Introduction

The COVID-19 global pandemicFootnote5 has reached over 200 countries and caused more than 6 million deaths worldwide as of August 2022 (World Health Organization n.d.). Governments across the globe have had to decide how to respond to a worldwide threat that, at the time, was largely unknown.

In March 2020, in an attempt to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in Canada, federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) governments, municipalities and First Nations, Inuit and Métis leaders issued a range of public health measures. These included stay-at-home orders, school and daycare closures, non-essential business closures as well as restrictions on gatherings and travel (Government of Canada 2021). At various points during the pandemic, Canadians were required to wear facemasks outside of their homes, limit their exposure to persons outside of their household, avoid non-essential travel, and improve hygiene protocols, such as handwashing and the cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces and objects. Further provisions, such as screening protocols and isolation requirements, were set out in Emergency Orders and regulatory amendments. With these various measures in place, individuals, communities, companies, systems, and societies were required to adapt, respond, and continue to move forward while battling a global pandemic. The pandemic, as well as Canada’s collective responses to it, significantly influenced how the various social and economic spheres and institutions operate, including the criminal justice system (CJS).

Prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, policy makers and legislators in Canada undertook CJS modernization efforts to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous, vulnerable and marginalized people and to improve court procedures as well as supports for victims and survivors of crime.Footnote6 In the midst of these ongoing improvements, the pandemic pushed policy makers and legislators to further adapt the CJS by embracing additional technological approaches, eliminating rules and processes that presented barriers to accessing justice and finding creative ways to provide people with legal information and other supports.

Recognizing that CJS performance may be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 edition of the State of the Criminal Justice System (SOCJS) report focuses on monitoring key changes that occurred during this time. It compares indicators of performance prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to those indicators up to two years into the pandemic, where data have been collected and made available.Footnote7 It also provides contextual information to better understand the immediate impact of COVID-19 on police, courts, and correctional operations and on the people who interact with the CJS.Footnote8 For this reason, the report was structured following the various stages of the CJS, rather than by the SOCJS outcomes.

A full assessment of the performance of the CJS based on all SOCJS Framework indicatorsFootnote9 is available in the inaugural 2019 SOCJS Report and will be conducted again in 2024.

COVID-19 and pre-existing inequities

The pandemic has highlighted and accentuated many pre-existing social inequities in Canada related to education, healthcare, housing, employment and other socioeconomic spheres. These inequities have intersected with other marginalization factors, such as ethno-cultural background and gender, to further compound the negative effects of COVID-19 for some groups and individuals.

The emerging research on the impact of COVID-19 on different population groups in Canada has highlighted some of the ways that systemic and structural racism has led to Indigenous Peoples and Black and racialized people being more exposed to COVID-19 (Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children 2021). These groups have endured longstanding inequities regarding education, income and employment due to systemic discrimination. Consequently, a disproportionate number of Indigenous, Black and racialized individuals are low paid essential workers with direct exposure to the virus (ibid.). The Public Health Agency of Canada (2021a) also found that residential areas with a high concentration of racialized people were disproportionately affected by COVID-19; racialized people in Canada had higher mortality rates.

The COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to widening gender disparity between working men and women. In Canada, the service sector was one of the hardest hit industries in terms of employment losses during the pandemic. This sector employs a larger proportion of working women; overall, in February 2020, 90% of employed women were employed in the service sector, compared to 68% of employed men. As a result, women suffered more from employment losses and reduced hours than men, which contributed to a widening gender unemployment gap in Canada (Grekou and Lu 2021).

Recent events across North America have also highlighted the continued presence and impact of systemic racism on Indigenous Peoples and Black and racialized communities. For instance, in May 2020, the killing of a Black man, George Floyd, by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota amplified the Black Lives Matter movement as well as calls to “defund the police.” Further, in May 2021, 215 unmarked graves were found near the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia on the lands of the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation (Government of Canada 2021b).

These findings and events highlight how ongoing systemic racism and discrimination in Canada produce inequitable distribution of health risks. In this context, acknowledging the existence of pre-pandemic inequities based on ethno-cultural identity as well as gender is central to understanding why certain groups of people were unevenly impacted by COVID-19.