappropriate relationships, sexualization of Black men, multiple moves because of insecurity, or had a parent who had significant substance abuse. That is very loaded with no intentional interventions from an ACEs perspective. Where are those community hub integrated models of care? Why are we as a community still working in silos?”

“In our experience with trauma from anti-Black racism, it sits with us forever and there are things we will never forget. To the general public of white people, they do not look the same and we are judged for being traumatized. A police officer arrested a person I know for ‘fitting a description’, they got roughed up, put in jail and then were just told that they were not the person they were looking for”.

Early experiences can shape whether and how youth become involved in crime. But importantly, ACEs and other experiences are often shaped by wider societal oppression. A clinician in Nova Scotia shared that they “remind clients that we are both victims and perpetrators. Those are the nuances of people of African Nova Scotian descent”. Despite these realities, there are limited supports and interventions for trauma tied to ACEs and experiences of racism. Participants shared that a lack of culturally sensitive mental health care perpetuates mental health issues among Black people and can lead to inaccurate and inappropriate diagnosis:

“Our problem is our counselors are not trained in how to deal with mental health issues specific to African, Caribbean and Black youth. They do not get the training in their work. So, what ends up happening is sometimes, when youth go to the counselors, they actually perpetuate more racialized violence and trauma, and they can actually do more harm than good.” (Community member in British Columbia)

The lack of culturally sensitive mental health care also contributes to stigma against people with mental health issues within and outside of Black communities:

“Counselors don't understand Black parents and what they have to go through as well, and so parents could end up rather vilifying their kids in the process.” (Community member in British Columbia)

“As a community, we frequently face traumatic experiences without the necessary support and systems in place to effectively address and heal from the harm we have endured.” (Community partner in Nova Scotia).

As participants have highlighted, anti-Black racism both increases the likelihood of developing a mental health issue and decreases the likelihood that Black people receive adequate supports. Mental health is a social determinant of justice. In a report for the Mental Health Commission of Canada, Coleman and Cotton (2014) noted that about 40% of people with a mental illness have been arrested in their lifetime, and only a small proportion were engaging in criminal activity when arrested. Further, stigma about mental illness shapes the perceptions among many Canadians that those with mental illness are dangerous. This means they are more likely to call the police to handle people seemingly in distress and also that the police are more likely to inappropriately assess the level of risk associated with those in a moment of crisis (Coleman & Cotton, 2014, p.57). Since 2000, approximately 50% of police-involved fatalities in Canada involved a person who was experiencing mental distress (Nicholson & Marcoux, 2018). People with mental health issues additionally experience adversities in the courts, corrections, and reintegration (John Howard Society Ontario, 2021). All of this together suggest an urgent need to develop and implement interventions to promote mental health and well-being, recommendations are laid out in the section on “increasing access and funding for culturally responsive and culturally informed mental health programs”.

Outside of mental health, participants did not talk about physical health in the community. Nevertheless, the social determinants and inequities in health for Black Canadians; education, employment/income, housing, and health behaviours (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2020) overlap considerably with social determinants of justice outlined in this report. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada (2020), between 2010 and 2013, Black Canadians aged 18 and over were more likely to self-report fair or poor health compared to their white counterparts. Moreover, they exhibited a higher prevalence of diabetes and were less likely to report engaging in active or moderately active lifestyles. Black people also experience systemic under-treatment in hospitals and health care facilities (Williams & Wyatt, 2015; Nnorom et al., 2019)^{Footnote 2}. The Public Health Agency of Canada (2020) called for more research on the social determinants of health and their relationship with anti-Black discrimination and outcomes for Black people in Canada and their relationship to justice. The Public Health Agency of Canada also called for increasing the representation of Black healthcare professionals.

Child welfare

Black community members and service providers expressed that there were double standards in the approach of child welfare services when it comes to Black people compared to members of other racial groups. A community partner in Ontario shared an interaction between police, child welfare, and a Black family:

“A mother shared the experience where their young son squabbled with his sister and called 911. Police bang on the door and there a white male officer shoved the mother (who was pregnant at the time) and escorted her to change while he watched. While she was changing, the children got taken from the house.”

Respondents expressed the view that social services separate Black children from their parents without considering cultural differences (i.e., different parenting styles), which sometimes lead to trauma in these children and eventually a negative contact with the justice system because of the separation from an environment that promotes their cultural identity, heritage, and the kind of nurturing they require. Significant changes must be made to address these issues as Black youth are overrepresented in the child welfare system (Laverne et al., 2009; Clarke, 2011; Fallon et al., 2016; Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2018b). Moreover, Black youth in the care of child welfare, especially those in group homes, receive more criminal charges and more severe charges then their white counterparts, especially for administration of justice offences (Finlay et al., 2019). To combat the child welfare-to-prison pipeline face by Black children and youth, participants called for keeping families together as much as possible. Recommendations for improving child welfare are laid out in the section on “addressing systemic racism in child welfare”.

Housing

Stable housing is a crucial social determinant of justice. Homelessness and unstable housing situations can increase the risk of involvement with law enforcement and the justice system. Black community members shared that homelessness impacts Black people by increasing their exposure to crime and their need to rely on crime to get by. They also stressed that public housing units were often below standard quality and not maintained. Black individuals also face anti-Black racism while trying to secure housing and having their homes maintained. Black community members in British Columbia shared:

“I always had to go with my white husband when we were renting. By myself, I was quickly denied even when I phoned and made appointments.”

