Access to Justice

Access to justice is fundamental to a just and fair Canadian society, and timeliness is an important part of that. The pandemic has created a backlog in the system. This is on top of pandemic travel restrictions that have limited the ability to appear before in-person proceedings, especially for people who live in rural and remote areas. At the same time, the pandemic has pushed courts to find new ways to use technology. This provides an opportunity for Canada to lead the advancement of court modernization.

A re-elected Liberal government will:

  • Re-introduce An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Identification of Criminals Act and to make related amendments to other Acts (COVID-19 response and other measures)to make criminal procedure reforms that adopt virtual means such as the use of virtual remote proceedings and expanded use of the telewarrant process.
  • Further support technological modernization of federal courtrooms and tribunals.
  • Support provinces and territories in the digitization and modernization of their court systems and facilitate partnerships to develop specialized technological and digital services for court operations that are safe, secure, and lead to greater and fairer access to justice.