Grants and Contributions

Over the next five years, Manitoba Justice will undertake several activities to advance victim services by giving victims a more effective voice in the criminal justice system while ensuring the emotional and mental well-being of the criminal justice professionals. Planned activities include: addressing and mitigating the impacts of vicarious trauma experienced by staff working directly with victims of crime, in order to improve trauma-informed care offered, and prevent re-victimization by the Justice system; expanding access to funding for supports for victims and families to attend sentencing hearings; increasing the number of soft waiting spaces across Manitoba for victims/families to attend while participating in the criminal justice process; cultural immersion training for Victim Services Workers; and, translating public materials about intimate partner violence.

Ontario will advance victim services and access to justice for victims and witnesses, while giving victims a more effective voice in the criminal justice system in Ontario. Activities will include: an initiative with the Ontario Native Women's Association; an initiative with the Nishnawbe-Aski Legal Services Corporation; the Pikangikum First Nation Community Hub - Ending Violence Against Indigenous Women program; the Ontario Independent Legal Advice program and independent legal representation for victims of sexual violence; training to increase the knowledge of justice personnel about the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights and other legislations; and, enhancing access to testimonial aids.

Over the next five fiscal years, British Columbia will advance victim services and access to justice for victims and their families by: providing frontline staff with access to tailored supports and tools to assist them in being resilient, engaged and healthy in their work; providing ongoing specialized services for victims that are vulnerable and at high risk of domestic violence; enhancing the work of Child Advocacy Centres (CAC) across BC and promoting continued coordination and collaboration among CAC partners; delivering Indigenous focused culturally safe programming and services; delivering training on Trauma Informed Practice for police, Crown counsel, victim service/anti-violence programs, corrections, and lawyers; enhancing the skills and knowledge of frontline victim service and violence against women service providers to support victims of crime and trauma in BC; and, undertaking various activities to support the implementation of the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights.

This project will serve the needs of diverse and underserved families experiencing separation and divorce by creating a national family Self-Represented Litigants (SRLs) online curriculum that will include information related to the recent changes in the Divorce Act. The project would include the creation of 90-minute lessons related to family court legal material "Primers" that will be delivered to family SRLs via live webinars with a panel of experts who will provide legal information, explanations of procedures, and answers to participant questions.

Canada officially became a member of the Venice Commission on June 12, 2019. Canada's participation as a member of the Venice Commission is consistent with Justice Canada's mandate, policies and programs promoting respect for constitutionalism, the rule of law, and the administration of justice (including judicial independence), human rights, and the protection of minorities. This project provides payment for Canada's annual contribution as a member of the Venice Commission.

The organization will continue its work on Jurisource.ca, an Internet portal that provides access to legal and jurilinguistic resources for justice professionals in French language minority communities in Canada. The organization will develop and add content to the site, maintain its relationships with existing partners and recruit new ones, promote the site, and add necessary technological improvements to it, while keeping in consideration the needs identified by training professionals.

The organization will continue its work on CliquezJustice.ca, a Canada-wide public legal education and information portal designed to develop the legal capacity of Francophone minority communities and to help them become equipped to face a legal challenge. The organization will continue to research, develop and add new content related to various legal issues in several areas of law, advertise and promote the site, maintain its relationships with existing partners, conduct activities to ensure that the site meets the needs of Francophone minority communities and undertake evaluation activities to assess the impact of the site.

The project will consist of helping organizations representing Francophone communities in the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island and in the three territories to improve their ability to deliver justice-related services and projects in French. The work will include undertaking consultations and sharing information on developments and issues related to access to justice in both official languages.

The organization will develop and establish an evaluation service to assess language proficiency of justice stakeholders. This service will measure the language level of participants and identify language training needs, which will contribute to improving learning conditions. The organization will also promote the service. The project will improve the delivery of justice services to official language minority communities.

The project involves the translation and publication of court decisions into the other official language. The organization will also continue to engage with provincial and territorial partners to update the list of court decisions that will be recommended for translation into the other official language. Ultimately, the project aims to increase the number of judicial decisions available in both official languages in Canadian provinces and territories, primarily, but not exclusively, in the areas of criminal law and family law.