INTRODUCTION

The Minister's Roundtable on Criminal Law was held in Toronto on November 1, 2002. At the invitation of the Minister of Justice, 26 leading criminal lawyers and academics from across Canada were brought together to discuss criminal law reform. The full list of participants is attached as Appendix A to this Report.

The Minister was accompanied by Deputy Minister Morris Rosenberg and Richard Mosley, Assistant Deputy Minister, Criminal Law Policy and Community Justice. The Roundtable was facilitated by Jim Mitchell of Sussex Circle Inc.

This Report is an attempt to distil some of the main themes that were raised by participants during the Roundtable. It is not a verbatim transcription of the discussions, although it does attempt to use the participants' own words where possible. The Report does not analyze the participants' positions nor does it attempt to respond to those positions. The Report is not a statement of consensus nor a commitment to action but rather a step in the dialogue begun at the Roundtable. It will be distributed within the Department to assist in the development of policy, will be sent to all participants at the Roundtable and will be shared broadly with Canadians through the department of Justice Web site (http://www.canada.justice.gc.ca)

In his opening remarks, the Minister of Justice said the Roundtable was part of the Department of Justice's continuing process of public consultation and will help him and the Department identify criminal justice priorities. As he noted at the annual meeting of the Canadian Bar Association in August, the Department has been very active year in and year out in the criminal law field. But every so often, the Minister noted, it is important to take stock of our work in this area and ask ourselves whether we are satisfied with the overall functioning of our criminal justice system. One particular challenge, he said, is to define a set of values that reflect "what we are as a Canadian society in this new millennium and a changing world. We need to develop a broad consensus on how these values should be reflected in our justice and criminal law system. What we need is a philosophy, a vision for the future – a declaration of principles to guide us as we consider new options."

To aid in the discussion of values and principles of the criminal law, participants were provided in advance with a paper prepared for the Roundtable by Vickie Schmolka, a lawyer and plain language consultant. This document was not a proposal of any sort but merely a compilation of existing criminal law principles that have been expressed in several forms – the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, preambles to recent amendments to the Criminal Code, and "The Criminal Law in Canadian Society" published by the Department of Justice in 1982.

The document is attached as Appendix B.

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