Department of Justice Component of Canada’s Action Plan Against Racism

1. INTRODUCTION

The federal government established Canada’s Action Plan Against Racism (CAPAR) in 2005, the first-ever horizontal, coordinated approach across four federal government departments (Canadian Heritage[3], Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and Justice Canada) to combat racism. The Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada is responsible for the overall coordination and administration of CAPAR, resources for which include a total of $56 million over five years (2005-2006 to 2009-2010) as well as $12 million in ongoing funding. As part of CAPAR, the Department of Justice received a total of $6.7 million over five years to pursue activities related to: race-based issues in the justice system; interventions for perpetrators of hate crimes; and countering Internet-based hate crime.

1.1. Context for the Evaluation

Each partner department (including Justice) is responsible for undertaking an evaluation of the initiatives it delivers under the Action Plan and was expected to report to Citizenship and Immigration Canada on the results by May 2010. This document constitutes the final report of the evaluation of the Justice component of CAPAR, and this evaluation addresses its ongoing relevance and performance.

1.2. Scope and Objectives of the Evaluation

The evaluation focused on departmental activities funded through CAPAR from the end of the 2006-2007 fiscal year to the end of the 2009-2010 fiscal year. However, the initiative in its entirety (and all activities since its implementation in 2005) is examined and considered in terms of final outcomes.

The objectives of the evaluation were:

  1. To examine, assess and report on the ongoing relevance and performance of the Justice component of CAPAR.

  2. To report on the success of the Justice initiative under CAPAR to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, who will then compile and use this information to prepare a final summative evaluation report for all funded CAPAR initiatives.

1.3. Structure of the Report

This evaluation report contains five sections, including the introduction. Section 2 describes the Justice component of CAPAR, and Section 3 describes the methodology used to complete this evaluation. Section 4 summarizes the findings of the evaluation, and Section 5 presents the conclusions and recommendations.

[3] Note that although Canadian Heritage was the original lead department of the Initiative, the Multiculturalism Program has since been transferred to Citizenship and Immigration, who now holds the lead of CAPAR. Canadian Heritage no longer has any programs associated with the Initiative.