This discussion is part of a project led by the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform (a UN-affiliated institute located at Allard School of Law) regarding the Best Interests of the Child at time of Sentencing and other Decisions of Criminal Court. The project is funded by the Vancouver Foundation.

The project is a “system change” project as defined by the Foundation. The current point of engagement is primarily around education, awareness, and stimulating discussion amongst experts and influential participants in the system. An edited paper, included in the materials along with a one-page summary, synthesizes a number of separate works on this issue, and touches on the moral case for action, questions of Canada’s international commitments, Canadian law and jurisprudence, practical steps which might be taken, and key issues which may be considered by the judiciary and others.

Yvon Dandurand is a criminologist at the University of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia (Canada), and a Fellow and Senior Associate of the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, a Vancouver-based research institute affiliated with the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme. His long career in teaching, research and policy development in the fields of crime prevention and criminal justice has led him to specialize in comparative research. He has been involved in numerous criminal justice reform and capacity building projects in Canada and abroad, including several projects and studies in the areas of organized crime, human trafficking, witness protection, corruption, crime prevention, policing, and corrections.

Johanne Blenkin has a BA and an LLB from the University of Alberta and an MLS from McGill University. She has extensive experience working in the province’s justice sector as legal counsel and in legal information management. Between 2004 and 2017, she was Chief Executive Officer of the BC Courthouse Library Society, working closely with justice sector partners to manage the increasing role of technology in access to, and the integrity of, legal information. In that capacity she led the development of Clicklaw, the public legal education website and the LawMatters program with public libraries, Johanne was a founding member of Access to Justice BC (A2JBC) and a member of the secretariat supporting the Executive Committee, the Planning Committee, and the Measurement Working Group of A2JBC.

Allan Castle has worked since 1995 internationally, nationally, and at the provincial level in the areas of criminal justice, justice system reform, public sector strategy, and performance measurement. From 2002 to 2011 he managed the intelligence analysis program in the RCMP’s Pacific Region, leading significant changes to the analysis function. He also led Pacific Region’s Crime Reduction strategy, a model of operations requiring collaboration between public safety and public health taking holistic approaches to offending. In 2011 Allan moved to the British Columbia Justice Ministries executive team where he worked on a portfolio of justice reform efforts and business intelligence initiatives including design and delivery of the first twelve BC Justice Summits. He coordinates the work of the National Criminal Justice Symposium and currently works with the Indigenous-serving and non-profit sectors on continuous improvement of services to justice-involved people with complex needs.