Evaluation of the Indigenous Courtwork Program

2. Profile of the Indigenous Courtwork Program

2.1. Program Objective

The objective of the ICW Program is to contribute to achieving the federal government's commitment to facilitate and enhance access to justice by assisting Indigenous persons (adults and youth) charged with an offence under any federal or provincial statute, municipal by-law, or otherwise involved in the criminal justice system to obtain fair, just, equitable and culturally relevant treatment.

2.2. Delivery Structure and Governance

2.2.1. Provinces and Territories

Provincial and territorial ministries are responsible for establishing the framework for the ICW Program within their jurisdiction. In many jurisdictions, the court services divisions within the justice ministries administer the ICW Program. Some jurisdictions include public safety or ministries responsible for Indigenous Affairs to ensure there is a consistent approach to services available to Indigenous people.

Seven of the ten provinces and the three territories currently provide Indigenous Courtwork services. The ICW Program provides funding to each participating province through five-year bi-lateral contribution agreements, the most recent of which cover the period April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2018. Funding is available up to a maximum of 50% of the total eligible provincial program costs for eligible services and up to the notional federal maximum level established in the contribution agreement. Program delivery in the territories is supported by the federal government through the “Access to Justice Services” (AJA) agreements, which also include contribution funding for criminal and civil legal aid, as well as public legal education and information (PLEI). The most recent agreements cover the period from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2022.

2.2.2. Delivery Structures

In each province and territory, the ICW Program is delivered through a relatively small network of geographically decentralized Courtworkers who usually work independently, providing services and building relationships with their local communities. The structure of the delivery model varies across the jurisdictions in terms of:

The types of delivery agencies used. In six of the seven provinces and one of the three territories, Courtworkers are employees of Service Delivery Agencies (SDAs). In the other regions, Courtworkers are either directly employed by the provincial government (Manitoba) or are territorial government employees operating under the direction of a Legal Services Board (Nunavut and Northwest Territories);
The number of agencies used. In three of the seven jurisdictions with SDAs, one organization holds the contract for the entire province. In each of the four other regions, the contract is held by four or more SDAs; and
The type of funding agreements. Bi-lateral contribution agreements have been established with the provinces, and AJA agreements are established with the territories.

2.2.3. Policy Forums

The ICW Program is guided by a Federal, Provincial and Territorial (FPT) Working Group and a Tripartite Working Group (TWG) which serve as policy forums for ongoing monitoring of inter-jurisdictional issues that concern the ICW Program. The FPT Working Group consists of two or three representatives of the federal government and one or two representatives designated by each province or territory. It is co-chaired by a federal representative and a provincial or territorial representative. The FPT Working Group reports to the Committee of Federal-Provincial-Territorial Deputy Ministers Responsible for Justice and Public Safety.

The TWG consists of two federal representatives, one provincial/territorial official and one SDA representative from each jurisdiction. Reporting to the FPT Working Group, the TWG has a mandate to serve as a forum for addressing a range of program issues related to the ICW Program and Indigenous people in contact with the criminal justice system.

2.3. Services Delivered

Courtworkers deliver a range of services including:

Providing non-legal advice and information to Indigenous persons charged with an offence and their family members at the earliest possible stage and throughout the criminal justice process;
Referring Indigenous persons charged with an offence to appropriate legal resources at key stages of the justice process such as at the arrest, pre-trial, trial, and sentencing stages;
Referring Indigenous persons charged with an offence to appropriate community resources, including alcohol, drug and family counselling, and educational, employment and medical services to ensure they have help in addressing underlying problems that have contributed to their criminal behavior or problems that have led to the laying of criminal charges. Where appropriate, Courtworkers advocate for services for Indigenous persons charged with an offence and work to ensure that those services are delivered;
Providing assistance, as appropriate, to other Indigenous persons such as family members, victims, and witnesses;
Promoting practical, community-based justice initiatives and helping to build the capacity to identify and address problems that could end up in the courts or community justice system;
Serving as a bridge between criminal justice officials and Indigenous people and communities by providing a liaison function and facilitating communication and promoting understanding between the parties. Courtworkers prepare and accompany the accused to court. As “Friends of the Court”, they also provide critical background and contextual information on the accused, make the court aware of alternative measures and options available in the Indigenous community, and ensure that the accused comprehends the court process; and
Mobilizing communities to become more aware of and address emerging Indigenous justice issues.

