About Us

History of NAACJ

In 1969, the Ouimet Commission on Corrections,Toward Unity: Criminal Justice and Corrections, called for a rehabilitative, not punitive, approach to corrections in Canada. Not too long thereafter, the Sauvé Report of the Task Force on the Role of the Private Sector in Criminal Justice, “Community involvement in criminal justice” published in 1977 further recommended the increased role of citizen involvement and formalized organizations within criminal justice and corrections across federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions. Under this backdrop, the Executive Director of the Canadian Criminal Justice Association (CCJA), William (Bill) T. McGrath, led the development of an “experiment” in 1975 that would bring together private sector agencies working in social justice and corrections to share information and provide support.

Under the auspices of CCJA, Mr. McGrath, who was aptly deemed the “Godfather of criminal justice interest groups” in Canada, co-ordinated what would become the NAACJ network: the National Associations Active in Criminal Justice. Now, approximately 50 years later, many of the following 21 founding agencies remain a member of the Association, although they may operate under a different name:

Association of Social Rehabilitation Agencies
Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Inc.
Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies
Canadian Association of Professional Criminologists
Canadian Association of Provincial Court Judges
Canadian Association of Social Workers
Canadian Correctional Chaplains’ Association
Canadian Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Canadian Council on Social Development
Canadian Criminology and Corrections Association
Canadian Foundation on Alcohol and Drug Dependencies
Canadian Mental Health Association
Canadian Section, International Association of Penal Law
Canadian Psychiatric Association
Canadian Psychological Association
Church Council on Justice and Corrections
John Howard Society of Canada
National Association of Friendship Centres
National Institute on Mental Retardation
St. Leonard’s Society of Canada
The Salvation Army

NAACJ was born. Other “visionaries and reformers” involved at the time included Bonnie Diamond, Pat Graham, Hans Mohr, Ken Hatt, Lucien Morin, Dr. Reverend David McCord, Brian Crane and Frank Miller. With instrumental support from community builder and mediator Dr. Ben Hoffman, and then Executive Director of the John Howard Society of Canada Jim McLatchie, NAACJ grew in members, partners and autonomy over the 1980s, thanks in part to the inception of the Solicitor General for Canada’s sustaining funding grant for NVOs.

In 1990, NAACJ published a discussion paper Making Justice Real: A Socially Responsible Approach to Justice, which explored the philosophical elements of a social responsibility approach to justice; the principles of criminal justice; and, proposed guidelines for practice, all in an effort to stimulate more just and effective measures. This socially responsible approach to criminal justice inspired a vision for NAACJ for many years to come.

In 2000, then President of NAACJ and Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) Kim Pate led NAACJ’s incorporation by Letters Patent as a not-for-profit (NFP) corporation. By 2004, NAACJ’s membership policy articulated membership criteria for member organizations based on the federal government’s Voluntary Sector Accord (2001). Later in 2013, owing in part to the new Canada Corporations Act, then President Allen Benson led the continuance NAACJ as a federal NFP corporation.

Mission and Objectives

The mission of the National Associations Active in Criminal Justice (NAACJ) is to enhance the capacity of member organizations to contribute to a just, fair, equitable and effective justice system. Its objects are to:

• Contribute to the education of its member organizations, other organizations from the governmental and voluntary sector and the general public through activities that share and generate knowledge, information, ideas and values, in relation to current and emerging criminal justice issues.
• Contribute to the capacity of the member organizations to carry out their purposes through activities that share and generate expertise and to serve as a catalyst for action by member agencies and to provide collective support for actions undertaken by individual member agencies where feasible.
• Support the activities of its member organizations in the development of policy related to criminal justice by promoting the role and importance of the member organizations in consultation and policy forms with the federal government.

What we do

Activities

NAACJ achieves its mandate by:

• Serving, supporting and promoting the member organizations;
• Developing conferences, workshops and events about current and emerging criminal justice issues;
• Providing information and research that contributes to community and member education;
• Preparing fact sheets, backgrounders, briefs and summaries on criminal justice issues;
• Liaising with the criminal and social justice community, including federal government partners;
• Coordinating, facilitating and supporting federal submissions and conferences; and
• Sharing and disseminating timely information and knowledge generally.

