In recent years, there have been increasing demands for better disaggregated data (data broken down into sub-categories such as region, gender or ethnicity, or a combination of these sub-categories) to shed light on people’s diverse experiences.
On July 15, 2020, Statistics Canada and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) released a joint statement committing to working with Canada’s policing community and organizations to collect police-reported information on the Indigenous and racialized identity of all victims and accused persons as it pertains to criminal incidents. This mutual commitment was in response to growing demands for such information as a way of contributing to a better understanding of the experiences of First Nations people, Métis and Inuit, and racialized communities when interacting with the police.
Since the joint announcement, Statistics Canada has held engagements seeking feedback from diverse perspectives, including from Indigenous and racialized community organizations, police services, and other partners. These engagements initially focused on the value of collecting this information, and how the information should be collected, reported, and used. This feedback led to the development of an interim report and recommendations, which was published on the Statistics Canada Consulting Canadians webpage on September 1, 2022. The feedback received thus far, and the resulting recommendations demonstrate the need for further engagements to support the implementation of this data collection initiative.
Statistics Canada is inviting written feedback on the report and recommendations. For those interested, please complete and submit the below discussion guide with detailed questions by June 30th. Email the guide to the UCR email statcan.ucrengagementmobilisationduc.statcan@statcan.gc.ca