Justice Services, Economic Burden and Social Costs in Canada

Annex B. Federal and national initiatives in Canada

Canada’s Black Justice Strategy

Canada’s Black Justice Strategy (the Strategy) is the federal government’s response to address anti-Black racism and systemic discrimination that has led to the overrepresentation of Black people in the criminal justice system, including as victims and survivors of crime. The Strategy aims to help ensure that Black people have access to equal treatment before and under the law in Canada.

The Strategy was developed in consultation with Black communities across Canada, including an external Steering Group of experts and leaders. This approach aimed to ensure that the Strategy reflects the diversity of experiences and regional realities of Black people in Canada, and how race interacts with a person’s ethnic or cultural origin, religion, gender, age, language, disability, income, sexual orientation, and multiracial heritage.

A Roadmap for Transformative Change was developed by the external Steering Group and includes 114 recommendations to combat anti-Black racism and systemic discrimination that has led to the overrepresentation of Black people in Canada’s criminal justice system, including as victims and survivors of crime. The recommendations in the report were informed by consultations and engagements led by 12 Black-led community-based organizations across Canada, as well as the results of the Justice Canada online survey responses.

In February 2025, the Government of Canada released a 10-year Implementation Plan, Toward Transformative Change: an Implementation Plan for Canada’s Black Justice Strategy. The Implementation Plan outlines actions that the Government of Canada has committed to undertake to combat anti-Black racism and systemic discrimination that has led to the overrepresentation of Black people in the criminal justice system, including as victims of crime.

Canadian Family Justice Fund

Family law is an area of shared responsibility between the Federal Government and the provinces and territories. The Government of Canada has expressed commitment to improving access to justice for families experiencing separation and divorce. An important aspect of this commitment is financial support for family justice services. The Canadian Family Justice Fund is designed to support provincial and territorial governments, not-for-profit organizations, associations, academic institutions and individuals in facilitating access to the family justice system for families experiencing separation and divorce.

The Fund has been designed to address the following priorities:

1. Fostering federal, provincial and territorial collaboration to make improvements to the Canadian family justice system;

2. Supporting the well-being of family members engaging with the family justice system;

3. Extending the reach of family justice programs, services and information to meet the needs of diverse and underserved populations;

4. Supporting alternatives to court for the resolution of family law matters;

5. Improving and streamlining family justice system links/processes to support the simplification of family court processes, information-sharing between courts and family justice services, and improved coordination with other parts of the justice system (e.g. criminal justice system).

Federal Victims Strategy

The Federal Victims Strategy (FVS), which was re-launched in 2007 from the earlier Victims of Crime Initiative and is led by Justice Canada, is an initiative that seeks to increase access to justice for victims and survivors of crime and give them a more effective voice in the criminal justice system. The FVS includes three strategic activities, including:

• policy development and federal leadership (ex., coordinating with federal, provincial and territorial government partners to address ongoing and emerging victims’ issues, organizing knowledge building events on victims’ issues, supporting victim-related research and data collection);

• development of criminal law reforms and implementation support (ex., development of the CVBR, supporting implementation of CVBR rights at the federal level, public legal education and information resources on the CVBR); and,

• program development and delivery, including the provision approximately $50 million per year through the Victims Fund to support initiatives focused on victims and survivors of crime.

Through these strategic activities, the FVS also supports a wide range of initiatives that seek to increase access to justice for specific groups of victims, such as: Indigenous led, culturally safe, survivor-centred services and supports, at the community level, for Indigenous people who are victims and survivors of crime (through the Supporting Indigenous Victims of Crime initiative); Black-led, community based supports for Black victims and survivors; child-centred, trauma-informed spaces where children, youth, and their families can access coordinated, multi-disciplinary team support following abuse or violence; support for victims of gender-based and sexual violence (including specialized services through Independent Legal Advice/Independent Legal Representation programs); and in partnership and collaboration with provincial and territorial governments and Indigenous community agencies, the delivery of Family Information Liaison Units and the Community Support and Healing for Families Initiative to provide culturally grounded assistance to families of missing or murdered Indigenous women and girls, men and boys, and 2SLGBTIA+ peoples.

Indigenous Justice Strategy

The Government of Canada recognizes overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system as a serious and complex issue rooted in systemic racism and the legacy of colonialism (Justice Canada, 2025[1]).

In consultation and cooperation with Indigenous peoples, Justice Canada developed an Indigenous Justice Strategy which includes First Nations, Inuit and Métis chapters identifying specific strategies and actions to address systemic discrimination and the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in contact with the justice system and to support the revitalization of Indigenous laws and legal orders. Given their key role and jurisdiction in relation to the administration of justice in Canada, this work was also done in collaboration with provinces and territories. Based in holistic, trauma-informed understandings of justice, the Indigenous Justice Strategy aims to implement progressive and transformative reforms throughout the justice system to meaningfully address systemic discrimination and the overrepresentation of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people in contact with the Canadian justice system. The Indigenous Justice Strategy includes an acknowledgement that Indigenous understandings of justice are notably rooted in healing, wellness, respect and community.

The Indigenous Justice Strategy seeks to contribute to implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN Declaration) and is a vehicle for further advancing First Nations, Inuit and Métis self-determination and the revitalization of First Nations, Inuit and Métis laws and legal systems. The Indigenous Justice Strategy recognizes that nation-to-nation, government-to-government relationships with First Nations and Métis, and Inuit-Crown relationships are essential to moving forward, and commits Canada to work in partnership on concrete action to fulfill the distinct justice priorities of First Nations, Inuit and Métis through ongoing consultation and cooperation with Indigenous governments and representative organizations, and collaboration with provincial and territorial government partners.

National Action Plan to End Gender-Based-Violence

The Government of Canada’s response to GBV incudes two main initiatives: the federal Gender-Based Violence Strategy (the federal GBV Strategy) and the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (the National Action Plan to End GBV).

The federal GBV Strategy, led by Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE), outlines and coordinates the Government of Canada’s actions across departments and agencies—including Justice Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada; Public Safety Canada; the Department of National Defence; the RCMP; and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada—focusing on prevention, support for victims, survivors and their families, and promoting responsive legal and justice systems.

Building on this foundation, the 10-year National Action Plan to End GBV was launched in 2022 by the federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) ministers responsible for the status of women. The National Action Plan to End GBV builds on existing FPT approaches and strategies to prevent and address GBV and is informed by over 1,000 recommendations through years of engagement with Indigenous partners, victims and survivors, front-line service providers, community leaders, experts, academics and civil society. The National Action Plan to End GBV is a concrete step to fulfilling a long-standing commitment of FPT governments to work together towards a Canada free of GBV, that supports victims and survivors and their families from coast to coast to coast.

The National Action Plan to End GBV consists of five pillars: 1. Support for victims, survivors and their families; 2. Prevention; 3. Responsive justice system; 4. Implementing Indigenous-led approaches; and 5. Social infrastructure and enabling environment. Implementing the National Action Plan to End GBV also requires a strong foundation based on three components: leadership, coordination, and engagement; data, research, and knowledge mobilization; and reporting and monitoring. WAGE worked with all provinces and territories to establish 13 bilateral agreements supporting efforts to end GBV under the Plan’s pillars and foundation. Quebec’s agreement respects its autonomy; while Quebec supports the Plan’s overall objectives, it does not formally adhere to the National Action Plan. Altogether, in the first two years of the National Action Plan, the FPT governments have invested more than $1.3 billion to prevent and end GBV.

Reference

[1] Justice Canada (2025), Indigenous Justice Strategy, https://canada.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/ijr-dja/ijs-sja/tijs-lsja/pdf/IJS_EN.pdf.