Supplementary Information Tables Departmental Plan 2020-21

Gender-based analysis plus

General information

Governance structures

In 2020-21, Justice Canada will continue to implement the departmental Policy on Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+), to ensure that its activities help foster fair outcomes for diverse groups of women, men and people with other gender identities. To better integrate GBA+ into decision-making processes, the Policy:

The GBA+ Unit is the first point of contact for GBA+ at Justice. The Unit's responsibilities include:

The Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy Sector, responsible for the GBA+ Unit, provides leadership in the promotion, implementation and monitoring of GBA+ in the Department, and advises senior management of their roles and responsibilities. In addition, senior governance bodies are regularly engaged in strategic discussions to strengthen GBA+ across Justice Canada.

The Department's core Memoranda to Cabinet (MC) process, Treasury Board Submissions and Budget Asks are reviewed for GBA+ integration.

Justice Canada's GBA+ Indicators Project will continue to support the application of Justice Canada's Policy on GBA+ by considering how and when gender-plus factors are applied to Justice-led initiatives. The Project has two indicators measuring the timeliness of GBA+ and its meaningful influence on initiatives. The goal is that 85% of included initiatives reach a level of acceptable or stronger performance for both indicators by the end of 2020-21.

Human resources

In 2020-21, GBA+ will be led by the GBA+ Unit (2 Full Time Equivalents), and supported by a departmental GBA+ Action Team (approximately 12 members) which advises on GBA+ progress, activities and tools, and helps raise awareness of GBA+ across the Department. The Department's GBA+ Champion will continue to actively encourage officials' participation in capacity-building activities and promote new ways to improve GBA+ in key areas of work.

Planned initiatives

Immigration and Refugee Legal Aid

This initiative ensures that eligible, economically disadvantaged refugees (men, women, youth, and children) from diverse racial and ethno-cultural communities, including persons with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ2S+ community, have access to legal aid services in immigration and refugee matters. These services are available in the six provinces that offer Immigration and Refugee Legal Aid services: British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador. This initiative supports pillar four of the Gender Results Framework: Gender-Based Violence and Access to Justice.

Provinces are asked to provide disaggregated data (by gender and other variables) on the provision of legal aid services to diverse groups of men, women and others, annually, through their final claims to Justice Canada. The Department publishes this data in the annual report, Legal Aid in Canada.

In 2020-21, the Department plans to conduct further research on the outcomes of receiving legal aid for immigration and refugee matters, for this diverse population group. Acquiring this data will inform future program and policy considerations.

Revitalization of Indigenous Laws

This 5-year funding initiative (currently in year 2) is intended to support the development, use and understanding of Indigenous laws and access to justice, in accordance with the unique cultures of Indigenous peoples in Canada. It will support renewed legal relationships with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples and will be in keeping with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and aligned with the goals of the Gender Results Framework.

Funding applicants under this initiative were asked to elaborate on how their proposed activities would impact diverse groups of people, for example Elders, youth and LGBTQ2S+ people.

Applications selected under this initiative will include comprehensive proposals that demonstrate the inclusion of marginalized populations and selected projects will be monitored for these impacts.

Both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls speak of the need for healing within Indigenous communities. The revitalization of Indigenous laws can play a powerful role in healing and reconciliation of Indigenous peoples.

Family Violence Identification and Response Tool

Current research indicates that family violence - whether against partners, children, or seniors - continues to be a problem in CanadaFootnote 1. The Department is developing a tool and/guide, to be released in Winter 2021, that will help legal advisors identify whether family violence is occurring or has occurred and put them in a better position to provide advice to their clients on legal options as well as appropriate services and resources. Overall, this project aims to help strengthen the family justice system's response to family violence. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and the Department for Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) are partners in this work.

Extensive research and consultation, as well as a Gender-Based Analysis Plus lens, are informing the guide's development. For example, legal advisors from across Canada will participate in a pilot in Fall 2020 to test the guide. These legal advisors will be selected using a range of criteria (e.g., gender, primary language, location of law practice (e.g., rural, urban), clientele characteristics).

Planned activities, such as the pilot and others, that include an acknowledgement of diversity and intersectionality in the experiences of family violence by family law clients will help to ensure that the guide will be responsive and relevant to a range of lawyers and clients.

This project supports pillar four of the Government of Canada's Gender Results Framework: Gender-Based Violence and Access to Justice. Current research demonstrates that women continue to be overrepresented as victims of intimate partner violence, including intimate partner homicide .This project will help to advance two of the seven objectives associated with this pillar:

  1. fewer women victims of intimate partner violence and sexual assault; and
  2. fewer women killed by an intimate partner.

Additionally, an online course on family violence and family law geared toward legal advisors is being developed and will be publicly available on the Department's website in Spring 2020. The course includes a module on the gendered and intersectional nature of family violence and focuses on coercive controlling violence, which is predominantly committed by men against women.

Reporting capacity and data

Personal identifiers are not collected for any of the data listed below.

Legal Representation

Legal aid client information collected under the Legal Representation program inventory includes age (youth/adult), gender and type of legal matter. This information is used for program evaluation and published annually in the Legal Aid in Canada report.

Drug Treatment Court Funding Program

Drug court client information collected under this program includes age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, and education. This information is used for program evaluation.

Victims of Crime

Individual information is collected under some components of the Victims of Crime program inventory (applicants to the Victims Abroad, Victims Parole Fund and Exceptional Circumstances components). The information collected includes: for victims, the type of victimization; and for support persons to victims, the relationship to the victim. This information is used for program evaluation.

Indigenous Justice

Client and participant information collected under the Indigenous Justice program inventory includes age, gender, Indigenous identity, type of legal matter and programming provided to clients. This information is used for program evaluation.