Justice Canada has published a qualitative report that examines urban African Canadians’ experiences with serious legal problems in Quebec. In 2020, a research team conducted interviews in French and English to learn about serious legal problems that research participants experienced in Quebec. The main themes related to legal problems experiences that emerged from these interviews include

• racial discrimination;
• immigration and refugee status;
• language discrimination;
• racial profiling;
• police and prison guard violence;
• health; 
• disability;
• housing; 
• employment; 
• criminal violence; and, 
• poor or inadequate legal representation (often tied to the cost of legal assistance).

The “Urban African Canadians: A Qualitative Study of Serious Legal Problems in Quebec” also notes the impacts of respondents’ legal problem experiences. Experiencing a serious legal problem was found to result in significant and long-term mental and physical health effects, monetary costs, family stress and separation, temporal costs, and distrust of the legal system and police.

“Urban African Canadians: A Qualitative Study of Serious Legal Problems in Quebec” authored by David Austin is published in English here: https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/uac-amu/docs/RSD_RR2021_Urban_African_Canadians_EN.pdf.

<< Les Afro-Canadiens en milieu urbain : Une étude qualitative des problèmes d’ordre juridique graves au Québe >> par David Austin est disponible en français ici : https://www.justice.gc.ca/fra/pr-rp/jr/amu-uac/docs/RSD_RR2021_Urban_African_Canadians_FR.pdf.