In 2015-16, 177 full-time and 14 part-time Courtworkers provided nearly 150,000 services to about 70,000 Indigenous clients in 435 communities across the country. As indicated in the table below, the services were relatively evenly divided between in court services (focused on assisting clients to appear before the Court) and out of court services.

Table 1 : Number of Courtworkers, Clients and Services Reported by Fiscal Year
Fiscal Year	Courtworkers			Clients Served With and Without Charges^{Footnote 1}			Services Delivered In and Out of Court^{Footnote 2}
Fiscal Year	Full-time	Part-time	FTE^{Footnote 3}	With^{Footnote 4}	Without^{Footnote 5}	Total	In	Out	Total
2011-12	175	14	182	66,499	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
2012-13	172	19	181.5	56,092	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
2013-14	177	12	183	55,560	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
2014-15	179	15	186.5	50,698	17,946	68,644	40,281	74,549	114,830
2015-16	177	14	184	52,648	14,937	67,585	77,471	71,243	148,714

Source: Performance Measurement Data (2011-12 to 2015-16). Note: n/a indicates the indicator was either not yet reported on or not reported by a sufficient number of jurisdictions to warrant inclusion (the performance measures were revised in 2013-14)

2.4. Target Groups

Courtworker services target clients, justice officials and other stakeholders as outlined below:

Clients including those with a charge and those without a charge who are in contact with the criminal justice system. The ICW Program is open to all Indigenous people regardless of age, status or residency throughout Canada where services exist. In the three territories, Courtworkers may also provide services to Indigenous persons involved in family and civil matters.
Justice officials including court officials (legal aid, defence counsel, Crown counsel, clerks/judicial assistants), judiciary (judges and justices of the peace), law enforcement, parole/probation officers, and agencies responsible for transport and/or custody of Indigenous persons before the court; and
Other stakeholders including the Indigenous community, Indigenous agencies and community justice initiatives, referral agencies, as well as families of Indigenous persons before the court (accused), co-accused, Indigenous victims and Indigenous witnesses.

The table below presents data on the gender and age of clients with a charge. As indicated, of the clients served with a charge, 57% were identified as adult males, 25% as adult females, 7% as youth males and 4% as youth females while 6% were not identified. A majority of the clients have previous convictions and have previously received services from the ICW Program.

Table 2: Characteristics of Clients With Charges
Characteristics	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13^{Footnote 6}	2013-14	2014-15^{Footnote 7}	2015-16	Total 2011-2016
Total Clients	58,788	66,499	56,092	55,560	50,698	52,648	281,497
Age and Gender
Adults - Male	58%	55%	60%	57%	60%	55%	57.3%
Adults - Female	28%	19%	29%	26%	28%	26%	25.2%
Youth Male	9%	7%	7%	8%	8%	6%	7.0%
Youth - Female	6%	6%	4%	5%	4%	4%	4.4%
Not Identified ^{Footnote 8}	--	12%	--	4%	4%	9%	6.1%
Has Previous Conviction (2011-12 to 2013-14) or Previously Received Services (2014-15 and 2015-16) ^{Footnote 9}
Yes	n/a	53%	58%	70%	65%	79%	--
No	n/a	47%	42%	30%	35%	21%	--

Source: Performance Measurement Data (2011-12 to 2015-16) and data from 2013 ACW Evaluation

Of the 32,883 clients without a charge served in 2014-15 and 2015-16, 34.4% were family members of a person charged, 11.4% were witnesses and 11.1% were victims. The remaining 41.9% consisted of other persons without a charge to whom the Courtworker provided justice-related information or a referral or were not categorized (1.2%).

2.5. Resources

In 2016, the federal budget for the ICW Program increased from $5.5 million to $9.5 million annually for 2016-17 and subsequent years. Canada’s annual contribution to participating provinces cannot exceed 50% of the amount paid by the province for the delivery of Indigenous Courtwork services. Therefore, each participating provincial government must provide funding at least equal to the value of the funding contributed by the federal government for the delivery of the ICW Program in their province.^{Footnote 10} The table below shows the annual federal government budget for the ICW Program, as well as the sum of the budgeted provincial government contributions and actual territorial government expenditures. As indicated, from 2011-12 to 2015-16, the aggregate budget of the program was $72.1 million consisting of $29.2 million in federal government funding, $33.4 million in provincial government funding, and $9.5 million in territorial government funding.

