To view the details of the footnotes in this document, please consult the PDF version.
1. Introduction
The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) is Canada's national human rights institution. It has been accredited “A-status” by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions since 1999 and, most recently, in 2023.
Established by Parliament through the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) in 1977, the Commission has a broad mandate to promote and protect human rights and freedoms in Canada. Operating at arm's length from the federal government, our mission is to promote an inclusive Canada where every person is free to claim their human rights and create the life that they wish for themselves. Together, we work towards a Canada where everyone can be included, and live a life of dignity, justice and respect – free from discrimination.
We do this in many ways: We advocate for human rights in Canada; we support the Pay Equity Commissioner, the Accessibility Commissioner, and the Federal Housing Advocate in carrying out their responsibilities under the Pay Equity Act, the Accessible Canada Act, and the National Housing Strategy Act, respectively; we monitor and enforce regulated entities' compliance with the requirements under the Employment Equity Act; and we screen and, where possible, help resolve human rights complaints from people in Canada who believe they have experienced discrimination.
As we advance through the Second United Nations Decade for People of African Descent, this submission highlights ongoing challenges that continue to disproportionately affect people of African descent.
The CHRC is committed to advocating for human rights by continuing to raise awareness on the ongoing harms of systemic racism and hate and intolerance, including the impacts on persons of African descent. In the spirit of constructive engagement, the CHRC submits this report to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to inform the preparation of the OHCHR's 2026 report pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 47/21 on the "promotion and protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Africans and of people of African descent against excessive use of force and other human rights violations by law enforcement officers through transformative change for racial justice and equality".
This report provides an overview of the systemic and institutional factors that contribute to racism and discrimination experienced by people of African descent within the criminal justice system in Canada. It outlines intersections that influence patterns of anti-Black discrimination, including issues related to over-policing, racial profiling, and the use of excessive force. This submission also includes an overview of legislative, policy, and oversight mechanisms that may support efforts to address anti-Black systemic racism in Canada.
2. Intersecting factors that contribute to anti-Black discrimination
A web of complex and intersecting factors lies at the root of the over-policing, over-incarceration, racial profiling, and ongoing use of excessive force against people of African descent in Canada. These factors include, amongst others: historical disadvantage caused by systemic and institutional racism; socio-economic disparity, including inadequate housing and a lack of educational and employment opportunities; and a lack of appropriate and culturally relevant health and community services and supports. The CHRC remains deeply concerned as substantive progress towards addressing these realities remains largely inadequate.
The CHRC is also acutely aware that the demographics of most police forces across Canada are also not reflective of the communities they serve. This lack of diversity – including the representation of Indigenous, Black and other racialized people – is mirrored elsewhere in the legal process including among judges, lawyers and juries. A lack of familiarity and consideration of the unique circumstances and social histories of these groups by individuals within the legal profession can reinforce racial bias in the criminal justice system.
Throughout this submission, the CHRC has taken an intersectional approach, which is cognizant of the reality that for each issue raised, the impacts on people may be disproportionate or unique depending upon their lived reality and experiences. Given the intersectional vulnerabilities experienced by Black people, the CHRC recognizes the disproportionate impacts faced by Black women, trans and gender non-binary individuals, and those with physical, mental health, or intellectual disabilities.
3. Over-policing and racial profiling
Across Canada, several human rights commissions have raised concerns through various inquiries, reports and recommendations related to racial profiling and harmful policing practices. For example, a December 2023 report from the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) on racial profiling and racial discrimination of Black persons by the Toronto Police Service found that Black people are more likely to be proactively arrested, charged and subjected to uses of force in a wide range of police interactions. The data obtained by the OHRC further confirmed that Black communities are subjected to a disproportionate burden of law enforcement in a way that is consistent with systemic racism and anti-Black racial bias.
In June 2021, following extensive testimony by people with lived experience with the criminal justice system, advocates, civil society organizations and representatives of law enforcement agencies, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (the Committee) released its report on Systemic Racism in Policing in Canada. In its report, the Committee raised that oversurveillance of Black people is an ongoing reality, reducing public trust, and having harmful impacts on Black and other racialized communities. The Committee noted that, to address systemic racism in policing, greater accountability, oversight and transparency are needed in order to restore trust with Black and other racialized communities.
