ottawa –
The federal justice minister said a new commission to look into possible wrongful convictions would help racialized Indigenous people, who are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, seek justice.
The law, named after David Milgaard and his mother Joyce, will take the case review process away from ministers and replace it with an independent commission, which will allow the government to investigate people who may have been wrongfully convicted. It claims that screening will be easier, faster and fairer for people. .
Milgaard, who served 23 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, began advocating for people who were wrongly convicted and supported the bill that passed Tuesday.
Justice Minister Arif Virani said that while wrongful convictions are rare, the impact on individuals and their families is a grave injustice to them and their victims.
He says there have been 200 applications alleging wrongful conviction over the past 20 years, with 30 ultimately overturned.
However, none of these cases included women, and despite the high representation of women in the criminal justice system, only seven cases involved racialized people.
The new law will help level the playing field by allowing people who say they were wrongly convicted to have access to funding, personnel and tools to support their cases, Virani said.
The Government has said it will “work quickly” to set up the Judicial Miscarriage Review Commission so work can begin as soon as possible, and has begun identifying potential candidates to play roles within the new commission. .
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 19, 2024.
