New report shows that Canada’s current system has failed Indigenous and Black women

BY PAUL JUNOR

The necessity of an independent commission is required to examine cases that potentially could have led to wrongful convictions should be established soon. This is specifically needed for Black and Indigenous individuals according to a report, which was made public on Thursday, December 9^th, 2021.

Former judges Juanita Westmoreland-Traore and Harry LaForme who were appointed on March 31^st, 2021 by the Government of Canada conducted the report. Mr. LaForme was the first Indigenous person to sit on an appellate court in Canada when he was appointed in 2004 to the Court of Appeal. The Honourable Juanita Westmoreland-Traore was the first African Canadian to be appointed to the Quebec bench when she was appointed in 1999.

The executive summary and recommendations from the report were released on the Government of Canada’s website: justice.gc.ca. There were several consultations, which were held from June to September 2021. The report states that there are three fundamental policy choices the government must make:

• Having a commission that only reacts to individual applications or one that takes a more proactive and systematic approach
• Having a commission that is treated like a small administrative agency in the federal government, or an adequately funded and independent commission that is subject to the same arm’s length treatment from the government as the judiciary
• Having a commission that is limited to cases in which factual innocence can be established or one that is concerned about all miscarriages of justice

The report states, “In our view, the commission must be proactive and systemic and not simply react as in the current system to the application that it receives, often from people who must rely on free legal services from lawyers and Innocence projects. This is the first fundamental policy choice that animates our report.”

The summary of the report states, “The current system has failed to provide remedies for women, Indigenous or Black people in the same proportion as they are represented in Canada’s prisons.” Furthermore, it notes, “We believe that the new commission must be proactive and reach out to potential applicants, including Indigenous people, Black people, women and others who may have reasons to distrust a criminal justice system that had convicted them and denied their appeals.”

It is over two years now since Justice Minister David Lameti’s received a mandate letter from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which indicated that one of its most important priorities was the establishment of a wrongful conviction review commission. On Friday, December 10^th, 2021 Lametti stated that the government is still determined to create an independent commission and that after reviewing the entire report when it comes available, he will be following through with the next steps.

Some of the recommendations from the report include ensuring that the commission is independent of the government, adequately funded, consist of at least nine commissioners, and that it is able to review case proactively not just when individuals apply for its review. The report can be seen at justice.gc.ca