Introduction

People of African descent have been present on the land now known as Canada over 400 years. The early Black experience in Canada began largely with enslavement, and after slavery was abolished, racial segregation and restrictions on Black immigration served to continue the subjugation and control of the Black population well into the twentieth century. From the beginning, Black people resisted these atrocities and worked hard to gain increasing rights and freedoms. Most recently, these calls for justice gained momentum in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His killing sparked deeper reflection over the presence of systemic and structural racism in countries across the globe. While the Government of Canada has turned its attention to this issue more recently, Black Canadian organizations and advocates have spent decades pushing for systemic justice reform with inadequate responsiveness from the Government. The Framework for Canada’s Black Justice Strategy provides further details of this shameful history.

The harms of the past continue to influence the operation of the modern Canadian justice system in which Black people are overrepresented and disproportionately experience negative outcomes. The goal of Canada’s Black Justice Strategy is to remedy these longstanding problems. This Report provides recommendations to the Government of Canada which, if enacted, can be expected to reduce the overrepresentation of, and negative outcomes for, African Canadians in the justice system. While it is a continuation of the work Black people have long undertaken, the Strategy is groundbreaking in the sense that the Government of Canada has never before confronted anti-Black racism in the justice system on such a large scale.

We acknowledge the limitations of working within a legal system that was not developed to serve the needs of Black people and was designed to harm us. However, there are many areas of our criminal justice system where better outcomes for Black people can be achieved by setting and meeting measurable goals and targets. We remain hopeful that Canadian society will continue to evolve and look forward, and that the work of this Strategy will continue well into the future to bring about transformative change in our justice system.

Our diverse communities

Black identity is self-determined, based on a combination of factors such as parentage and ancestry, self-perception, social perception, cultural background, and acceptance within Black communities. Black people are diverse and come from multiple diasporas, all connecting back at some point to the African continent. Black people may have roots in Canada going back hundreds of years, or we may be the product of more recent immigration. Black people speak a variety of languages, practice a multiplicity of faiths, and have a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. Within Black communities, there is gender diversity and a variety of sexual orientations. Black people may have mixed racial or ethnic heritage, including Afro-Indigenous peoples. The term African Canadian can also be used, or people may be described with their particular country, region or nation of origin. In this report, we use the terms Black and African Canadian interchangeably, in recognition of the varying preferences within our communities.

Relationship with Indigenous peoples

Though the focus of this report is on Black people, we are well aware that Indigenous peoples in Canada are also disadvantaged in the criminal justice system and elsewhere; Black and Indigenous people’s present-day experiences in Canadian society generally, and in the criminal justice system in particular, are both rooted in Canada’s legacy of colonialism. We know that Indigenous people are overrepresented amongst incarcerated populations, experience disproportionate negative treatment by police, and face discrimination in custodial institutions. While this report focuses on Black people, we acknowledge the important work done to bring attention to the adverse experiences Indigenous people have in the Canadian Justice system, including the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and the work done around sentencing Indigenous offenders according to the principles expressed by the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Gladue.

As long as Black people have been in Canada, Indigenous and Black struggles have been intertwined. There are several instances where Indigenous and Black encounters with the criminal justice system have been connected, such as the Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall Jr. Prosecution. However, we acknowledge the unique status of Indigenous peoples as the First Peoples of the nation known as Canada, which is legally recognized in our Constitution. Indigenous and Black struggles continue to be intertwined; while there are differences in our circumstances, there are also a number of similarities, and we expect that many of the recommendations we make in this Strategy regarding Black experiences in the criminal justice system will apply equally to Indigenous peoples.

How we got here

In August 2016, at the invitation of the Government of Canada, the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent visited Canada on a mission to examine the situation of Black persons in this country. At the conclusion of their mission, the three-member United Nations delegation submitted the 2017 Report of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent on its mission to Canada, presenting recommendations to assist Canada in its efforts to combat all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, Afrophobia and related intolerance. One of the central recommendations presented by the Working Group was for Canada to develop and adopt an African Canadian justice strategy to address anti-Black racism and discrimination within Canada’s criminal justice system. This recommendation emerged directly from Canada’s Black communities, which, after decades of organizing, advocacy and mobilization for justice reform had begun expressing a strong consensus on the need for Canada to adopt a justice strategy focused on African Canadians. This call for systemic change that was vocalized by our country’s Black communities and echoed in the Working Group’s report motivated the Government of Canada to look deeper for solutions to fundamental issues faced by Black people in Canada concerning systemic racism, and the overrepresentation of Black people in the criminal justice system, including as victims of crime.

In December 2021, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada was mandated by the Prime Minister to develop Canada’s Black Justice Strategy with the support of the Minister of Housing and Inclusion and Diversity, and in consultation and cooperation with Black communities and provinces and territories.

To develop Canada’s Black Justice Strategy, the Department of Justice Canada engaged with Black communities and their leaders from across the country. The formation of Canada’s Black Justice Strategy’s external Steering Group was subsequently announced on February 15, 2023, in Ottawa by the Minister of Justice. The Steering Group is made up of nine members, with diverse backgrounds and professional expertise from provinces and territories across Canada. The mandate of the Steering Group is to provide strategic advice to the Department of Justice Canada and other federal partners. The Steering Group is funded by Justice Canada to do its work at arm’s length from the Government.

The development of the Strategy involved a series of comprehensive measures. The process included regular meetings of the Steering Group, where each pillar of the Strategy was thoroughly discussed. During these meetings, members of the Steering Group, drawing on their expertise, provided useful insight and detailed recommendations for action. The authors’ collaborative engagement with the Steering Group was supported by extensive research, and analysis of existing data, studies, recommendations, reports, and relevant case law. The development process also included a careful review of a series of site reports describing consultations with Black communities facilitated by community organizations across the country, ensuring that their insights and experiences were heard and considered when developing the Strategy. The voices of these communities were at the heart of the development of the Strategy and will continue to be centered as the Strategy is implemented and we move forward.

The following is a list of groups that undertook community consultations to support the development of Canada’s Black Justice Strategy:

  • African Canadian Civic Engagement Council – Alberta
  • African Nova Scotian Justice Institute – Nova Scotia
  • Black Advocacy Coalition (BACUpNorth) – Northwest Territories
  • Black Lives Matter New Brunswick – New Brunswick
  • Clinique Juridique de Saint-Michel – Quebec  
  • DESTA Black Community Network – Quebec
  • The Holistic Ongoing Opportunities Development-Facilitation and Management Services Inc. (HOODFAMS) – Manitoba
  • Issamba Centre – British Columbia
  • Jaku Konbit – Ontario
  • Network for the Advancement of Black Communities – Ontario
  • Think 2wice – Ontario
  • Truly Alive Youth and Family Foundation Inc. – Saskatchewan

Submissions were also received from the following groups:

  • Black Legal Action Centre – Toronto
  • Black Opportunity Fund
  • Canadian Association of Black Lawyers
  • Canadian Race Relations Foundation
  • Groupe d’action et de défense contre les abus policiers – Montréal