Manitoba’s criminal justice system was given the worst provincial ranking and the second worst overall in a new report assessing provincial judicial systems across Canada.
The study, called Report Card on the Criminal Justice System: Evaluating Canada’s Justice Deficit, was published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
The study said Manitoba has the second highest per-capita violent crime rate and fourth highest per-capita property crime rate among the provinces. It also noted the public perception of police in Manitoba is among the lowest in Canada.
The report used Statistics Canada data and quantitative statistical methods to assess each province and territory’s criminal justice system. It rated based on five major objectives; public safety; support for victims; costs and resources; fairness and access to justice; and efficiency.
In the five key areas, Manitoba’s public safety was graded a C+, support for victims was given a C, costs and resources received the lowest grade with a D, fairness and access to justice was assessed at a C+ and efficiency was given a C.
However, the study said Manitoba has a higher than average weighted violent and non-violent crime clearance rate.
The province’s overall grade was a C.
Manitoba scored second worst out of provinces and territories, with Yukon receiving the worst grade overall. That territory’s report card scored both support for victims and costs and resources with F’s.
Prince Edward Island’s criminal justice system was rated the highest with a B+. The report said the Maritime province has one of the lowest violent crime rates in Canada, and police in PEI perform very highly in public perception.
A full version of the report can be found here.
