Racialized Communities Strategy

Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) is committed to ensuring that racialized clients do not face barriers to receiving LAO’s services and to combating systemic racism in the justice system.

Following a consultation, LAO launched the Racialized Communities Action Plan in 2020, a 10‑year plan that commits LAO to 17 specific objectives in its work with racialized communities.

LAO will strive in the next ten years to ensure that its racialized clients receive high-quality legal services and ensure that they receive the full access to justice they have under the law.

Initiatives

Outcomes reporting

LAO will start to collect information on bail and criminal case outcomes to identify issues such as unfair treatment or unequal treatment in the justice system, identify the need for improvement and develop appropriate responses.

Impact of Race and Culture Assessments

Impact of Race and Culture Assessments (IRCAs) are reports focused on Black and other racialized Canadian adults and youth, primarily at the pre-sentencing stage of a trial. They assist sentencing judges to better understand how an offender’s experiences of racism, poverty and discrimination inform the circumstances of the offender, the offence committed and the offender’s experience with the justice system.

Reports

• Legal Aid Ontario Racialized Communities Strategy
  Paper / March 2020

• Objectives of Legal Aid Ontario’s Racialized Communities Acton Plan
  Summary / March 2020

  • Racialized Communities Strategy Action Plan Update for 2025
    Report / March 2025
  • Racialized Communities Strategy: Action Plan Update
    Paper / March 2024
  • Racialized Communities Strategy: Action Plan Update – Highlights
    Summary / March 2024
• Racialized Communities Strategy Consultation Summary
  Summary paper / October 2018
• Development of a Racialized Communities Strategy
  Consultation paper / July 2017

Infographics

• The Translation Project
  PNG / April 2017
• The rise in Islamophobia
  PNG / March 2017
• The case for race-based statistics
  PNG / February 2017
• Racial disparities in Ontario’s child protections system
  PNG / January 2017
• Why we need a Racialized Communities Strategy
  PNG / May 2016
• Overrepresentation of Racialized Communities in the justice system
  PNG / May 2016
• Racialization of carding and street checks
  PNG / May 2016