Open Government at Justice Canada: A Year in Review – June 2024
Open Government is an international initiative, led by the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a multilateral organization formed in 2011 with 75 member countries and 150 local governments. The OGP aims to make government more accessible to everyone by improving government openness and transparency, strengthening democracy and citizen participation, and driving innovation and economic opportunities for all. Canada has been a member since 2011. In Canada, direction on open government activities comes from the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS).
At Justice Canada, the foundation of open government is based on strong leadership at the Deputy Ministerial level. Under this leadership, the Justice Canada Open Government Advisory Group (OpenGov), an internal advisory group that provides guidance and endorses the Department’s open government initiatives, was established in 2017. The following year, operations across the department were reviewed to find areas that could be leveraged to support the changes required to implement the core open government pillars identified by TBS: open information, open data, and open dialogue.
Following the review of operations, an action plan was developed that outlines the Department’s open government activities. OpenGov reports annually to senior managers within the Department on activities in the action plan through a year in review report. Learn more about past initiatives by reading the Open Government at Justice Canada: A Year in Review reports available on the Open Government Portal.
Justice Canada’s 2023-2024 open government priorities were established through the annual open government planning process, which included a consultation with OpenGov in the fall of 2023. Three areas of focus were identified as priorities: 1) open justice, 2) open information and data, and 3) training and awareness. Justice Canada has made some great progress towards these priorities:
1) Open Justice
- The National Action Plan on Open Government Tracker was launched by TBS to monitor progress on all commitments included in the 2022-24 NAP. To date, Justice Canada has completed eight quarterly reporting periods. Progress has been made on all milestones this year, with twelve milestones completed and five milestones with substantial progress.
- Justice Canada provided updates on progress toward 17 of the 22 Justice theme commitments in January 2024 and met with the Multi-stakeholder forum on Open Government (MSF), a civil society and government forum that provides advice, input and a challenge function. These meetings have been very successful with lots of great feedback and discussion. A summary of these discussions is available on the Open Government Portal. Two follow-up meetings were also held with MSF members to discuss further opportunities for support.
2) Open Information and Data
- Justice Canada has reported on two open government indicators that are included in the Justice Sustainable Development Strategy 2023-2027, the report is expected to be available later this year. Publicly available data sources have been leveraged for the reporting on the Justice theme indicators included in the National Action Plan on Open Government 2022-2024, and are monitored through the NAP Tracker while the number of open data and information assets published on the Open Government Portal per month leverage TBS Open Government Analytics available on the Open Government Portal.
- The Department of Justice digitized publication cataloguing project is now complete. The project began in February 2022, and consisted of 1095 digitized publications comprising 845 unique titles. The publications are in the areas of law and judicial research and were originally published between the 1970s and the early 2000s. These are all now available in the Justice Canada collection on publications.gc.ca.
- The Department is monitoring and reporting on compliance with all aspects of the Directive on Open Government, including the ongoing release of information and data on the Open Government Portal, where you can find Justice Canada initiatives that support transparency, accountability and access to justice. Among other assets this year, you will find new research reports from our Research and Statistics Division, such as: Perceptions of and confidence in Canada’s criminal and civil justice systems: Key findings from the 2023 National Justice Survey.
Text version
Chart 1 depicts the number of Justice Canada assets released on the Open Government Portal by Year via a vertical bar chart. The y-axis represents the number of assets released per year with a range of 0 to 120, increasing by increments of 20. The y-axis represents the year, with a range of 2016 to 2023, in increments of one year. There are two bars, side by side per year, representing the different types of assets that are released each year, open data is represented by a blue bar and open information by an orange bar.
In 2016, fifteen open data assets were released, and five open information assets were released. In 2017, no open data assets were released, and one open information asset was released. In 2018, no open data assets were released, and ninety-six open information assets were released. In 2019, one open data asset was released, and fifty-six open information assets were released. In 2020, three open data assets were released, and forty open information assets were released. In 2021, one open data asset was released, and sixty-eight open information assets were released. In 2022, no open data assets were released, and sixty-five open information assets were released. In 2023, no open data assets were released, and sixty-nine open information assets were released.
Data source: Open Government Analytics
3) Training and Awareness
- New training material on Open by Default was developed and published on the internal Open Government Community Site and Information Management Community Site for Justice Canada employees. The new infographic informs employees about what Open by Default means, their responsibilities, and the benefits. It will be a useful tool to promote the key principles of transparency and openness within the department.
- The Justice Open Government team, Communications Branch and other stakeholders across the department are planning the annual Open Doors at Justice Event. The 2024 event will focus on Who We Are and What We Do – Justice Canada’s roles and responsibilities. Additional information will be provided on justice.gc.ca when it is available.
We look forward to continued advancement on these priorities and participation in multiple open government events this fall.
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