“When my partner and I were house hunting all the brochures used by property developers only had images of white people and in all the design mock-ups. These can sometimes send a message that Black people are not welcome in the neighborhood. There is a lot of racial segregation here in Vancouver with predominantly white neighborhoods.”

“When I was renting, I noticed such factors as more frequent rent increases and meaningless harassment though I was a very good tenant and took good care of our homes.”

“We were not hurting nor inconveniencing anyone. We were the ones being inconvenienced. We had no clean hot water unless I boiled it on the stove. Even going to the Landlords' and Tenants' Board made no difference. I called the health board and was later evicted.”

“Condominium "president" told me I was not welcome to live there, lied to the landlord and strata... had to involve my landlord and police.”

These perceptions and experiences shared by respondents are supported by Statistics Canada (2016) data which revealed striking racial differences in housing security. Black Canadians were 2.7 times more likely to be living in housing below standards compared to white Canadians. Black people in Canada were more likely to be unable to afford their housing costs, live in crowded homes, or live in a home that required major repairs. Respondents also shared frustrations with a lack of available affordable housing, the presence of public housing in high-crime neighbourhoods, and sub-standard living conditions in public housing units. Participants reflected on the limitations experienced in their neighbourhoods that increased their likelihood to be involved in the justice system through efforts to resist unfair social control and over-policing. Community members and youth in Québec shared:

“It really started with hanging out with my group of friends. You play at the park and you get labeled. You're too loud. You make a lot of noise. They put up a gate around the basketball court. At some point, they put a lock on that gate as well. So, we had to climb up the fence to go play basketball. And then the police came, they said, you're not allowed to play basketball before noon. And we had to play from noon to 8 PM. So, I would say, you can say a lot of factors. You could say poverty. You could say your economic situation. But I think the problem is deep rooted. And I think that it goes beyond just having the means to not be poor. If you want to have a sense of belonging to your community, I think you need to understand your environment. And a lot of us, we don't really understand why we're targeted. We know it has to do with race. But at times, when we try to engage and have those conversations, it really falls to deaf ears. So, I would say for me, it started out just existing in my neighborhood. That's what it was, unfortunately and fortunately. Because we exist, we [are] here. And we need to be confident enough to occupy the physical space. But in order to have that confidence, you need to know that you're secure in your environment. And growing up, I never really felt secure. And I would say too, that's how a lot of my friends, their hatred started for the police. And that's how they ended up going on the other side of society”

“When I was growing up, all police talked about is how ‘all the Black kids in this neighborhood, they're in the gangs, they're gang related”. So they kind of prepped you for that life without you knowing it. As you grow older, the role models that you have, the people that you see making money, you realize, ‘okay, if I wanna to be something in the society, this is who I'm gonna become’. They’re prepping you to be part of that gang. Now the police start to know about you, they start to know your face. But they put the thought in your mind in order to make you believe that.”

As demonstrated, living in high-crime, low-income neighbourhoods can lead to Black youth being subject to the self-fulfilling prophecy of criminalization while also increasing the visibility of crime for Black youth. When paired with barriers in the labour market, these neighbourhood dynamics can serve to normalize engaging in crime (Owusu-Bempah & Jeffers, 2022).

In summation, participants assert that there are many barriers to accessing safe, affordable, clean, and stable housing, and the research cited in this section demonstrates stark differences for Black people, specifically. A lack of stable and affordable housing options can increase the likelihood that people engage in financially motivated crime. Housing is a key social determinant of justice.

Homeless people are more likely to be arrested and many people who are released from prison are released back into homelessness. Across 15 prisons, jails, and detention centers in Ontario, for example, the proportion of prisoners released from prison into homelessness has increased in the last 7 years (Hayes, 2023). This reality has led some experts to assert that there is a revolving door between homelessness and incarceration (Novac et al., 2007). Altogether, these findings suggest the need to address housing issues to remedy the overrepresentation of Black people in the justice system. Housing recommendations posed by participants are laid out in the section on “addressing inequities in housing stability and homelessness”.

Immigration

Most participants shared their concerns about the immigration consequences for non-citizens who are convicted of crime. In the engagement sessions, participants recalled anecdotes of young men sent back to their countries of origin with dire consequences to their lives. In many cases, deported individuals came to Canada while children and lacked social ties to the country they were deported to. In particular, respondents felt strongly that it should be Canada’s responsibility to support people who immigrated before becoming legal adults. Community members in Ontario said:

“Young men being sent back ‘home’ have learned the wrongdoings here not back ‘home’, and so, if they are a problem, they are a Canadian problem.”

“Young people get involved with friends into trouble because they did not know any better that they could be deported. Help new immigrants to handle culture-shock and go through the whole adjusting process.”

As can be seen in these excerpts, participants stressed concerns about the lack of education and awareness about Canadian laws among immigrants and explained how this leads to interactions with the justice system. In the section above on economic determinants of justice, participants also discussed how poorer economic outcomes and a lack of resources can make the integration experience for Black newcomers particularly difficult. Recommendations for the prevention and intervention of immigrant involvement in the justice system are shared in the section on “addressing the needs of Black immigrants and newcomers”.