Ottawa still crafting Black Canadian justice strategy as advocates call for reform – National

The federal government is being urged to follow through with its commitment to develop a Black Canadian justice strategy.

The Liberal government committed to creating such a strategy in the 2021 election campaign after advocacy groups and the United Nations raised serious concerns over anti-Black racism in the Canadian criminal justice system.

Black Canadians are consistently overrepresented in Canadian jails: Black people make up less than four per cent of the Canadian population but about eight per cent of the federal prison population.

Justice Minister David Lametti’s office said he is working with members of Black communities to develop the strategy and will have “more to say on this soon.”

“The priority in doing so is for Black Canadians to have access to fair and just treatment before the law,” said Lametti’s press secretary, Diana Ebadi, in a written statement.

“Canada’s Black Justice Strategy will put us on a path toward a more just and equitable society by addressing systemic discrimination and the overrepresentation of Black people in the criminal justice system, including as victims of crime.”

According to the Black Legal Action Centre, police are more likely to stop, search, charge and arrest Black people. Police are also more likely to use force or seriously injure Black people.

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The House of Commons public safety committee said in a 2021 report that systemic racism in policing was a “real and pressing problem to be urgently addressed.”

It recommended creating a national strategy to address the disproportionately high rates of racialized people in the criminal justice system.

Mukisa Kakembo, a lawyer with prisoner advocacy group PATH legal in Nova Scotia, said it is important the federal government recognizes racism is systemic and it is one of the reasons why Black Canadians are overrepresented in the criminal justice…