Quebec has turned down funds aimed at addressing systemic racism in the courts

The Quebec government has turned down federal funding aimed at combating systemic racism in the criminal justice system, saying it doesn’t agree with the program’s approach.

The Quebec government has turned down federal funding aimed at combating systemic racism in the criminal justice system, saying it doesn’t agree with the program’s approach.

The federal government first offered $6.64 million in funding to provinces and territories in 2021 to improve fairness in the courts. Spread out over five years, the money was aimed at addressing the overrepresentation of Black people in the criminal justice system by promoting the use of race and cultural assessments before sentencing.

These assessments — known as Impact of Race and Culture Assessments, or IRCAs — analyze how a convicted person’s experience of systemic racism contributed to their criminal charges.

While most provinces have accepted the federal funding aimed at supporting defendants or to cover the costs of assessments through their legal aid programs, Quebec has been opposed to providing this type of support.

“We are not party to any funding agreement involving Impact of Race and Culture Assessments, as Quebec doesn’t subscribe to the approach on which the funding program is based, namely systemic racism,” Marie-Hélène Mercier, a spokesperson for Quebec’s Justice Department, told The Canadian Press in an email.

The assessments have been used in Canadian courtrooms for more than a decade by defence lawyers seeking fair sentences. Up until recently, Quebec has been an outlier.

David Nyarko, a board member at the Montreal-based Viola Desmond Justice Institute, an organization that advocates against anti-Black racism in the criminal justice system, says the government’s position leaves criminal defendants at a disadvantage.

The institute wants the assessments to become routine in the province’s criminal proceedings, but Nyarko says a lack of legal aid funding from Quebec is making that mission difficult. As a result, he said their team is largely working pro-bono.