Executive Summary

The following summary outlines the report’s most essential findings and recommendations.

The Context

Canada’s Black Justice Strategy seeks to address anti-Black racism, systemic discrimination and overrepresentation of Black populations in the criminal justice system. As a part of the strategy, a framework will combine all existing research, reports, and expert engagements from within Black communities and organizations. The consultation process used to inform the strategy’s Framework will be community-led where the experiences and recommendations from the community voices will highlight any gaps in Canadian or provincial-level policies, legislation, data, services, initiatives, programs, and community supports.

This report presents the results of a survey and consultations on how community members, participants, and partners of DESTA experience Canadian law enforcement, as a means to target and reduce anti-Black racism in their communities. The study is commissioned by Canada’s Black Justice Strategy and conducted by a team of DESTA staff in collaboration with the Black Community Resource Center.

Purpose

The purpose of the study had three aims: (1) to engage Black communities that have experiences with the criminal justice system; (2) to validate and further update these experiences shared by the communities in which recommendations for change, support, and/or services might be provided; and (3) to use such shared experiences to inform the development of Canada’s Black Justice Strategy. The report will allow the Black Justice Strategy to further consolidate all experiences from community discussions to develop concrete implications of transformational change within policy, programs and future initiatives for Black communities in Canada.

Respondents at a Glance

Consultation Participants

The total sample for the community-led consultations was 33 people. Participants were asked to fill out a demographic questionnaire with the following questions:

For the ages of participants, 1 person was 10-19 years old, 6 were 20-29 years old, 5 were 30-39 years old, 5 were 40-49 years old, 6 were 50-59 years old, and four were 60-69 years old. None were 70 years or older.

For gender identity, 10 participants identified as male and 15 participants identified as female.

For income, 4 people reported making $0-$14,999, 5 people reported making $15,000-$29,999, 5 people reported making $30,000-$44,999, 6 people reported making $45,000-$59,999, 4 people reported making $60,000-$74,999, and 3 people reported making $75,000-$89,999.

For marital status, 21 participants had never been married while 6 were divorced.

For highest level of education, 7 had completed a high school diploma or certificate, 6 had completed a college, CEGEP or other non-university certificate or diploma, 12 had completed a university certificate, diploma or degree, and 1 had completed a registered apprenticeship or trades certificate or diploma.

For the sub-group question, the most popular responses were “Afro-Caribbean”(13 responses) and “Afro-Canadian”(12 responses). They were followed by “Afro-American” which had 3 responses. “Afro-Indigenous”, “West-African”, “South-African”, and “Latin-American” each had one response.

Survey Participants

For the survey, 41 respondents completed the survey. 14 people completed the survey in French and 27 had done so in English. All of the respondents identified as Black.

35 out of the 41 respondents answered that their involvement with the criminal justice system was that they had “been charged/convicted of a crime”. 12 of the respondents responded that they were “a family member of an accused/convicted person”. Seven of the respondents answered that they “know someone as a victim/accused”.

Key Findings

  1. For the community members that have experiences with Canada’s criminal justice system, holding those with judicial and law-enforcing power accountable for acts of racism is raised by a majority of the community respondents as largely contributing to Black people’s experiences with the criminal justice system. Community respondents spoke about the need for deliberate acts of racism, especially when committed by a police officer, to face criminal charges. Respondents expressed that the Black strategy should be investigative of policing practices, institutional culture, and the legal systems and documents of Canada–all of which were described as being dismissive to regarding Black individuals as human beings.
  2. When it comes to government practices of collecting data from Black communities, community respondents reported feeling frustrated with being overly consulted and remaining uninformed of the project findings and its direct implementations to issues in the Black community. When Black communities are consulted, they are often divulging their personal narratives, views, and experiences. When there are no actual changes made or follow-up on where the data was used, the community can be left feeling uninformed and distrusting of such projects.
  3. For the survey respondents, many of the most popular recommendations which were ranked by participants were aimed at addressing systemic racism indifferent ways. This was a constant and major theme in both the consultations and surveying.

Key Recommendations

  1. Black communities are being excessively consulted for issues involving their experiences with the criminal justice system. Such projects must equally look to address and investigate the systemic and racist nature of the criminal justice system as a root cause to existing issues in the Black community.
  2. Policy development must include the safety and protection of Black youth within institutions and their neighborhoods.
  3. Government projects involving Black community consultations must prioritize keeping those consulted informed of project findings and results. Direct solutions and actual changes must be implemented for the community and with timely consideration.
  4. Anti-Black systemic racism needs to have its impact recognized by national, provincial, and municipal governments and institutions who also need to acknowledge their role and involvement with this problem. Addressing systemic racism requires systemic changes and governments and institutions need to recognize that.