Introduction

Under Canadian law, the federal Minister of Justice has the legal authority to review a criminal conviction on the basis that there may have been a miscarriage of justice. The Minister has had that power in one form or another since 1892. The conviction review process is initiated when a person submits an application for ministerial review (miscarriages of justice) – also known as a "conviction review application."

The application for ministerial review must be supported by "new matters of significance" – usually important new information or evidence. If the Minister is satisfied that those matters provide a reasonable basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred, the Minister may grant the convicted person a remedy – a referral of the case to the court of appeal to be heard as a new appeal or a direction for a new trial.

Pursuant to section 696.5 of the Criminal Code, the Minister of Justice is required to submit an annual report to Parliament regarding applications for ministerial review (miscarriages of justice) within six months of the end of the fiscal year.

The first such report was submitted in September 2003. This is the second annual report of the Minister of Justice, and it covers the period April 1, 2003, to March 31, 2004. Under the regulations, the Minister's annual report must address the following matters:

• the number of applications for ministerial review made to the Minister;
• the number of applications that have been abandoned or that are incomplete;
• the number of applications that are at the preliminary assessment stage;
• the number of decisions that the Minister has made; and
• any other information that the Minister considers appropriate.

This report summarizes the history of the Minister's power to review criminal convictions, describes the role of the federal Department of Justice in such reviews, outlines how the criminal conviction review process works, provides the statistical information required by the regulations, considers a variety of emerging issues, and describes developments expected in the coming year.

The appendices provide further useful information including the governing legislation, the regulations, an organizational chart, a conviction review process chart, and information about how to contact the Criminal Conviction Review Group.

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