Open Government at Justice Canada: A Year in Review – June 2022
This year, Open Government at Justice Canada has been defined by collaboration. Working with colleagues within Justice Canada as well as across government and beyond has allowed us to share initiatives working to support a people-centered approach to justice more broadly, improve our policies and products to maximize the release of non-sensitive data and information and impart the principles of open government to more public servants. It is amazing what we can do when people come together with a shared purpose.
Open Justice. After multiple consultations with the public, Justice Canada submitted the final draft of the Open Justice commitment to Treasury Board Secretariat in March 2022. Canada’s National Action Plan on Open Government 2022-2024 will be published in June 2022.
- Treasury Board Secretariat completed two public consultations on the draft Open Justice commitment as part of the 5th National Action Plan on Open Government in July 2021 and February 2022. Results from these consultations can be read in the “What We Heard” report.
- The Open Justice commitment was also included as an action under Advancing Respect for Human Rights in Canada’s commitment for the Summit for Democracy in December 2021.
Open Information and Data: Processes and products used to maximize the release of Justice Canada research and non-sensitive data on the public facing website and the open government portal have been updated and improved.
- Research and Statistics Division, Communications Branch and the Open Government team have established a process to maximize the release of Justice Canada research reports in a timely and accessible manner.
- The Request to Release application’s new data stream has moved out of the testing phase and is now live and available to employees on the internal Open Government Community Site.
Training and Awareness: Throughout the year, we were able to collaborate on initiatives to support learning, celebrate Open Government Week 2022 and promote Justice Canada research and data.
- The Open Government Team in collaboration with the Centre of Expertise for Learning and Professional Development have launched a self-directed internal training module, Open Government at Justice Canada. The training module teaches employees about open government, their responsibilities and where to find resources and support. It is available to all Justice Canada employees and can be found in the Justice Learning Catalogue.
- Justice Canada’s CIO participated in the Canada School of Public Service’s Annual Digital Open Government Forum, armchair discussion The Work of the Future is Open by Design and shared Justice Canada’s open government journey with public servants across the Government of Canada.
- On May 17, 2022, during Open Government Week, Justice Canada held a public virtual event Open Doors at Justice: Supporting People-Centered Justice through Research and Open Data. The event highlighted Justice Canada research and data, through a panel discussion on the Canadian Legal Problems Survey and the related series of Qualitative Studies on Serious Legal Problems as well as the launch of an updated Research and Data page on the Justice Canada website. The event featured remarks from acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy Sector, Robert Brookfield and Assistant Deputy Minister of the Business and Regulatory Law Porfolio, Andrew Saranchuk, who gave the opening remarks on behalf of the Honourable David Lametti, Minister of Justice who was not able to join us.
- During Open Government Week 2022, Justice Canada participated in the TBS event The Many Forms of OG Champions, sharing Justice Canada’s Open Government champion story. Internally, we hosted an Ask Me Anything session on open government, answering employee questions and featuring presentations by colleagues from Library Services and Legal Practices Branch on open publications for legal research and the Directive on Open by Default.
The value of breaking down siloes and working with others is evident from the initiatives we have been able to complete this year. We look forward to building on these relationships next year and into the future.
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