There are growing concerns that communities are over-policed not just through traditional means, but also through use of new technologies such as facial recognition technology (FRT).
FRT functions as a powerful surveillance tool that further amplifies systemic racism in over-policed communities and threatens liberty and human rights in an environment marked by profound asymmetries of information and power between the state and the citizen. FRT use in policing is inherently high risk because colonialism and systemic racism are deeply embedded in historic and current police and criminal justice systems, and disproportionate policing of racialized communities, including racial profiling, has been documented across Canada. Research has also shown that FRT is inaccurate and biased against people with darker skin. Human rights defenders at the United Nations, and civil society organizations in Canada, have raised similar concerns about the unacceptable risks of FRT use by police and law enforcement, especially in public and on crowds.
Given these concerns, in 2022, the CHRC provided a submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) on the use of FRT in policing in which it argued that the current legal and policy framework for the use of FRT in policing is inadequate, and urged the adoption a new human rights-based framework. It further called on Parliament to prohibit FRT use in policing through a moratorium until such a framework is put in place.
While the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has reported that they are voluntarily limiting the use of FRT, the CHRC's position remains that strong mandatory regulation is required to ensure that human rights are fully protected. Human rights obligations should not be de-prioritized in favour of investigative efficiency even when faced with internal and external pressures to preserve public safety.
4. Use of excessive force
The CHRC remains deeply concerned over an increasing number of reports of injurious and deadly interactions between police and Black, Indigenous and other racialized individuals, many of whom have mental health disabilities. Several provincial human rights commissions in Canada have also raised these concerns through various inquiries, reports and recommendations related to racial profiling and harmful policing practices. For example, the December 2023 OHRC report revealed that Black people were grossly overrepresented in nearly all categories of use of force by police, including use of firearms, pepper spray, strikes, tasers and police dogs, and were disproportionately subjected to severe harm, such as broken bones, injury, abrasions, body pain or lacerations resulting from police actions. Further, a community-based project tracking police use of force, police-involved deaths and deaths in custody in Canada revealed that the rate of police-involved deaths where force was used is increasing disproportionately in relation to population growth, with Black individuals over-represented in the total numbers.
The UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, following its October 2016 visit to Canada, affirmed that there was “clear evidence that racial profiling is endemic in the strategies and practices used by law enforcement.” It further expressed concern over the “excessive use of force and police-involved deaths, especially when responding to cases involving vulnerable people of African descent, such as those who are mentally ill.”
Advocates have also raised concerns about the criminalization of people with mental health disabilities and those in vulnerable circumstances given that police are often first responders in situations involving mental health crises and have considerable discretion around how to respond. In 2021, British Columbia 's Office of the Humans Rights Commissioner released a report outlining systemic racism in the province's policing system. The report found that a significant portion of police interactions involved people experiencing mental health issues, and that Indigenous, Black and Arab/West Asian people were significantly overrepresented in these types of police interactions across multiple jurisdictions. The report further acknowledged that when social issues such as mental health issues are addressed through a law enforcement lens rather than a health-based approach, the needs of those requiring medical treatment are neglected, and the mental health and safety of communities, particularly those most marginalized, are put at greater risk.
5. Challenges in the Federal Criminal Justice System
In Canada's federal justice system, substantive progress towards addressing the realities of systemic and institutionalized racism and discrimination remains largely elusive. A number of issues require immediate attention, including over-incarceration, conditions of confinement, and the continued use of segregation practices that are tantamount to solitary confinement.
Overrepresentation, conditions of confinement and situations of disproportionate impact
The CHRC remains deeply concerned by reports that recent prison population growth has been driven exclusively by a rise in the number of prisoners from marginalized groups, and that conditions of confinement for certain groups has deteriorated. Black individuals are overrepresented in federal prisons, accounting for 8.1% of the federally incarcerated population, while making up only 4.3% of the general population. In contrast, the proportion of white prisoners continues to steadily decrease.
