CBA awarded grant to support new training to address Indigenous overrepresentation in the criminal justice system

OTTAWA, ON, June 21, 2022 /CNW/ - Today on National Indigenous Peoples Day, the Canadian Bar Association is pleased to announce it has received funding from the Government of Canada to expand its existing cultural awareness training. The new training will aim to raise cultural awareness of the societal matters and historical events that caused and contribute to the systemic causes of Indigenous overrepresentation in the criminal justice system. It will explore adaptive strategies informed by Gladue Principles.

This training will include a new module for CBA's existing online course, The Path: Your Journey through Indigenous Canada, and a new section on the CBA Truth and Reconciliation site for resources and materials available to all legal professionals and the public. In addition, CBA will be working with an Indigenous advisory group with criminal justice expertise, along with NVision Insight Group, the organization that developed CBA's version of The Path and collaborated on the Truth and Reconciliation Toolkit for Firms. 

The Canadian Bar Association believes that when we know better, we can do better. We continue these reconciliation initiatives in a spirit of cultural humility, believing that we will answer the call and do better.

Quick facts

• The Department of Justice Canada is providing funding over 2 years through its Indigenous Justice Program to the CBA for this initiative.
• The Path: Your Journey through Indigenous Canada, an online course on the history and contemporary realities of First Nations, Inuit and Métis in Canada, will include a new module on the systemic causes of Indigenous overrepresentation in the criminal justice system designed for lawyers and legal professionals throughout Canada
• Materials and resources will be available on the CBA Truth and Reconciliation website for lawyers, legal professionals, and the public.
• These new resources and training will be available in early 2023.

Quotes

"The Canadian Bar Association is thrilled to receive this grant from the Department of Justice Canada. We will continue to provide our members with the tools and training needed to help raise awareness and assist lawyers in engaging in their own acts of reconciliation."

• CBA President Stephen Rotstein

"Indigenous peoples are alarmingly overrepresented in Canada's criminal justice system. Creating and improving cultural awareness within the legal profession is critical to bringing meaningful and lasting change in the system. The CBA's cultural awareness training supports efforts improve access to justice and fairness in our criminal justice system, and help advance our work to respond to the national tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people."

• The Honourable David Lametti, P.C., Q.C., M.P., Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Related links

CBA Truth and Reconciliation Initiative
Indigenous Advisory Group - Criminal Justice
The Path
Truth and Reconciliation Toolkit

About the Canadian Bar Association

The CBA is dedicated to support the rule of law and improvement in the law and the administration of justice. Some 36,000 lawyers, notaries in Quebec, law teachers and law students from across Canada are members.

SOURCE Canadian Bar Association

Vanessa Racine, Manager, Media Relations and Public Affairs, 613-237-2925 x153, [email protected]