Yvon Dandurand & Allan Castle

People experiencing mental health challenges and mental illnesses are stigmatized and overrepresented in Canada’s criminal justice system. The understanding that negative interactions with the criminal justice and forensic systems can cause harm or even be fatal to individuals with mental health challenges has prompted calls for more equitable, rights-based, and recovery-focused justice approaches.

Two weeks ago, following extensive consultations, the Mental Health Commission of Canada published its long-awaited Action Plan for Criminal Justice and Mental Health in Canada.[1]

This Action Plan includes 68 recommendations for creating a more compassionate, responsive, and supportive criminal justice system. It prioritizes prevention, diversion, end-to-end support, and continuity of care, and it calls for critical legislative and system-level reforms — both to improve existing systems and to develop viable alternatives — paving the way for meaningful and sustainable transformation. The Plan aims to promote a supportive, rehabilitation-focused justice system that prevents harmful and even fatal outcomes for people living with mental health challenges.

The Commission made several recommendations concerning the identification and adoption of best practices (recommended actions 11-12-13) and the creation of a national program to set restorative justice standards and train related professionals.

The significant impact of decisions made within the adult criminal justice system on the dependent children of those involved has received little attention from the system itself to date, whether in research, case law, legislation, or legal principles. Furthermore, there is no consensus yet within the system regarding how much responsibility it should assume in mitigating these harms.

The Commission recognized that current sentencing practices in Canada generally overlook the impact of parental incarceration on children’s well-being. This is despite international human rights frameworks that highlight the importance of considering the best interests of the child and children’s welfare in all judicial processes. While considering the effects on dependent children may seem entirely reasonable and beneficial at first glance, the Canadian reality is different. Due to various reasons—traditional, legal, and systemic—it has been uncommon in the Canadian criminal justice system for judges, prosecutors, police, corrections officials, or other justice actors to seek input on how any justice process or disposition affects the dependent children of those arrested, accused, or convicted.

For several years now, the ICCLR has argued that the criminal justice system bears both a legal and moral responsibility to develop a much greater awareness of how its decisions affect children, both generally and in individual cases. We have suggested that by increasing awareness of the impact on children and the potential for appropriate mitigation, the courts and the criminal justice system will benefit from becoming less isolated from the issue—whether philosophically or practically—and from engaging more fully with other sectors and actors working together to better protect children. Recognizing that dependent children are uniquely affected and vulnerable parties because of how they are impacted by their parents’ treatment within the criminal justice system, we have promoted development of a new norm, one of accepting the system’s responsibility to ensure these impacts are properly considered and taken into account.[2]

The Commission agrees that reforms are required to ensure children’s needs are considered in judicial decisions, favouring approaches that do not increase the risk of harm. Its Action Plan (recommended action 14) suggests the implementation of “guidelines that require consideration of children’s best interests in sentencing decisions involving parents, with expanded support programs for children and families impacted by incarceration.”

The Commission further recommends that child impact assessments during sentencing be used to lessen the negative effects of parental incarceration and alternatives, and to help judges better evaluate how court decisions may impact children. The availability of better information regarding the circumstances of children directly affected by sentencing is something ICCLR has been actively promoting, including the use of child impact statements.

We welcome the Commission’s Action Plan, and take heart that in Canada, the long-overlooked issue of adult criminal justice impacts on dependent children is beginning to receive the attention it deserves.

[1] Mental Health Commission of Canada. (2026). Finding New Pathways: An action plan for criminal justice and mental health in Canada. https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/National_Action_Plan.pdf

[2] ICCLR (2026). Out of the Shadows: Considering the Impact on Dependent Children of Adult Criminal Justice Processes.

Photo by Albert Stoynov on Unsplash.