While the Trudeau government prepares to respond to recommendations it received from a standing committee on “black justice,” Conservatives are raising alarms on the recommendation’s potential to worsen crime in Canada.
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani grilled the Liberal Diversity Minister, Kamal Khera, Wednesday at a heritage committee meeting about the recommendations given to the government in “A Roadmap for Transformative Change: Canada’s Black Justice Strategy.”
Jivani called the group’s recommendations “radical.”
“(The recommendations) include mass decarceration, reducing the number of incarcerated people by 30% over the next 10 years, decriminalizing a supply of 30 days worth of hard drugs, including cocaine, heroin and meth, and also defunding police departments by removing 25% of federal grants from eligibility to police organizations.”
When Jivani asked Khera if she as the “DEI minister” supports those particular “radical criminal justice policies” suggested in the road map, she accused Jivani of making a joke out of the issue.
“It would only be a Conservative that would be making a joke out of systemic racism (which as a result) have seen an over incarceration of black and Indigenous people in our criminal justice system,” Khera said. “To be making a joke about that is disgraceful.”
In December 2021, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General Arif Virani was given a mandate to “address anti-black racism and systemic discrimination that has led to the overrepresentation of black people in the criminal justice system.”
Jivani denied making a joke out of it and accused the Liberals of “flooding our streets with drugs,” an accusation which Khera denied.
According to a Justice Canada report, in 2020/ 2021, 9% of offenders in federal corrections were black, though only 4% of the population was black.
The “road map” report published in June was collectively written in consultation with 12 “black-led community-based organizations,” guided by a steering group’s proposed framework.
It calls for easier to access bail than what is currently available via controversial bail reform bills such as Bill C-75 and C-5, which repealed mandatory minimum sentences and gave courts a mandate to rule on the side of leniency when deciding if an alleged offender should be granted bail.
As Jivani noted it also advocates for the removal of criminal penalties for possession offenses of up to a 30-day supply of controlled substances, including heroin, meth and cocaine. And it also advocates for an expansion of a tax-payer funded “safe supply of drugs.”
The community groups suggested the volume of black and Indigenous individuals who are incarcerated be reduced by 50% by 2034.
“We take a broad view of decarceration to mean not only the release of people who are currently in custody, but also to reduce the number of people entering custodial facilities in the first place,” the report said.
In terms of defunding the police, the collective asked that 25% of Public Safety Canada’s federal transfer payments and Solicitor General and Attorney General grants go to non-police organizations.
Virani called the report “an important milestone in developing Canada’s Black Justice Strategy” in June.
“They have given us a history-making report that lays the groundwork for policies, programs and legislation that will help build a fairer, more effective justice system, confront systemic anti-black racism and address the disparities that limit opportunities and increase marginalization and overrepresentation for black people in our justice system,” Virani said in the government release.
Virani did not respond to True North’s request to comment.
When asked for further comment from Jivani, True North was directed to a post on X he made in July, where he called the strategy “appalling.”
“The Trudeau Liberals must reject these troubling recommendations,” Jivani said. “If the policies contained in the so-called “Black Justice Strategy” report are adopted, there will surely be more crime, drugs and disorder in our communities. There will also be more victims of crime, and black Canadians will be affected along with the rest of the country.”