Plans at a Glance
Through its core responsibilities of Legal Services Delivery and Justice System Support, the Department of Justice Canada supports a broad range of government initiatives and ministerial mandate letter commitments. To ensure strong and evidence-based public policy and good governance, the Department applies a range of critical considerations to its work, including legal risk analysis; diversity and inclusion using Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) tools; privacy; modern treaty implications; strategic environmental assessments; and a people-focused approach to justice.
This section provides an overview of the Department of Justice Canada’s key priorities in 2023–24 for each of its core responsibilities, as well as its internal services.
Legal Services
The Department will support the implementation of many Government of Canada priorities through the delivery of high-quality, integrated legal advisory, litigation and legislative services.
Key actions:
- Provide legal advisory services to federal departments and agencies to further the Government’s commitment to advancing meaningful reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
- Provide legal advice and support to develop and introduce legislation to combat serious forms of harmful online content (including online hate and harassment and the abuse and exploitation of children), hate groups, and ideologically inspired violent extremism to protect Canadians and hold social media platforms and other online services to account.
- Provide bilingual and bijural legislative drafting services to implement the Government’s forward legislative and regulatory agenda.
- Provide legal advice and support in relation to the Canada Health Act and strengthen Canadians’ access to medical and dental care, prescription drugs, and associated services.
- Provide legal and legal policy advice and support in relation to the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UN Declaration Act) and the Action Plan.
- Provide legal advice in efforts to engage with subject matter experts, the Assembly of First Nations, and other First Nations organizations and groups, as well as federal, provincial and territorial partners, to co-develop a legislative framework for First Nations policing services.
- With respect to litigation, provide strategic advice and guidance in the development and national implementation of legal positions and strategies for complex cases.
Justice System Support
The Department will play an essential role in promoting respect for rights and in ensuring a fair, relevant and accessible legal framework and justice system that supports alternative ways of responding to the causes and consequences of offending.
Key actions:
- Contribute to a renewed relationship with Indigenous peoples by continuing to collaborate with federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous governments, national Indigenous organizations, and other partners and key stakeholders to accelerate progress on Indigenous-specific justice initiatives and priorities, such as advancing implementation of the UN Declaration Act; responding to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Calls for Justice; and addressing the Justice-specific Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, including pursuing negotiations on administration-of-justice agreements.
- Continue work to address systemic discrimination and the overrepresentation of First Nation, Inuit and Métis, racialized groups, and other marginalized populations in the criminal justice system, including supporting development of an Indigenous Justice Strategy and Canada’s Black Justice Strategy.
- Continue to support the Minister in establishment of an independent Criminal Case Review Commission to improve access to justice and make it easier and faster for potentially wrongfully convicted people to have their applications reviewed.
- Continue to support the Minister in his role as co-chair of the Action Committee on Court Operations in Response to COVID-19. The Action Committee will encourage reflection on, and learning from, the experience of Canada’s courts in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, consider the legacy of the pandemic in Canada’s courts, and establish an Indigenous Advisory Group to ensure Indigenous perspectives are adequately considered.
Internal Services
The Department will promote legal and business excellence, with a strategic focus on its workforce, on innovation and collaboration, and on open, transparent and accountable operations.
Key actions:
- Promote a more representative, respectful, inclusive, accessible and barrier-free workplace to strengthen the Department’s workforce through measurable initiatives outlined in the 2021–2024 Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination Results Framework, the Employment Equity Plan 2022–25, and the 2022–2025 Justice Accessibility Plan.
- Provide continued support to managers and employees with respect to the implementation and transition to the new government-wide hybrid model.
- Continue to support a work environment that is healthy and safe – both psychologically and physically – by implementing measures identified in the Workplace Assessment and Workload Management Strategy and updating the Department’s Hazard Prevention Program.
- Promote digital transformation through innovative approaches and strategies for information sharing, collaboration and data literacy, while ensuring that effective safeguards, including disposition practices, are maintained.
- Advance the implementation of strategies to minimize the impacts of Phoenix pay system issues on employees.
For more information on the Department of Justice Canada’s plans, see the “Core Responsibilities: Planned Results and Resources, and Key Risks” section of this plan.
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