Beyond overrepresentation, Black people also experience discrimination in relation to their conditions of confinement, including with respect to security classification and treatment. Despite the lower rates of reoffending and returning to custody, Black people are more likely to be assessed as higher risk, low motivation, and low reintegration potential, resulting in security over-classification and a higher likelihood they will be subjected to use of force by correctional officers.
Various oversight bodies, including the Office of the Correctional Investigator, have also noted that culturally-relevant programming and services are both limited for Black prisoners and not reflective of their rehabilitative needs. Without access to these programs and services, Black prisoners are less likely to be granted conditional release and more likely to serve a greater proportion of their sentence behind bars at a higher security level, reinforcing their overrepresentation in the correctional system.
Mandatory minimum sentences
The Government of Canada has acknowledged the systemic racism in Canada's criminal justice system. Further, the Government has noted that sentencing policies focused on imprisonment disproportionately affect Indigenous, Black and marginalized people, who are more likely to be admitted to federal prisons for an offence punishable by a mandatory minimum penalty. Such penalties have resulted in longer and more complex trials, a decrease in guilty pleas, and have removed a judge's ability to consider individual and proportionate factors during sentencing, including systemic factors such as the impacts of colonialism when sentencing.
The CHRC acknowledges the significance of Bill C-5: An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drug and Substances Act, which became law in 2022. This legislation has enacted substantial reforms by removing mandatory minimum penalties for some offences under the Criminal Code of Canada and for all drug offences under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act. The legislation appropriately frames certain conduct as health and social issues and moves the focus away from stigmatization and punishment and towards respecting health, dignity and human rights. While this is a positive step, the CHRC also recognizes that more reforms and actions are needed to address the complex and intersectional factors that lead to the over-incarceration of certain groups, and acknowledges the concerns expressed by advocates and civil society organizations who feel current reforms do not go far enough.
Structured Intervention Units (SIU)
Black prisoners are also more likely to be admitted to Structured Intervention Units (SIUs) while in federal penitentiaries and are more likely to have longer stays than other groups.
The CHRC, like many civil society organizations, remains deeply concerned by reports that prisoners being held in SIUs continue to experience conditions of de facto solitary confinement as defined by international law. The SIU regime gives wide discretion to the Correctional Service of Canada to decide whether, when and for how long a prisoner should be confined in isolated and restrictive conditions. This regime, however, has been the subject of sustained criticism.
The CHRC maintains that as long as the SIU system exists in its current form, a sustained and dedicated system of independent external oversight is critical to ensuring that the human rights of people held in SIUs are protected. While the Government of Canada reports the existence of Independent External Decision Makers as providing independent oversight of the regime, an external review through this process is only triggered after a person has been confined in a SIU for 90 consecutive days, and a further review is conducted only after an additional 60 days has elapsed.
While a separate SIU Implementation Advisory Panel was put in place to review and evaluate the system in its first years of operation and arrived at concerning conclusions, the Panel's mandate expired in December 2024 and will not be renewed. During the Panel's tenure, it consistently highlighted failures in the SIU regime and indicated that, in its view, the implementation of SIUs has not eliminated conditions of solitary confinement in Canada's federal prisons.
6. Immigration detention
The CHRC remains deeply concerned by Canada's immigration detention regime, including the conditions of confinement for migrant detainees.
Every year, thousands of migrants who are not serving a criminal sentence are detained at the direction of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). This detention may occur because of past criminality, perceived flight risk, unconfirmed identity, or a determination of posing a danger to the public. A significant portion of migrants have traditionally been held in institutions intended for criminal populations rather than immigration holding centres, sometimes for significant periods of time and with limited services available. The CHRC notes that while the use of provincial jails for immigration detention ended in September 2025, significant concerns remain including the practice of migrant detention in federal correctional facilities.
A 2021 Human Rights Watch report documented that “racialized people, and in particular Black men, are confined in more restrictive conditions and for longer periods […] than other detainees.” The report also indicates that they lack access to effective recourse mechanisms to address mistreatment by law enforcement officials in their detention facilities.
Although the federal government has undertaken extensive consultations on CBSA's National Immigration Detention Framework, concerns with respect to Canada's migration detention regime remain.
