Applications for Ministerial Review -
Miscarriages of Justice: Annual Report 2007

Introduction

The Minister of Justice has the legal authority to review a criminal conviction under federal law to determine whether there may have been a miscarriage of justice. The Minister has had that power in one form or another since 1892. The conviction review process begins when a person submits an application for ministerial review (miscarriages of justice), also known as a “conviction review application.”

The application for ministerial review must be supported by “new matters of significance” - usually important new information or evidence. If the Minister is satisfied that those matters provide a reasonable basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred, the Minister may grant the convicted person a remedy - a referral of the case to a court of appeal to be heard as a new appeal or a direction for a new trial.

When an innocent person is found guilty of a criminal offence, there has clearly been a miscarriage of justice. A miscarriage of justice may also be suspected where new information surfaces which casts serious doubt on whether the applicant received a fair trial. Thus, the Minister's decision that there is a reasonable basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred in a case does not amount to a declaration that the convicted person is innocent. Rather, such a decision leads to a case being returned to the judicial system, where the relevant legal issues are determined by the courts according to law.

Under section 696.5 of the Criminal Code, the Minister of Justice is required to submit an annual report to Parliament regarding applications for ministerial review (miscarriages of justice) within six months of the end of the fiscal year. This is the fifth annual report, and it covers the period April 1, 2006, to March 31, 2007. Under the regulations, the Minister's annual report must address the following matters:

• the number of applications for ministerial review made to the Minister;
• the number of applications that have been abandoned or that are incomplete;
• the number of applications that are at the preliminary assessment stage;
• the number of decisions that the Minister has made; and
• any other information that the Minister considers appropriate.

This report describes the role of the Department of Justice's Criminal Conviction Review Group (CCRG) in reviewing criminal convictions, outlines how the review process works, provides the statistical information required by the regulations, considers a variety of emerging issues, reviews the cases in which remedies have been granted and updates previous ones, and describes developments expected in the coming year.

The appendices provide further information, including the governing legislation, the regulations, and information about how to contact the CCRG.

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