The CBA has followed up its response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action with a letter to the ministers of Justice, Indigenous and Northern Affairs, and Public Safety, to underline the association’s support for the government’s stated intention to implement the recommendations.
The letter, from CBA President Janet Fuhrer, outlines a number of the actions the CBA has already taken that advance the calls to action, and while those have been enumerated elsewhere, they bear repeating:
- Urging the creation of a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women
- Interventions before the Supreme Court of Canada challenging the constitutionality of mandatory minimum sentences (R v Lloyd; R v Nur) (Calls to action #30, 31, 32)
- Promotion of an exemption clause to allow judges to avoid the application of those sentences when injustice would result (calls to action #30, 31, 32)
- Aboriginal Law Section’s 2016 professional development program dealing with the Honour of the Crown when dealing with indigenous people (calls to action #27, 28, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 51, 52)
- Lobbying for more humane approaches to the criminal justice system’s response when dealing with people with FASD or mental health issues (calls to action #30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 38)
- Current development of two projects that will offer practical tools for lawyers, one to offer a broader range of collateral consequences of criminal consequences of criminal convictions in making sentencing submissions and another to encourage more holistic and comprehensive representation of children, including indigenous children (calls to action #27, 28)
“Given our shared commitment to addressing these persistent and critical Canadian problems, and the clear advantages of increasingly coordinated action to achieve common goals, we propose looking for more opportunities for collaboration between the CBA and the federal government on advancing the calls to action.”