7. Legislative, policy and oversight mechanisms
The following section outlines key legislation, initiatives, oversight mechanisms, and practices relevant to systemic anti-Black racism and discrimination in Canada.
Black Justice Strategy's Implementation Plan
In February 2025, the Government released Canada's Black Justice Strategy's Implementation Plan, which establishes a 10-year framework to reduce the overrepresentation of Black people in the criminal justice system. It builds on the 114 recommendations outlined in the 2024 report of the External Steering Group, A Roadmap for Transformative Change, which aimed to address anti-Black racism and systemic discrimination in the criminal justice and other related systems.
The CHRC notes concerns expressed by advocates, that while this Implementation Plan may provide a mechanism to address current realities for Black people in the criminal justice system, the decade-long timelines for implementation are too long, and associated funding is inadequate.
Bail and Sentencing Reforms
In October 2025, the Government tabled Bill C-14: An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Youth Criminal Justice Act and the National Defence Act (bail and sentencing) introducing stricter bail rules and tougher sentencing measures intended to enhance public safety and curb repeat and violent offending.
While Bill C‑14 has been positively received by some advocates and civil society organizations for its focus on public safety, advocates have raised concerns that the proposed legislation risks producing serious and far‑reaching negative impacts for communities already facing entrenched social and economic barriers, including Indigenous, racialized, low‑income, and mentally ill or substance‑involved individuals. Advocates also note that Bill C-14's heavy reliance on criminal justice responses fails to confront the underlying social conditions, such as poverty, homelessness, systemic racism and inadequate access to health and social supports, that drive people into contact with the justice system.
Advocates have also raised concerns, including in their appearances before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights for the study on the bail system, sentencing and handling of repeat offenders. They cautioned that proposed reforms could intensify existing inequities within the bail system, including heightened pressure on remand facilities and deepened disproportionate impacts on marginalized groups, particularly Black people. Further, expanded reverse onus provisions, which require the accused to prove why they should be released on bail rather than the Crown having to justify their detention, may impose significant and unfair burdens on individuals who already struggle to meet bail requirements due to unstable housing, financial insecurity, or limited local resources.
Strong Borders Act and Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act
In May 2025, the Government introduced Bill C-2: An Act respecting certain measures relating to the security of the border between Canada and the United States and respecting other related security measures raising serious concerns about its impact on the human rights of migrants, immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees. Over 300 civil society organizations have expressed their concerns about the Bill's erosion of due process and access to justice, particularly for the most vulnerable. Advocates argue that Bill C-2 disproportionately harms vulnerable groups such as victims of gender-based violence, 2SLGBTQI+ individuals and racialized communities, including people of African descent, and violates Canada's international human rights and privacy obligations.
In response to this opposition, the Government introduced Bill C-12: An Act respecting certain measures relating to the security of Canada's borders and the integrity of the Canadian immigration system and respecting other related security measures, transferring key provisions affecting migrants, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers to this new legislation. Civil society maintains that both bills fast-track restrictive measures that undermine migrant and refugee rights while preserving discriminatory provisions, and continue to call for the full withdrawal of both bills.
Office of the Correctional Investigator
The Office of the Correctional Investigator, Canada's federal prison ombuds, has conducted a number of investigations and produced reports highlighting the situations of Indigenous, Black and other racialized prisoners housed in federal correctional facilities. These reports include important quantitative and qualitative data on use of force incidents involving members of these prison sub-populations.
Ontario Human Rights Commission's ‘Framework for change to address systemic racism in policing
In a July 2021 publication, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) called on the Ontario government “to establish a legislative and regulatory framework to directly address systemic racial discrimination in policing across the province.” To support this work, the OHRC developed the ‘Framework for change to address systemic racism in policing' comprised of ten (10) steps to address systemic racism, a number of which are related to preventing, tracking and dealing with incidents of police use of force. The CHRC encourages the OHCHR to consult this valuable resource.
In the spirit of advocating for systemic change, the CHRC underscores that while State-initiated policies and initiatives, such as those discussed above, to address systemic anti-Black discrimination and racism are encouraging, policies and programs are only effective if supported by the culture of the institutions in which they are implemented.