Table 3: Total Annual Authorities^{Table note *} (to support provincial and territorial programs)
Delivery	Provincial Programs		Territorial Programs		Other	Total Funding
Funding Source	Federal	Prov. Govt	Federal	T. Gov^{Footnote 11}	Federal	Federal	All Sources
2011-12	$5,037,853	$6,239,730	$588,637	$1,532,457	$373,510	$ 6,000,000	$13,772,187
2012-13	$4,716,157	$6,405,258	$588,637	$1,789,400	$195,206	$5,500,000	$13,694,658
2013-14	$4,769,451	$6,549,288	$588,637	$1,917,394	$386,129	$5,744,217	$14,210,899
2014-15	$4,906,970	$6,745,269	$588,637	$1,916,654	$661,537	$6,157,144	$14,819,067
2015-16	$4,765,751	$7,456,003	$588,637	$2,369,772	$494,028	$5,848,416	$15,674,191
Total	$24,196,182	$33,395,548	$2,943,185	$9,525,677	$2,110,410	$29,249,777	$72,171,002

The costs to the federal government of administering the ICW Program, including the cost of program staff, do not come out of the ICW Program budget.

2.6. Logic Model

The ICW program logic model, provided in Appendix C, defines the core activities undertaken by the Department of Justice Canada in managing the ICW Program as negotiating and monitoring contribution agreements with provinces and territories and supporting the TWG.

The contribution agreements enable Courtworkers to provide Indigenous persons in contact with the criminal justice system with support, information on issues such as charges, court procedures, rights and responsibilities, and referrals to resources such as community programming. The contribution agreements also enable the Courtworkers to provide information and advice to the criminal justice system such as background information on the accused and the availability of alternative measures and options. In turn, this leads to increased awareness of rights, obligations, legal/community resources and options available to Indigenous persons in court; increased communication, information sharing and relationship building between Indigenous persons and court personnel; and increased partnerships among communities, community justice systems and the criminal justice system.

Support for the TWG leads to tripartite engagement on program and policy development which, in turn, leads to the identification of gaps, activities, outcomes and indicators to support co-operation and program implementation. The ultimate intended result is that Indigenous people involved in the criminal justice system obtain, fair, just, equitable and culturally relevant treatment.

Footnotes

Footnote 1

The Program reports on services to two types of clients who received ACW services during the reporting period: “clients with a charge” and “clients without a charge”. Definitions for each are provided in the end notes below.

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Footnote 2

Appendix 2 provides a listing of services classified as in-court and out-of-court. Figures for 2014-15 do not include data for Ontario or British Columbia, which did not start reporting this data until 2015-16.

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Footnote 3

The calculation of FTEs assumes that a part-time Courtworker is equal to 0.5 FTE.

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Footnote 4

A client with a charge is defined as an accused person who received services at any time during the course of a fiscal year in relation to a charge or a set of charges that are processed concurrently in court (but not necessarily with the same end date). If a client with a charge receives multiple services about the same incident (e.g., receives information in lock-up, in court, and referrals) within the same year, the interaction is recorded as one client. However, if a client receives services regarding a second incident, the interaction is to be counted as another client. This definition of client was revised in 2011-12, which contributed to the decrease in the number of clients reported in 2012-13.

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Footnote 5

Clients without charges are witnesses, victims, family members or any others without a charge who received a justice related service from a Courtworker. This data was first reported in 2014-15. Data for clients without a charge was not provided by Ontario or Nunavut for 2014-15 and 2015-16.

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Footnote 6

The 2012-13 counts do not include data from the NWT and Nunavut (those territories reported data only for the number of charges, not the number of clients served).

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Footnote 7

In 2014-15, Nunavut reported data only for adults.

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Footnote 8

Nunavut did not provide a breakdown of clients by age and gender for any of the years. Yukon did not provide a full breakdown for 2011-12.

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Footnote 9

In 2014-15, the performance measure changed from reporting the number of clients with a charge who have a previous conviction, to reporting the number of clients who previously received services from the ICW Program. Data for 2011-12 has not been included because the number of clients for whom data was reported is considered too small to be representative.

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Footnote 10

As noted earlier, program delivery in the territories is supported through the Access to Justice Services Agreements. While budgets are established in each territory, the agreements do not require them to be submitted to Justice Canada for reporting purposes.

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Footnote 11

These figures represent expenditures rather than budgeted figures. Under the Access to Justice Agreements, the territorial governments do not have to submit a budget document.

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Date modified:: 2022-05-13

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