Objective 2:
Improve The Department's Understanding Of The Linkages Between Sustainable Development And The Department's Legal and Policy Services

To conduct and support research to identify the key linkages between sustainable development and Justice Canada's services.

The Department currently undertakes considerable work on topics relevant to sustainable development, especially its social dimension. The Department plays a particularly important role with respect to the Federal Government's efforts to promote social justice through its work on subjects as diverse as human rights, gender equality and crime prevention. It promotes economic efficiency through its efforts to improve the cost effectiveness of the justice system through such initiatives as promoting alternative dispute resolution and court reform. It also enhances environmental protection and economic efficiency through the advice it provides in developing new environmental legislation and in exploring and promoting the use of alternatives to command and control regulation.

Little if any of this work, however, is explicitly linked to the objective of promoting sustainable development. The extensive consultations held within the Department on the development of this Strategy (see Annex B on consultations) indicate interest in increasing understanding of sustainable development and its impact on Departmental activities. The practical significance of sustainable development for the type of legal advice and policy development work that lies at the core of the Department's activities therefore requires further research and education. Where possible, such research and education will be done in collaboration with relevant partners.

2.1 The Department will undertake and sponsor, through its SD network and in conjunction with the Policy Sector, relevant Legal Services Units, interested client departments and the Office of the Auditor General, research into the linkages between sustainable development and its legal and policy activities.

2.2 The Department will collaborate with, and provide funding for a Canadian Bar Association initiative to research and prepare a publication on the linkages between sustainable development and the law, following up a previous Justice-funded publication by the Canadian Bar Association Sustainable Development in Canada: Options for Law Reform, 1990.

2.3 The Department will explore and identify, together with the newly established Law Commission, which issues regarding law and sustainable development could be researched collaboratively.

2.4 Through its representation on the government-wide Policy Research Committee which addresses important horizontal issues through four networks (on human development, the knowledge-based economy, social cohesion and economic growth), the Department will contribute, as appropriate, to government-wide policy research on sustainable development.

The Aboriginal Justice Strategy: Contributing to the Social Dimension of Sustainable Development

One example of how the Department of Justice provides the lead in the social dimension of sustainable development is through its Aboriginal Justice Strategy (AJS). The AJS has three objectives:

i) to respond to the aspirations of Aboriginal people to assume greater responsibility for the administration of justice in their communities;

ii) to help reduce the rates of crime and incarceration among Aboriginal people; and,

iii) to foster improved responsiveness, fairness and inclusiveness of the justice system for aboriginal people.

The AJS provides assistance in self-government initiatives and specific claims negotiations, support for pre-charge and post-charge diversion programs, community sentencing alternatives, community mediation and dispute resolution in civil and family matters, and support for local justices of the peace and tribal court models.

The AJS complements the federal government's policy on Aboriginal self-government by helping communities, including Metis and Indian groups with no land base, develop justice systems. Consistent with sustainable development, these measures promote community peace and security, and seek to protect human rights for both the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities in Canada.

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