How We Engage

One of NAACJ’s primary roles is to create space that stimulates ideas based on research and experience through dialogue and discussion among individuals and groups in the social and criminal justice fields. It shares and generates information, knowledge, experience and ideas to inform and empower the member organizations, government partners and the public on criminal justice topics of mutual interest. By doing so, NAACJ bolsters its members' ability to serve as catalysts for change relating to their missions of effective justice responses that uphold and promote human rights, thereby positively contributing to public safety.

Dialogue among the member organizations, with stakeholders and with federal partners include the following examples:

• Roundtables with officials from Public Safety Canada’s Community Safety, Corrections and Criminal Justice Directorate
• Annual meetings with the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC)
  • See our Terms of Reference here (2019)
• Semi-annual meetings of the NAACJ/CSC Joint Community Corrections Working Group as well as ad hoc sub-group meetings
  • Read our Protocol for Partnership here (2022)
• Business meetings with the Parole Board of Canada, Justice Canada, and the Office of the Correctional Investigator for Canada
• Meetings and receptions with Parliamentarians and staffers including Senators, Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, and Directors of Policy.

Federal government partners value NAACJ for serving the following functions:

• 1 - A conduit to a diverse group of leading national agencies, their communities and their knowledge
  • Facilitating access of government departments to NVOs that they may not otherwise have access to, and supporting information sharing across sectors to help build connections and relationships.
  • Assisting government when it is holding consultations, gathering advice or sharing information and expertise.
• 2 - Access to credible, quality members with front line, lived knowledge and experience
  • Linking government bodies to credible, high quality and well-respected individuals and agencies that continue to make significant, long-term contributions to social and criminal justice, which are mindful of the lived experiences and realities of their communities.
• 3 - On the ground perspectives from agencies that work with people inside and outside of the justice system
  • Sharing what is happening on the ground, how certain policies affect real people and other policy impacts. NAACJ’s network understands the compounding problems for people who are locked in the justice system, and how to help people who are trying to avoid or exit the justice system.
  • Assisting government to see practical implications of policy in the real world.
• 4 - Strong, effective relationships with key partners in the fields of social and criminal justice
  • Expanding the circle of engagement through sessions with traditional and non-traditional criminal justice partners and stakeholders such as:
    • Restorative Justice Housing Ontario (RJHO)
    • Howard Sapers and Dr Tony Doob, Implementation Advisory Panel (IAP) of CSC’s Structured Intervention Units (SIUs)
    • The International Centre for Criminal Law Reform
    • The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA)
    • Bruce Porter, Director of the Social Rights Advocacy Centre and Senior Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing
    • Statistics Canada, Centre for Justice Statistics
    • Employment and Social Development Canada
    • Refugees and Citizenship Canada
    • The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)
    • National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC)
    • The Canadian Municipal Network on Crime Prevention (CMNCP)
    • The Collaborating Centre for Prison Health & Education (CCPHE)
    • Mothers Offering Mutual Support (MOMS)
    • No On Prison Expansion (NOPE)
    • The Vanier Institute of the Family
    • The National Youth Justice Network (NYJN)
    • The Fresh Start Coalition
    • The Canadian Coalition for Children with Incarcerated Parents (CCCIP)
    • Direction 180
    • 902 Man Up!
• 5 - An entrepreneurial and resourceful history of collaboration and innovation
  • Providing corporate memory and creating opportunities for members, partners and the public to learn from one another and act in concert on shared priorities, where possible.
  • Stimulating projects and initiatives such as the development of:
    • Provincial programs to train and employ people after incarceration as a result of the joint workshop with Public Safety Canada (PS) and Justice Canada (JUS), Community Empowerment through Social Enterprise (2011)
    • Victim Empathy curricula in federal institutions, following the session about the significance of victim impact programming at the NAACJ/PS/JUS Joint Forum, Accessing Justice Inside the Criminal Justice System: Empowering Positive Change (2013)
    • Learning opportunities for CSC Parole Officers through co-developed and co-delivered training, We All Live in Community (2016)

Strategic Priorities

Statement of Possibility NAACJ is an organization that exists to support its membership of diverse and experienced national organizations in their respective efforts to provide leadership in various areas of justice. It promotes an environment that encourages its members to share their values, to respect one another’s differences and to develop their capacity to be engaged with and respected by government agencies, funding bodies and the Canadian public. NAACJ enables and supports the efforts of members to learn, energize and gain strength through meaningful dialogue with each other and with others in the criminal and social justice fields. By doing so, NAACJ bolsters its members' ability to serve as catalysts for change relating to their missions of effective justice responses that uphold and promote human rights.